School in Gairatpur Baas English Medium

1. ANNUAL REPORT - BAAS EDUCATIONAL TRUST SCHOOL 2015/16
One of the joys of our school, serving our village alone, is that we do not
contribute to the polluting warm of early morning yellow buses that take the
majority of children to school. Ours have to get themselves there, and most
walk, but they are not against accepting a lift if the opportunity presents itself,
and here we see my tractor being opportunised.
In September the Trustees decided, for financial reasons, to cap our
schooling at grade 8, which is at age 14. By then they will have a firm
grounding in literacy numeracy and good moral standards, and the brighter
ones, with potential to go further, will be encouraged to take the NIOS exams to
gain qualifications to do so. Not all with such potential will wish to go
elsewhere, and so we shall permit them to stay and use us as a centre of learning
from which NIOS exams can be taken.
It was a better year for fund-raising locally, in India, with MMPI (Magneti
Marelli) an Italian car component manufacturer based in Gurgaon, finishing up
giving us Rupees one million, which equates to eleven thousand pounds and is
about 20 % of our teacher salary needs. This is a terrific boost, and we thank
Fabrizio Righetti for his company’s robustCSR management, and particularly
Tejinder Singh Bedi who manages that program for them, and whose vision
brought them to us.

2. Existing regulars like David Sood and the Delhi Garden City Rotary Club
continued to supportus, while some fell away. Visitors to Tikli Bottom were
generous in giving locally as also were those who preferred to donate back in
UK where Gift Aid can be added. Our old friend Esther Benjamins Trust
changed its name to Child RescueNepal, to reflect more clearly what it actually
does, and they continue to host our fund-raising in UK, which is a great comfort
and boostto us. They had a hard year with the earth quake turning many lived
upside down. We thank them enormously.
In January, Rowan University from New Jersey USA visited the school
through C B N (who gave us our library) to interact for two days across a broad
front of classroom and playing field activities. At a farewell lunch
a number mentioned how impressive our children were in their command of
English. This was warmly received.
Passing thoughts – an inescapable facet of Indian life is that Indians trust
neither themselves nor other Indians, so mountains of rules are assembled in the
self-defeating hope of creating a viable social structure. When a recent
monetary transfer came through from Child RescueNepal, our Indian bank
would not let the money in, even though our account is eight years old and
many such transfers have been made, until they had a letter from Gen Varma
the chairman of out Trustees, stating that the monies are to be used solely for
charitable purposes. This is the sortof thing that makes India a tiresome place in
which to do business, and which will slow down its developmental progress, far
into the future.

3. Indeed it exemplifies why education, with high moral standard being one of
its prime purposes, is so vital, and is why I preach at school, that an ounce of
judgement will serve you better than a ton of rules.
Recently the national education authorities mooted in the Press the idea that
pupils should be allowed to take textbooks into the exam rooms so that
questions could be focused on how they use information, rather than how much
they can remember. This is a monumental step forward, but far short of my
ideal that no schoolever sets a leaving exam, with all exams being set by those
who wish to induct people. This would make all exams more focused and
relevant, and would at a stroke get rid of the widespread cheating in schools at
exam time, often including teachers who want their children to get better marks.
I believe firmly that life is the only exam that matters.
Sheela Bazroy our head-mistress for five years decided to leave in December
in order to emigrate to Canada. The erstwhile head of the Seventh Day
Adventist organisation in northern India Mr Peter Singh took over from her and
started in January 16. He is settling in well and being a man, commands more
respect which brings a new stability into our affairs.
Geri Johnson, a teacher at the American Embassy Schoolin Delhi voluntarily
examined the hearing ability of any students offered by teachers suspecting
them of having trouble. This was a very worthwhile exercise as a number were
picked up and helped. We thank Geri for her insight and energy in this matter.

4. Internally, numerous competitions were held including swimming, painting,
essay, drama, singing and dance, all designed to get children to think out of the
box, which activity is totally absent in rote-orientated state schools, which
concentrate on “this is the question sand this is the answer” and memory.
We also had away day visits to the Metro Museun and with Lancers school
which we have been doing for a number of years now. In October a public
speaking competition was organised with our neighbouring private school,
Global, International Schoolin Tikli. We each entered four teams of boy and
girl pairs, and when their turn came, age group fours went up and picked a
subject out of a hat and then had two minutes to talk on that subject. We showed
up well against global both in fluency and pronunciation. In February we
entered a team to join a 16 schoolcompetition, against good private schools in
Gurgaon and the letter by one of our old Trustees who accompanied then
reflects well upon us -
Dear Martin
I have had some very positive feedback about the school from the group that
organized the competition that some of our students took part in last month.
I know they did not win anything but the group were very impressed with their
English skills and their ability to interact with the trainers.
Their weakness as far as this competition was concerned had to do with their using
computers for research, which needs more exposure perhaps.
Anyway one of the trainers was so impressed that she would like to work in the
school. She is an English Graduate but does not have a B Ed. If you think you could
employ her then I could arrange for her to meet you. Otherwise I can tell her that

5. there are no openings at the moment.
I have not met her but she comes highly recommended!
Warm regards,
Lalage
In the end the girl did not join us because of distance.
In the annual cross country races organized by Rocksport, we failed to win it this
year, because our team were trying too hard, and one girl fainted and had to be
revived and so our team came in fifth. They were well ahead in first position when
misfortune struck. Congratulations to them for trying so hard. It will be a lesson well
learned.
The traditional four national open day celebrations were held –
Independence day on 15th August, when the children enjoyed doing the peacock
dance commemorating the date on which India won its freedom from Britain and
became a dominion until it established its own constitution on Republic Day on 26th
January 1950. On that day, unity is the fundamental focus - we hoist the Indian flag
and the children march, often in the fog, imitating proceedings on Raj Path in Delhi,
where over a million people are seated to witness this televised event, usually with a
visiting prime minister or president as the VVIP guest.
Gandhi’s birthday on 2nd October is celebrated annually and the children love re-
playing the salt march and elements of life in his ashram, and this is a great
opportunity for our most eloquent to shine, doing what I could never have done at
their gage, spouting ad lib and fluently on the life of Gandhi for up to ten minutes;

6. and finally Founder’s Day on 3rd December commemorating the day on which
our school opened in 2007, and this year the theme was “Glories of bygone Eras”,
which offers abundant opportunities for dressing up, as Romans or Egyptians, or
whatever, which the children love. These are the days when parents, if they can be
spared from their daily tasks, come, in slowly increasing numbers, to see their
children perform, and it is mostly mums. Dads show little interest in education.

7. Our VIP guest, usually selected from the list of erudite Indians who have passed
through our Tikli Bottom guest house, conclude by saying a few words of
appreciation and congratulation for student and teacher effort, speaking first in
English and then in Hindi, so that villagers get the message and understand from
independent comment, the progress we are making.
We had plentiful volunteer GAP teachers throughout the year, and remain

8. convinced of the value of having good quality spoken English present in the school
at all times. They add considerably, also, to the moral yardstick and conviviality
available for pupils to pupils to absorb and emulate. We thank them for their
adventurous spirits, and trust that as ever, they gained as much through the
experience as they gave, in more ways than simply learning how to wear a sari
After a slow start in August, Leighton International, who are building our

9. new school hall and village medical centre, recently speeded up and the building is
now being plastered, with flooring and electrics and a bank of lavatories yet to be
done. Without question, our school will have the best small-school hall in the state,
and possibly in the country. Our thanks to Leighton reach Himalayan heights. When I
complimented Jason McIntosh, their leader, on their company’s robust CSR
(Corporate Social Responsibility) program, he laughed and said that their new CEO
would have none of it and threw it out. “So how will you do this for us? I asked. “Easy
Mate” – he is Australian – “we’ll call it a training program”.…. and that is the sort of
mental agility that is totally lacking in Indian State schools, and which is why we are
keen to impart to the next generation.
In the recent five-year election, a new sarpanch, Vinod, was elected and he
instantly showed interest in supporting the school in every way possible. This is the
first time since the school opened that this has been the case. He has offered to find
money for the Trust to be able to reverse its earlier decision to make grade 8 the
upper limit, and for it to become grade 10, as earlier imagined. This is a great step
forward, since finishing at grade 8, after a liberal education, it would have been very
difficult for our little stars to jump into a more rigid exam-driven existence. Also it will
give us a better chance of introducing vocational training. Vinod can be seen below
on the left, enjoying a Holi beer with Rajbir my site manager who built the school and
who has not previously been thanked publicly for his imaginative and tireless efforts
at the school. I am pleased to commend and thank him now.
The medical centre building will be handed over to the village for them to run, in
their own interest as they see fit. With a purpose built unit and a catchment of over
2,500 people, it should be easy for the village headman , sarpanch, to attract a
medical practitioner to provide the facility. A resident midwife will be essential to
permit future births to be in the village rather than at the end of a bumpy ten KM ride
into Badshahpur, in an auto rickshaw.

10. Our fees structure remains three-tiered, with the poor, landless day labourers
paying Rs 100 (GBP 1) per month for their schooling. The other two levels are Rs
300 and RS 600 (BGP 3 and 6) and this brings in enough to pay one and a half
average teachers. Next year there will be another small increase perhaps to 100,
400 800; but the lower level will always remain low so that the poor can always
afford it. The new head-master with the new sarpanch will review ability to pay
criterion for all families attending school.
As ever, our biggest problem is attracting the funds necessary to pay the running
costs, which are now approaching GBP 70,000 per annum. This is educating 275
children and paying 22 teachers. The purpose of the Trust remains to ensure that
every child has the opportunity to have a good (bi-lingual) education.
Thus again we finish our news-letter with an appeal to all to be generous in
supporting this successfulventure which is proving in open competition, to be
achieving its goals.
To give an idea of what your donation might do, 1500 pounds pays an
average teacher’s annual salary, five hundred pays for two children to be
educated for a year, one hundred pays for fifteen children summer and winter
uniforms and twenty five pounds pays for a midday meal for 100 children.
This is tremendously good value measured against a global yardstick, and I
hope I might be forgiven for reminding readers that the purposeof our schoolis
rooted in the belief that the only globally effective and globally voluntary
contraceptive is affluence. Please help us to achieve a less over-populated and
more generously balanced world for all of our children and grand children.
Kindly use the donation form below as it makes it so much easier for the
admin staff to deal with it; and do Gift Aid it if you have the slack, and do make
it a recurring donation (quarterly is best) if you share our ambitions.
May the sun shine on your backs as you pop your donations in the post.
Martin and Annie Howard