Kerala Visit report

I.          School Visit: The team got bifurcated in to two groups. One group visited HPS & GHS, Mathamangalam Sulthan Bathery  and the other group to RCUP school Pallikunnu of Mananthavady 30 km away from Bathery. The previous school is Govt school and later an aided school.

            Children of Paliikunnu school in their traditional attire took the team to school with procession as a mark of welcome with drum beating (Chande kottu) Though it was irksome children standing under the son and welcoming the team, the team appreciated with pinch of salt.

 There was assembly of all the children and they performed traditional dance. Sister Roshini is the head mistress who welcomed. Mr Joshi the chairperson of PTA, Memebrs of PTA and MPTA were present.  

The other school visited HPS & GHS, Mathamangalam Sulthan Bathery has unique atmosphere like both the HMs of primary and high school sit in the same room and act as complementary to each other

1.      Over all atmospheres of the Visited schools: The RCUP School at Pallikunnu started in 1922. The origin of Bethany sister school originates in manglore karnataka. This school also belong to same bethany sisters group. The school is one of the big schools in the district has 1300 students, 35 staff, 29 sections.  

2.      Cleanliness and School environment: This year the school secured 1st place in cleanliness in Wayanad District. Children have toilet culture, and there are very good clean toilets despite huge number of children.

·         Though the school has unfriendly topsoil to grow vegetables they used plastic bags filled with fertile mud and grew vegetables like cauliflowers, cabbage, chillis etc.

·         Steps were numbered, walls has boards with messages thus they used building as learning aid. 

·         Display of utilization of SSA funds over the years on the board is appreciable part.

3.      Teaching Learning Process School:

HM Sister Roshini and other teachers know the mission education of this particular RCUP school. Its ‘oneness of life’. The purpose of teaching is Teach to live better human beings. It’s slight deviation from other private schools as they usually think of ranks and marks.

·         The school starts at 9.30  and runs till 4.30 PM. The assembly will be in once in a week. Usually the prayer is at 10.00 am. They have 45 minutes period till 6^th and last two periods will be of 35 minutes of total 8 periods in a day. They have 5 days week. In LP sections they dont go with periods but with competencies.

·         Seating arrangement; the school has semi circle desk arrangement which help for collaborative learning.

·         Preparation of teachers for classes; Teachers write teachers manual. It will have unit plan and submitted to HMs in advance. The manual also contains a column where they capture students reactions during TL Process. In karnataka the column is meant for teacher reflection which is a improvement. Markedly teachers have taken this column seriously and captured student reactions after the lesson.

·         Textbook contains less number of chapters and it has inbuilt constructivist approach with CCE. But teacher follow the traditional practice like chalk and talk method. They also need orientation on CCE.

·         Use of ICT for teaching learning process: Every school is connected with DCT- Digital collaborative text book ( text book + activity) is another interesting thing where text is available in the net.  

·         Sanskrit, arabic and urdu languages are taught up to 7th std. Students are allowed to make choices w.r.t. language. (This is apart from the stipulated language policy)

·         Guest session at school is another feature. It has been informal.

·         Documentation at school is nice and not pressurizing.

·         Child portfolio is kept at school ; But activity wise in kerala also project dominates.

·         10th std Children are grouped according to their locality or colony of residence. They are supposed to carry out group study on Sundays from 10 to 4. PTA, MPTAs  and teachers assigned to the locality to monitor the study of children.

·         Teachers meet every parent individually. All notes and all round points will be discussed. Each teacher calls every parent by phone and they continue to call till they come school and get information about their wards.

·         The school also takes part in social issues. The st also give representation to GPs if need be.

·         Teachers give time to every child. They also follow method of each one teach one. Leading children will peer teach the friends.

·         They have 30 CWSN children who are put together for inclusive education. One could observe humane concern shown by other children. In this school they dont have attendance drop. Season hardly influences the attendance of the children. Parents coffee plants and fields are very close by. They never allow children to drop out from school.

·         Children are very much aware of CWC and call 1098.

4.      Special initiatives for Tribes : Wainad is dominated by 60% of tribal population. The major tribes are katunayakas, Paniyas and etc. Their progress and attendance has been a challenge and many measures like appointing tribal promoters by Gram panchayath, Committed social workers of MSW qualification by DCs has been taken up to ensure attendance. Apart from it for their transportation vehicle called gothra sarathi, morning breakfast has been arranged by GPs.  

5.      PTAs, Conceptualization, Nature and Role: PTA an acronym called Parent teacher association comprises of 30 members of whom 17 are general and 13 are women. Within PTA, women form the Mothers PTA. Election of PTAs are held yearly in the month of July and general body comprising all parents will elect PTA every year.              The president will be elected out of 30 executive members. Generally PTA general body elects capable people irrespective of casteand political background. Thus there will not be generally any politics or political backing. For benifit of the school PTA and MPTA wotk together.

·         Social context for MPTAs.  In special cases only mothers needed.Thus they have MPTAs. MPTAs also rutinely tastes food prepred for children at noon.  All PTA and MPTA are governed by rules. There will be common meetings and special meetings.

·         Meeting and support : PTAs and MPTAs meet once in a month Or when there is a phone call from HMs. Apart from it they give Issue based support.  They told that they are 24 hours we are cautious. PTA acts as third eye. PTAs know that contribution is not only through money but also planning, intellectual support. Members told that they invested time. On August 15^th PTAs and MPTAs sat 4 hours for school planning. Thus

-          Community knows that intellectual support and time is also research.

-          Community sat for 4 hours to plan. They also involve in planning, implementing and evaluation.

-          PTAs and under achievers;           PTAs coordinate for helping backward children. They arrange for conductin special class. They visit their home to support. In the month aug 15 they sat for 4 hours with parents and planned for uplifting of backward children.

6.      Mid day meals:Twice in a week MPTAs come school to taste noon meal. The cooks are 2, irrespective strength. They are provided with Rs 400/- per working day. Govt also provides milk, as well as Egg in different days once in a week, and Egg.

7.      Special features of school :

-          During calamities individual child, school collects money and gives it to the needy

-          Zero drop outs- no drop outs during harvesting time or strike. ( Child Welfare Committee prosecutes if children below 18 are employed

-          Every school (primary) has one laptop and a projector.

-          Good coordination between High School HM and Primary HM. They sit together in a single room.

-          Broad band facility with 5 lap tops, 2 LCD projectors. Teachers use them during TL process.

-          HM receives all circulars through mail and responds through mail.

II. MEETING WITH TEACHERS:

The team interacted with teachers .Interestingly Mr Sabastian is also visiting this school for the first time. The qualification for UPS teachers, Degree + DEd, for Primary 1-5^th 10+PTC.

-For UP They have subject teachers. DEd teachers teach all the subjects. Up to 1-4 teachers take all subject. From 5^th std onwards subject teachers take classes.

-TET has been introduced two years back.

-Teachers are not much aware of CCE but know to give individual activity to measure the performance and mark the progress in a sheet.

-Teachers are provided training only during vacations. This year training is for 5 days on changed curriculum.

-Modus operand for training is cascade mode. Core SRG conceives prepares training packages and train SRG - DRG – BRC – Trs. They are provided training

III. Visit to BRC Manavathavady and BRC Wainad.

BRCs of kerala are headed by BPOs. BPOs are primary UPS HMs are High school teachers. BRCs function under DPOs of Dist SSA unit.

BRCs comprise of 3 BRC trainers among which one from HS teacher cadre and two from primary cadre. BRCs have all SSA related works and they have clear cut 5 days mandatory work to support the school system.Teacher training, Entitlements, OOSC, IEP, Grants of SSA, and CWSN are some of the impartant functions of CCE. It seems that there is major focus upon CWSNs in Wainad. Unique thing is BRCs with help of DIET impart training to Panchayat members in order to create awareness about their role in the field of Education.

Special Initiatives of BRC : BRC Mananthavady took its own initiatives like Program for enrichment of standard one.

-          They called it as 'ONNAMTHARAM-ONNAMTHARM' training on using of technology for 1^st standard children. They use ICT for creating attractive atmosphere for 1^st standard. Schools also being provided with Interactive DVD for learning and assessment of children. It was viewed critically as small children till 4^th – 5^th standard must explore and engage with nature and not with simulated electronic gadgets. Research backing was also not available for the same.

-          Every day duty ( in each week) of BRC trainers, CRPs and Resource teachers are  spelt out

-          Another initiative unique to BRC Mananthavady block is appointing one trained physiotherapist per gram panchayath and they visit home of CWSN for Physiotherapy. (required equipments are borrowed from BRC center)

-          As all ready said teacher trainings carried out during holidays.

-          Cluster meetings are held on Saturday. Kerala follows 5 days week and every Saturday is a holiday to school. But CRC meetings are conducted during Saturdays.

-          Kerala system believed BPOs and other officials at district level for selecting CRPs locally. CRPs are selected based upon internal assessment. They provide onsight support to teachers. BRTs visit school once in a week. CRPs visit schools 12 minimum in a month.

IV. State effort for Tribal children:

There seems to be much effort in Kerala to uplift tribal children. As discussed earlier dialectical difference exists. Katunayaka and paniyas have their own mother tongue. The children of tribes face difficulty in writing. They have language problem also. Thus the absenteeism is a challenge to district administration. To mitigate the problem number initiatives are taken up.

-          Their Colonies are visited by DCs and DDs in the beginning. All Dept visit colony of STs.

-          Second time Dist level officers visit again

-          Education voluntaries are appointed in each GPs. The EVs will visit each colony and get data.

-          Teachers visit thirdly after DC and Dist officials

-          Tribal dept also appointed a person called ST promoters. Beside these

-          DC also appointed CSWs (Committed social workers) with MSW qualification.  

V. DIET Wainad

DIET  established in 1989. It is supposed to be the first DIET in INDIA.  

Planning at DIET : In the month of june they call  PAC. PAC helps not only in planning but also it acts as convergence meeting where they discard overlap. The members and faculty suggest programmes to be conducted for the year at PAC. Faculty wise action plan will be prepared. It also includes the study to be taken up. There were few innovative activities too could be seen.

Few initiatives apart from assigned work of DIET has been listed as below

-          IEDC material has been prepared (Inclusive education)

-          For the DRG, DIET will prepare the module. They do the need analysis. From HMs they collect needs.

-          This year they conducted HMs trg twice for three days.

-          ISM : Internal support mission. Its not supervisory  visit. First and third thursday every month. Under inernal visit inspection will happen but ISM has been purely academic. It is the state innitiative. It consist of 2 members. DIET faculty must be the part. They must observe the class, make recordings. The team observes 2, 4 and 7^th classes.

-          Meny and menna : Scholastic achievement of the students panchyath wise consolidated.

-          Teacher demand trainings at cluster meetings, based upon which the literature developed. DIET wainad prepared their own Bhoomi, Vaikhari, HMs (Training includes two areas- State driven, Dist specific) Kirana for WE materials, CCE training, Theatre camp (AIL), Harithasena, Plastic free Bathery.

-          Interestingly DIET announces trainings to be planned at HMs conference. If They get the numbers Then only they plan for training.

-          Another interesting thing is LSS / USS. For 4^th and 7^th std examination would be conducted for 3 papers. Based upon the performance DEC of Jilla panchayath would provide scholarship for the children.

-          Vijayadeepam program is another initiative to minimize absenteeism from schools.

-          SWEET : Schools with efficient English teacher. Its Weinad initiative. Teachers are trained for English rich environment. It is for class 1 teacher. Next year the same will be given for class 2, class 3 and 4 for coming years.

-          SAPHALYAM : Its for those who fail in 10^th exam. The govt conducts 10^th equitant exam. After they pass this exam, the candidates would be awarded certificate. For this DIET developed saphalyam madule for such children. Thus the pass percentage increased to 94%.  

The other good practices are

-          Need based trg after annnouncement.

-          Academic focus under ISM

-          Team visits with joint inspection.

-          Exchange of best practices- Vinimayam is a good thing.

-          Documentation and research is good and focus upon their work.

-          Five departments come together to design a training which centers around the theme- quality education for children- juvenile delinquency.  Depts- Education, legal justice, police, child welfare & health

-          If required the DIET takes the help of Universities for guidance in research in few aspects like wetting of the proposal, analysis( software) etc. Remuneration is paid for the same.

-          Comprehensive Education program for a constituency- Feed back is taken from various stakeholders including panchayath members and develop a comprehensive educational program in close contact with MLA.  ( Face lifting, infrastructure, school management)

-          Built capability of teachers from primary and high school to analyse their results w.r.t. panchayath and district average result. Further based on this, they develop plan to uplift the level of children subject wise.  

-          Integrated district development plan- all universities, agricultural colleges etc were involved.

-          With permission from government hostel is being rented out to tourists and the revenue is utilized for silver jubilee celebration.

VI. Discussion with Pre service teachers:

The students are confident enough and able to relate with the visitors. Appear to be in relaxed atmosphere.

Students have three compulsory languages and one optional core subject. Apart from that they have general subjects like philosophy in which administration also involved. Psychology still dominates and need to be refined with sociology.  There is open access for technology.

Key factors are

• semester system
• Academic year for pre service teacher course : June to March
• Recruitment at District level, not centralized.

VII. Discussion with GP and Head of education and health standing committee:

            There  exists a very strong local self govt system. GPs have standing committees which cater to the need of primary education system, And ZPs for high schools. Key points of the discussion are

• Gram panchayath standing committee
• 35% of panchayath budget is allocated for education ( not salary component). It amounts to the tune of around 10 lakhs.
• They have all statutory powers
• Power to appoint required personnel- physiotherapy, volunteers and RMSA teachers on temporary basis.

VIII Policy matters:

• MDM cooks get Rs.400 per day per cook
• PTR 23:1
• Distrcit panchayat introduced breakfast and transportation facility  for tribal students (Gothra sarathi-ಗೋತ್ರ  ಸರಥಿ ) Later Govt accepted it
• text books reach individual schools by post
• English text book of 7^th only 3 units per semester and more focus on grammer and language development activities.

• Eligibility criteria for DIET Faculty- double graduation(MEd), 5 years of experience and should pass DIET eligibility test.
• Strong local self govt.

·         Textbooks are being supplied by post directly to school.

·         SRG meetings will be conducted once in 15 days in govt school

·         GP – gothra sarathi, breakfast for tribal children.

·         Group study around the colony. Every Sunday they have to study 10-4 they need to work. PTA would go for monitering.

·         Saturday will have staff meeting and CRC meeting.

·         School cleanliness is very good.

·         Children are fearless and able to bond with us.

·         Panchayth appointed tribal promoter.

·         Use of ICT is very good and school has broadband.

·         All the circulars are being circulated through mail, HMs answer for it.

·         CCE inbuilt and teacher manual incorporated. They have

·         Digital collaberated textbooks and one can download the same.(DCT)

·         Guest time program ; Specialists invited for guest.

·         Use of library is very good.

·         Learning outcome of tribal children are not so good.

• Academic and administraive lines are separate – can not interchange with out writing the eligibility test.

IX. Administrative support:

• Phases of  process followed to reduce drop outs:

◦     In the first phase District Collector visits all colonies

◦     Second Phase- District officers visit all colonies

◦     In the third phase teachers visit the colonies in their respective areas

◦     Finaly S.T. Promoters, Educational Volunteers (who are in each Gram Panchayath) and committed social workers visit colonies and in turn report to the D.C. directly. 

• One lecturer assigned from DIET visits the BRC center once in a week.
• Every month meeting of all District officers right from cluster level are carried out. (DD, DIET Principal, Prog EO, BRC, Trainers etc)
• ISM- Internal Support System: 1^st and 3^rd Thursday every officer has to be in the field in team and give academic support to the school. One from the DIET and another can be either from SSA or from DD office.

Academic Planning and Review is done with two committees: a) District Educational Committee along with Pancyayath b) District Educational Officers Committee. ( Helps in getting funds from Pancyaths based on need) 

How Finland became an education leader

A Radio talk with David sirota about Finnish education.

How has one industrialized country created one of the world's most successful education systems in a way that is completely hostile to testing? That's the question asked -- and answered -- in a new documentary called "The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World's Most Surprising School System." Examining the nation with one of the most comparatively successful education systems on the planet, the film contradicts the test-obsessed, teacher-demonizing orthodoxy of education "reform" that now dominates America's political debate.

On my KKZN-AM760 radio show, I talked to Harvard researcher Tony Wagner, who narrates the film and who is the author of the 2008 book "The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need -- And What We Can Do About It." The interview became the basis for my recent newspaper column on the subject. Because that column generated so much feedback, I wanted to publish this abridged transcript of our larger discussion. You can listen to the full interview here.

What has Finland achieved, and what's the history behind its improved education system?

In the early 1970s, Finland had an underperforming education system and a pretty poor agrarian economy based on one product -- trees, and they were chopping them down at a rapid rate that wasn't going to get them very far. So they knew they had to completely revamp their education system in order to create a true knowledge-based economy.

What has Finland achieved, and what's the history behind its improved education system?

In the early 1970s, Finland had an underperforming education system and a pretty poor agrarian economy based on one product -- trees, and they were chopping them down at a rapid rate that wasn't going to get them very far. So they knew they had to completely revamp their education system in order to create a true knowledge-based economy.

·Continue reading

So they began in the 1970s by completely transforming the preparation and selection of future teachers. That was a very important fundamental reform because it enabled them to have a much higher level of professionalism among teachers. Every teacher got a masters degree, and every teacher got the very same high quality level of preparation.

So what has happened since is that teaching has become the most highly esteemed profession. Not the highest paid, but the most highly esteemed. Only one out of every 10 people who apply to become teachers will ultimately make it to the classroom. The consequence has been that Finland's performance on international assessments, called PISA, have consistently outranked every other western country, and really there are only a handful of eastern countries that are educating with the same results.

So, Finland basically focuses on teachers and not on domestic testing. Those PISA tests that you cite are international assessments.

That's absolutely right. There is no domestic testing except a very quiet auditing program to test demographic samples of kids; not for accountability, not for public consumption, and not for comparison across schools. The fascinating thing is that because they have created such a high level of professionalism, they can trust their teachers. Their motto is "Trust Through Professionalism." The difference between the highest performing school in Finland and the lowest performing school in Finland is less than four percent, and that's without any testing at all.

This is the antithesis of what we're hearing about in the United States in terms of so-called education "reform." When you hear the debate in the United States over education, the idea is that we need to demonize teachers and that the real way to fix our education system is to simply test the hell out of kids. Why do you think there is such a difference between the attitudes of our two countries?

First of all I want to point out that Finland is rated among the highest in the world in innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity. It's not your grandfather's socialist country in any sense of the word.

But beyond that, what I find so striking is that the reforms in [the U.S.] have been driven and led by businesses for the last quarter century. It was David Kearns at Xerox and Lou Gerstner at IBM calling for a national summit on education and they didn't invite any educators. They invited CEOs and governors and senators and congressmen.

Now, I understand and respect business needs for better skills, and I understand a certain mistrust of the education system based on the fact that it's the only profession where you're guaranteed a job for life. But what's different in Finland is that there has been a bipartisan consensus over 30 years about the importance of education and the importance of high-quality teaching as the real solution. It's been a partnership between businesses, policy makers and educators, and that's what we need in this country but don't have.

What would you say to folks who say you can't compare the United States' educational system to Finland's educational system because Finland has a homogenous population and the U.S. is a much more diverse population?

First, Finland is more diverse than people realize. Fifteen percent of the population speaks second languages. There are 45 languages spoken in Helsinki schools today. Point two for a point of comparison, and there are obviously huge differences, but it's not Finland as a country compared to US as a country. Finland has the size and population of about 33 of our states. So let's compare Finland to Minnesota -- very similar demographics, right? But not at all similar results in terms of international comparisons. So while it's true that there are differences, there's a lot we can learn from the Finnish story.

What about the role of economics? New York University professor Diane Ravitch often says that the education system in this country cannot alone solve poverty, and in many cases it will inherently reflect poverty. Finland is a much less economically unequal society. How much does that lack of poverty explain Finland's success as opposed to our own?

There are two answers to that. First of all, yes, race and class matter. You want to know what a test score in a district is, you find out how poor people are. There's no question that race and class, and the economic disparity in this country, go a very long way to understanding our achievement gap.

But having said that, I've been in some of this country's best schools in some of the wealthiest districts, and even some private schools, and I've seen stunningly mediocre teaching there with teachers teaching to the test. And the tests are primarily factual recall, memorization tests where students may pass, but will learn none of the skills that are necessary in the global knowledge economy.

This is what Finland has done that's different -- they've defined what is excellent teaching, not just reasonable teaching, and they have a standard for that. Second, they've defined what is most important to learn, and it's not a memorization-based curriculum, but a thinking-based curriculum. So even in our wealthiest districts we're not approaching that global standard of success and excellence.

If we could somehow wave a wand and implement Finland's education system right now here in America, what do you think the results would look like? Would they be so much better, keeping in mind those economic disparities and that economic inequality?

It's going to take generations and I do believe we're going to have to address these economic disparities. But I've been in schools with high poverty, KIPP schools, which like schools in Finland, have defined what is excellence in teaching and learning. I think you can see from the results that KIPP schools get, how graduates of KIPP schools go to college and succeed in college at higher rates than white, middle class kids. That's because of excellent teaching. So yes, race and class matter. We have to address those issues, and we cannot use that as an excuse for low achievement.

How did Finland manage to elevate the role of teacher in the eyes of the population to something that is not just an honorable profession, but a revered profession, whereas in the United States, teachers are so regularly denigrated?

They really think about teachers as scientists and the classrooms are their laboratories. So, as I mentioned -- every teacher has to have a masters degree, and it's a content degree where they're not just taking silly courses on education theory and history. They're taking content courses that enable them to bring a higher level of intellectual preparation into the classroom. That's the first point.

The second point is that they've defined professionalism as working more collaboratively. They give their teachers time in the school day and in the school week to work with each other, to continuously improve their curriculum and their lessons. We have a 19th century level of professionalism here, or worse, it's medieval. A teacher works alone all day, everyday, and isolation is the enemy of improvement and innovation, which is something the Finns figured out a long time ago. Get the teachers out of their isolated circumstances and give them time to work together.

Meeting degree friends - Dejavu after 16 years.

·       The idea and preparation to meet after 16 years

Three years back myself and Giri met after attending Abhinanadan’s marriage. We discussed about meeting all our degree class mates, at a designated place. But it only remained at the talk level.

After these years our batch mate Shobha (Police) went Veena’s home in US. There in the foreign land, thousands kilometers away they planned to meet all. Thus it was born. They have decided to make us meet. Veena shared the same with Raveendra over the phone. He suggested BRP and date ie today on 28/05/2011. Thus the journey started.

Shobha (Lambu), Veena coordinated much of the work.Veena got help of Anju her child hood friend to book the resort, boarding. Shobha went to Kishen handicraft to order for mementos. Thus the meeting of us began. Thanks to them, they have done lots of work and calls to come and meet here.

·       The day – Morning.

On 28/05/2011 the day began with Shobhas, Veena, and her Hubby Suresh waiting for 30 minutes for all of us in front of Usha nursing home. I went late. There I met 4 of my friends after years. How nice it was to be.Then we went to meet our prof.Gouri Shankar sir. Sir was very happy and received with the same zeal. We thanked our sir for shaping us. Memorable event it was. His home and garden has been so nice to sit up on. It was a shanty at the garden where one will be tender creatures amidst of the green foliage, bending as a blade of grass. After sipping cup of milk at his home, we touched his feet, did our namaskaram, And started to meet our other friends.

As we reached Usha nursing home, our friends Giri, Mosses Manohar, Prasad, Ravi, Shashi, Raveendra and hubby of Shobha (Gandhi nagar), Nanda were waiting. All of us decided to meet Aravinda who has under gone surgery of both of his knees. Met him, wished him good luck, sipped coffee and headed to resort of BRP with hungry stomach.

·       The meeting and Day

Anju arranged many things.We all thanked her for her kind gesture purely out of friendship. Now also we are thankful to her.

By going to the past, chit chatting Finished our breakfast. There joined our more batch mates Sachin, Manoj, Asif, Kumar, Ashok, Abhinandan, Riyaz, Harsha, and our pleasant surprise Aravinda was also brought by Madhu with stretchers. We discussed our journey of 16 years. All of us were so happy to be in a position and proud for our growth.

Alphabetically arranged list below shows the chronicle of our batch mates

Ø 1. Abhinandan : An achiever. When thought he has been late in many dev matters now progressed well. But Abhi please look after your girth, U r the one who has undergone lot of changes. Your friendly gesture and smile remained the same. OK. His friend is also HS teacher like him and well settled. His cell no is 9611327127.

Ø 2 Asif: Asif the down to earth guy still retain the same charm. Now runs a store of Philips electronic goods. Married to Sheeba and has two children. His marriage and life has been an adventures one. Now god opened his eyes and we wish him good luck.

Ø 3. Aravinda as usual ready to give up anything for the cause of others is well settled at Gandhinagar.Shimoga with wife and a child. He runs a shop near Gourav lodge.

Ø 4. Ashok; Ashok now lives in Ajjampura doing agriculture and running fertilizer shop. His zeal, smile, hair style and appreciating good remained the same.

Ø 5. Girish.M.R or our lovely Giri is one of the foundation pillars of MN pickles which his father owns. He is working with brother and father for its expansion. Very very intelligent guy. Strait forward, warm, lovely and friendly guy. Well settled @ Shiralakoppa with wife and two children.

Ø 6. Harsha; An adventures guy. He fought for many things in college. Strait forward, appreciative and frank Harsha again struggled after opening an industry of bio fuel. Also does photography. You are our friend and our wishes are with you to achieve again.

Ø 7. Kumar has become a politician. He is the ZP member of Chickmangalore. It was nice to hear for our closest friend to be the politician. Very concerned and caring guy. His innocent smile still visible in his face.

Ø 8. Madhu has been a very courageous guy during college days. Very friendly and warm. Today he has earned well, proprietor of a cable network.

Ø 9. Manoj: we called him as Manu. Now he is advocate by profession. Though he scored less in degree, he did not give up. Did his LLB and also LLM. Persuaded his education and turned his life as green .Still he is frank and open as he was.

Ø 10. Mosses Manu: Manu retained the same vigor, charm, risk bearing capacity. The smiling charm is still pink in him. Achieved a lot. Purchased farm house, runs poultry, runs bar and restaurants, and also does big contracts of painting.

Ø 11. Nanda: She was and is the same smiling girl with same lethargy (Smile please).Well settled in Bangalore with wel known small screen producer, Artist and Director Lingadevaru. She now looks much prettier and her motherly affection continues to be the same. 

Ø 12. Prasad: Prasad has not at all changed a bit. Very handsome guy with soft speech. He settled at Sirsi with wife and two daughters. Runs his brick factory, ran late rite mines and also looks after his farm at Sirsi.

Ø 13. Raveendra(Bdvt): Raveendra’s commitment to the company has been a note of appreciation. Though he is just degree holder with arts background, he heads a section in COMET.He owns a flat in Bangalore and lives with wife and son.

Ø 14. Raveendra(Basavanagudi): Ravi also works in the same company like Raveendra of BDVT, has completed a course in GTDC.He is also in the same software company called Comet.Good person with lots of commitment. He is married and settled in Bangalore.

Ø 15. Riyaz : Very silent guy. Settled in Ayanur. Not changed much and retained the same charm of the youth.Does Ginger bussines.

Ø 16. Sachin: The cute sachchi now lives Near kuppalli in thirthahalli taluk with wife. He looks after areca garden and well settled.

Ø 17. Shashi; He has settled in Sanda his native in Shikaripura taluk, practices law and taluk court. Still the same enthusiastic guy, with same fun,pun and the best mannerisms. Very friendly but still a bachelor. Wish him a cute and caring wife.

Ø 18. Shobha, fondly called as Lambu shobha is the same as she was in degree. Very warm, kind hearted, encouraging and enthusiastic. She is married to Mr Murali, who is the techy leader.He is as Shobha says a guide, friend and philosopher. They have a son and want to settle in Mysore.

Ø 19. Shobha, fondly called as Police Shobha was very silent during degree days. She is a very affectionate, hearty and warm friend. Though she has a daughter who studies in 10^th, she does not look so, and with the proud look she is very pretty. She runs an industry in Bangalore.So good to hear.

Ø 20. Veena was and is with pure heart, frank and initiator. Her growth has been well. She joined comet a software dev company, then married Suresh and now lives in US. Her husband Mr Suresh a soft ware engr is also very frank and friendly. He has photography as hobby. He certainly increases comfort zone.

Ha! Happy to note;

Despite being less opportunistic as we when we were studying we were looked down as arts students. Many thought we join the band wagon of unemployed with BA. Now all of us who joined here are well positioned, achieved and rendered to our country. Made our parents happy. I am very happy to see the progress of my batch mates. The tears of happiness are out my heart. Thank you for becoming worth of being.

          THANK YOU DEAR FRIENDS

                                                  With care – Hariprasad.G.V