RECONSTRUCTION
OF ST. MARY’S KANNADA HIGHER PRIMARY SCHOOL
AT H.D.KOTE
Applicant:
Sr.
Jane Crasta Headmistress
St. Mary’s Kannada Higher Primary School
H. D. Kote – 571 114
Mysore District, Karnataka State, South India.
janecrasta@rediffmail.com
Project need:
St. Mary’s Kannada Higher Primary School at H.D. Kote was constructed in
1978. Though the building was constructed only 30 years ago, it was in a
precarious condition due to its old structural design and mud-mortar foundation
and walls, and also the cheap building material used. It had to be demolished.
We need to reconstruct a new, spacious and economical building with modern
architectural know-how.
Legal Holder:
“THE URSULINE FRANCISCAN
SOCIETY, MYSORE”.
Sr Olinda Sequeira – Provincial Superior
Mysore Kripa Provincialate, No. 84, 1st Cross, Near Puthali Park
Mandi Mohalla Post - MYSORE - 570 021
Karnataka State, South India.
Telephone: 0821/2497055 E-mail: ufspro@yahoo.com
Project Location:
Name of the School: St. Mary’s Kannada Hr. Pry. School
Taluk : H. D. Kote
District: Mysore
State: Karnataka
Heggada Devana (H.D.) Kote Taluk is situated along the Mysore-Mananthavady road
53 kms south west of Mysore city in
Karnataka State. The State of Karnataka
as it exists today is recent phenomenon : in 1956, all the Kannada speaking
areas were grouped along with the princely state of Mysore to form a state,
which was renamed Karnataka. Situated on a tableland where the Western and
Eastern Ghats ranges converge into the Nilgiri hill complex, the State of
Karnataka is confined roughly within 11.5 degree North and 18.5-degree North
latitudes and 74 degree East and 78.5 degree East longitude.
The State Karnataka is bounded by Maharashtra and Goa States in
the North and Northwest, by the Arabian Sea in the East, by Kerala and Tamil
Nadu States in the South and by the State of Andhra Pradesh in the East. The
State extends to about 750
Km from North to South and about 400 Km
from East to West and covers an area of 191,791 km2, which accounts for 5.83
percent of the total area of the country.
The State has four physiographic regions :Northern Karnataka Plateau,
Central Karnataka Plateau, Southern Karnataka Plateau, and Karnataka Central
Region. The district of Mysore falls in
Southern Karnataka Plateau.
Socio-economic situation of H.D. Kote
H.D. Kote – Heggadadevanakote in its full
form - is the headquarters of the Taluk of the same name, one of the most
backward and poverty-stricken in the district. It is a small town comprising a
few educational institutions. Quite a few offices of the educational and
government departments are situated in this area. Only the officials and a few
business communities live in the town and the rest of the population is spread
out in the distant villages. H.D. Kote Taluk comprises 180 villages and is
notified as the most backward taluk of Mysore District. On the whole, the
tribals and “scheduled caste” people out-number the upper caste and upper class
people. Economically and socially, the taluk remains on the lower rung. There is not a single industry in the whole
of H.D. Kote Taluk. Abject poverty, illiteracy,
ill health, superstitious practices, unemployment, bonded labor, child labor,
lack of safe drinking water, housing, hygiene and basic amenities are some of
the major problems people are in. The tribals and the “scheduled caste” people
are landless laborers. In recent years, the government has tried to distribute
pieces of land to tribals, but these do not have other means to make use of the
land productively.
Majority of the people are from the lower strata of the society, living below
the poverty line. The people eke out a living mostly by collecting firewood
from the forest and selling it at the market, some working as day laborers,
seasonal agricultural workers, domestic workers and beedie rollers. A few tend
live stock; especially milk animals, some others are engaged in craft work,
basket and mat weaving, flower making; and a few other well to do families own
a little cultivable land. In some areas
houses are cramped and unsanitary. They
live in small houses having one or two rooms with thatched roofing without
proper ventilation.
Hindus are a major group in this place. The rest are Muslims; and the Catholic
and Protestant population in the place is scanty. Caste system is very
rigid. The high-class people look down
upon low caste people who are very poor, especially the SCs and STs. Women in general have a low self-image and a
poor opinion of their capacities. The
fundamental factor for their socio-economic backwardness is abject poverty,
which breeds ignorance, inertial and fatalism.
The Applying Organization:
THE URSULINE FRANCISCAN CONGREGATION
Name of the Congregation: Congregation of
the Ursuline Franciscan Sisters (UFC)
Date of Founding: 0th
April 1887 (Easter Sunday)
Place of Founding: Rosario
Cathedral, Mangalore,
South IndiaFounder: Rev. Fr. Urban
Stein, S.J. (German)
Patrons: Sts. Angela
Merici, Ursula and Francis of Assisi
Number of Professed Members: 775
Number of Formees 300
Number of Provinces: 4: Mangalore, Mysore, North East India &
North India
Mysore Province:
Number
of Houses 33
Number of sisters 275
Number of Formees 90
Provincial Superior Rev. Sr.
Olinda Sequeira
Charism and Mission of the Congregation:
“Following the spirit of our Patrons and Founder, we, the Ursuline Franciscan Sisters render service with simplicity, striving to meet the apostolic needs of our times, through the proclaiming of the message of Christ to the poor and bearing witness to Him, especially by catechizing, devoting ourselves to pastoral works and to the Christian education of youth, caring for the orphaned and the sick….” We stress on the shift from the institution-based ministries to community-based mission, formal and non-formal education, women empowerment, domestic workers movements, family apostolate, community development programs etc by living in inserted groups in the villages and under developed areas.
Need of the place:
The socio-economic scenario of the people of H.D. Kote is dehumanizing and deplorable. Since lack of education is the root cause of all the other problems, the only way to bring up the people is through education, which facilitates all round development of human persons. Education, both formal and non-formal, is the primary means of empowerment, enlightenment, development and self-reliance and we want to make it the top priority here at H.D. Kote among all our services and missionary endeavors.
The Ursuline Franciscan Sisters at H.D. Kote:
The Ursuline
Franciscan sisters who were working in the Diocese of Mysore since 1956 had seen the struggles of the poor
people in this area. Living and working with them, they had experienced their
pain and poverty, hard work and the desire to come out from their distressing
situation. Hence called and inspired by
Jesus, a band of three sisters came to
H.D. Kote in 1978 and they engaged themselves in the following apostolates:
Attending to pastoral apostolate in the parish, i.e. Evangelization, Catechesis
and pastoral assistance,
Education of the poor and the marginalized through formal and
non-formal education,
Health care and health education,
Socio-economic and community development programs with special emphasis on
women empowerment, vocational guidance to young girls and women and other works
of human promotion.
Educational apostolate at St. Mary’s school:
Established
in the year 1978, St.
Mary’s Kannada Higher Primary School today occupies a prestigious place in the
academic map of the taluk. It provides
quality education leading to total formation of the poor and the marginalized
children who are the future hope of the family and society. In this school, so far about 2000 students of
all castes and creed have already benefited, pursuing their studies up to Class
VII. The most welcome achievement of this school is the education of girls. This
school has been reaching out specially to the backward students of “scheduled
castes” and “schedule tribes” of H.D. Kote and keen interest is taken in their
welfare and to uplift them from their pathetic situation.
At present there are 543 students in St. Mary’s school studying from LKG to class VII,
hailing from 50–55 different villages. Among these 543 students, 199 are from
Schedule caste and Schedule tribes.
Number of children at St. Mary’s Higher Primary School on roll as on
01/06/2007.
|
Class |
Boys |
Girls |
Total |
SC |
ST |
Total |
|
UKG |
30 |
23 |
53 |
6 |
7 |
13 |
|
I Std |
27 |
22 |
49 |
7 |
9 |
16 |
|
II Std |
40 |
22 |
62 |
7 |
12 |
19 |
|
III Std |
34 |
20 |
54 |
10 |
10 |
20 |
|
IV Std |
31 |
30 |
61 |
13 |
7 |
20 |
|
V Std |
32 |
46 |
78 |
21 |
8 |
29 |
|
VI Std |
48 |
34 |
82 |
14 |
15 |
29 |
|
VII Std |
59 |
45 |
104 |
27 |
26 |
53 |
|
Total |
301 |
242 |
543 |
105 |
94 |
199 |
The medium of instruction in the school is Kannada, the regional
language of the place. The total staff of the school is seven, out of whom four
get government salary and the rest three are paid by the school Management. The
sisters and teachers try to reach out to each and every child; especially the
slow learners and the school drop-outs by visiting their families and
conducting extra coaching and remedial classes after the school hours and on
weekend in the school campus.
While the school strives to find its relevance in the context of the needs of
the society, several other activities have found their specific place in the
curriculum. Throughout the year, the students are engaged in curricular and
extra-curricular activities such as school Parliament, debate, celebration of
national and local festivals, Teacher’s Day, Children’s Day, Parents Day
(Annual Day), Sports Meet, Talents Day, Physical exercises, yoga, bulbuls,
guides, Scouts, school band and so on.
Though most of the students come from poor and marginalized families of distant
villages, the school has made its mark in the place. They have won a number of
trophies in competitive games and sports. Academically too, they do not lag
behind. During the past several years the final examination result of the
school is cent percent. The school has
always been known for its academic excellence as well as a high degree of
discipline.
It is the concern of the sisters to work for the all-round formation of the
students and in turn, their parents, with a view of empowering them to create a
society inspired by the gospel values of service in love, peace rooted in
justice and fellowship based on equality.
Of late, the school management gives more stress to the following:
Ø “Admission drive” an innovative approach to identify and enroll all out of school children in the age group of 6-14 years into the formal school system,
Ø Special focus on girls education, who are deprived and endangered of this, in order to create a gender just future society,
Ø When the very poor parents cannot afford to pay the minimum fees, books, uniform etc to their children, we help out monetarily,
Ø Raise awareness among the rural, illiterate parents to send their children to school,
Ø Bring down the ratio of school dropouts and increase the
literacy rate of the area.
Through these various means, we aim at the integral development of each student to be:
Ø Emotionally balanced,
Ø Intellectually alert,
Ø Morally sound,
Ø Spiritually oriented,
Ø Socially committed,
Ø Culturally enriched, and
Ø Economically self reliant
Besides this formal education and together with pastoral ministry, we the
sisters also take up mass literacy, education for all adults through adult
literacy, non-formal education, organizing awareness programs of community
service for furthering social awareness, health care and health education,
especially health education through village extension programs, skill training,
vocational guidance, women empowerment, justice stands related to the poor, the
environment and other ministries as the needs of the society continue to emerge
through St. Mary’s Community Health Centre and Spurthi Social Work Centre in
the same campus.
The need:
Reconstruct
a strong and spacious building which could accommodate all the 550 children of
the school. The proposed new building
would not only be used to conduct regular formal classes, but also for
non-formal classes, extra-curricular activities, and other training and
awareness programs, as and when needed for the benefit of the local people.
Building plan and detailed cost estimates:
By Annexure I, we have enclosed the
building plan and the cost estimates of the proposed reconstruction of St.
Mary’s Kannada Higher Primary School. As per our engineer’s plan and
estimation, the total estimated cost of the construction of twelve rooms would
be around Rs. 3 850 000 i.e. Euros 70,000.
Local Contribution:
Majority
of the parents of our students hail from very poor families and they are not in
a position to contribute much towards this school reconstruction project. However,
their contribution, both in cash and in kind at the time of construction would
be Rs. 500,000.
Contribution from the Ursuline Franciscan Society of Mysore:
Though
the financial condition of the Province is not stable, it will try to set aside
an amount of Rs. 1 425 000 especially from the savings and sacrifices of
our sisters working in the remote villages and mission station and any other
donor agency.
Financing Pattern:
Local
Contribution : Rs.500,000
Contribution from the Ursuline Franciscan Society, Mysore and
Any other donor agency: Rs. 1 425 000
Amount requested from Inde Espoir : Rs. 1 900 000
Total : Rs.3
850 000
Conclusion
On behalf
of all our staff, students and their parents, I thank you our benefactors for
whatever financial help you would give us in ‘investing into children’
of the poor and the marginalized of H.D. Kote to build their future.
Sr. Jane Crasta
Headmistress – St. Mary’s School, H.D. Kote.