Navin Desai Memorial Fund

Ms. Savita Bhosale BA MSW BEd, Mrs. Neena Desai and Dr. Sushila Desai visited Nagpur to review the progress of the Navin Desai Residential School.  The following is their report.

It has been decided to start the first class starting July 15, 2007.  Following actions have been taken towards this end:

There are 104 stone quarries in Panchgaon area. Two counselors, Mrs. Karuna Kolhe and Mrs. Pinky Singh, BSW, have visited and talked to the labourers to motivate the parents of the children to send their children to school.

Some students and their parents were called to the school when we visited the school building. Efforts of the counselors were apparent from the fact that there were nearly 100 students ready to join and we had to select the first batch restricting the number to 50. The enthusiasm of children and parents during our interaction with them was remarkable considering the fact that education is still not considered desirable in this class of people. Admission Form and Indemnity Bond, to be signed by parents, have been designed to ensure that child, once admitted, will not be removed from school by parents till 12th standard and also that school will not be responsible if child runs away or succumbs to any illness or self inflicted injury.

Two teachers have been hired. We met them and saw them conducting a class.  They were found to be satisfactory.