Site Visit Report: Senchiamma School, Thiruvallur

Site Visit Report: Senchiamma School, Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu Shanthi Sravanakumar (shanthi dot sravana at gmail dot com) Samhita Karnati (Samhita dot karnati at gmail dot com) May 31, 2017 Chennai was at peak summer season. To beat the heat, we left early in the morning towards Senchiagaram by taxi. We picked up bananas and chocolates for the children on our way. It took us about 2 hours and at the Thiruvallur bus junction, we met Mariamma Teacher’s husband and followed him to the village. This drive took us about 15 minutes. It was almost lunch time when we reached the school and the kids were waiting for us. They greeted us warmly and we all sat in a circle in the class room. There were about 26 kids on that day, including 3 toddlers. The class room looked bright filled with study materials like Tamil and English alphabets, number, animal charts etc. were stuck on the walls. There were also few coloring books and play materials like small balls. Kids sat in a circle and we talked to them about what they are studying and if they are learning to write and do simple arithmetic problems. We didn’t want to make the kids wait any longer for lunch. The cook had cooked vegetable rice that day and all of them sat, waited properly for their turn, got the food, ate properly and cleaned their spaces. Within few minutes, some of the very young ones started sleeping because of the heat. Mariamma mentioned that 31 kids including 7 toddlers have enrolled in the current school year. The split between boys and girls are almost even and 4 kids are graduating to the elementary school. Every day, the children are given a small fruit like date at 10:30am and lunch at 12:30. Once a week, they are served eggs.

The next day, Shanthi spoke to the Government elementary school teacher Dhakshayini and asked about her assessment of the students from Senchiamma pre-primary school. She feels that the kids are quite healthy and well-prepared to study in the elementary school. She mentioned that there is no toilet and it will be good to construct one. Both Mariamma teacher and Suganthi of Bharathi Trust felt that it is better to build a toilet instead of the playset both from the hygiene point of view and also the outdoor playset could get damaged as there is no compound wall and it may be better to wait for the playset. Toilet construction proposal: Material/Labor Cost in Rupees Bricks 20,000 Van hire 2,500 Sand 9,750 Cement 10,500 Septic Tank 5,000 Wages 15,000 Centering 10,000 Water tank & tap 7,000 Door 3,000 Total 82,750