Today i visited BMV education trust for the second time. BMV stands for Bharatha Rathna Sir M.Vishveshwariah . This is a school founded and run by Mr. L.Kalappa in a village called Bhaktrahalli in Shidlaghatta taluk in Chikkaballapur district in Karanataka. This school is about 80 kms from my house and about 30 Kms from the Bangalore international airport.
Mr. Kalappa is a labour advocate by profession and a social worker by Passion. He is the founder and president of BMV education trust. Mr. Kalappa started this school in 1985 by just starting construction in a government land. Subsequently he got it registered by persuading government authorities.
Mr. Kalappa is from this village called Bhaktrahalli. He was born and brought up in this village. He says he used to walk for 6 kms to attend primary school. He has faced plenty of hardships during his education due to lack of facilities. He says that it was his dream to start a school in his native village from his college days. Finally he took the bold step in 1985 by encroaching into government property at Bhaktrahalli. He subsequently persuaded the government and got 3 acres and 18 guntas registered for his trust.
In 1995, he got approval to start high school and also a little aid from the government. Today this school is 23 years old and has about 350 students from bhaktrahalli and nearby villages. He proudly says that today he has a couple of doctors and few engineers as the alumni of the school.
Mr.Kalappa got my contact from a common friend in Shimoga. Mr kalappa who is also an active environmentalist wanted my advice on some sustainable technologies that can be adopted in his school. I had visited the school last month and this was my second visit.
Bhaktrahalli is a village in chikkballapur district. If you cross the international airport, you have to take the deviation into devanahalli taluk towards vijayapura and get onto to the shidalghatta road. After crossing vijayapura, it is about 10 kms.
Bhaktrahalli and surrounding villages are very dry with bore well depths reaching 1300 feet for less than 2 inches of yield. So many small time farmers depend on rains for their crop (mainly ragi). Mostly cow mulching is the main economy of Bhatrahalli and surrounding villages.
This year due to bad monsoons, sowing has not taken place as yet. There has been couple of drizzles in june and no rain since then. So many farmers have kept the land ready for sowing but rain gods haven't quite smiled on them. Mr. Kalappa is of the opinion that, if rain gods do not show mercy in next couple of weeks, the villagers will be put to hardships. Most of the Villagers are small time farmers producing marginal surplus.
Obviously BMV education trust is the biggest building in the village. Right now it has about 350 students spread over LKG to X standard. The fees for the school is rupees 30 per month for classes 1 to 7 and rupees 50 per month for classes 8 to 10. This is inclusive of the uniform, text books, note books and mid day meal.
The school also has a mini bus to get the students to school. Most importantly, the school is constructing separate toilets for boys, girls and staff.
The school does not have any dependable water source. Though the school is connected to the panchayat borewell, it seldom gets water because the yields in the borewell are less and differential head of water between the water tank of the community and the school is not in the latter's favour. .
This school is currently run by donations from benevolent philanthropists and personal money of Mr. Kalappa. Mr. Kalappa has also covered the contributions to the school under 80G Government is also giving some aid by covering staff salaries from class 1 to 7. Mainly contribution from philanthropists is running the school.
All the records are very transparent. He even showed me the balance sheet and every voucher cut till today.
Despite all the problems, The school has postet 100% positive results in SSLC in the year 2007 and 2008. This is no joke. In fact, i was shown the results sheet. This is an excellent achievement. One has to bear in mind that the teachers in that school go door to door persuade the parents to send their children to school. Training reluctant children to the level of 100% result is no small achievement. (Teachers in the school take extra classes in the evening between 6 and 9 from January to April to train class X students, sometimes without light). All this is for a sum of rupees 3800 per month.
As soon as you enter the school, you are greeted by a nice lesson on the board and rashtra kavi kuvempu smiling over it.
The ground floor has classes from nursery to class 7 with a computer room (all computers donated), a staff room and a small office. There are about 8 computers, a flat screen TV and a DVD player. All of them have been donated. Rhymes are played on the dvd and some films are shown every now and then.
The first floor has classes 8, 9 and 10. They are building couple of rooms on the first floor to accommodate more sections. All the rooms have been named after famous literary figures of karanataka.
Mr. Kalappa has done all this almost single handedly. Though there are other trustees, he has almost taken the entire responsibility on his shoulders.
He jovially remarks that his friends avoid him because he talks only about his school and ask for donations. He has also raised some donation from the Akka charity foundation in Chicago.
Mr. Kalappa must be appreciated for his efforts and given due recognition. We need more committed people like him.
Mr. Kalappa is a labour advocate by profession and a social worker by Passion. He is the founder and president of BMV education trust. Mr. Kalappa started this school in 1985 by just starting construction in a government land. Subsequently he got it registered by persuading government authorities.
Mr. Kalappa is from this village called Bhaktrahalli. He was born and brought up in this village. He says he used to walk for 6 kms to attend primary school. He has faced plenty of hardships during his education due to lack of facilities. He says that it was his dream to start a school in his native village from his college days. Finally he took the bold step in 1985 by encroaching into government property at Bhaktrahalli. He subsequently persuaded the government and got 3 acres and 18 guntas registered for his trust.
In 1995, he got approval to start high school and also a little aid from the government. Today this school is 23 years old and has about 350 students from bhaktrahalli and nearby villages. He proudly says that today he has a couple of doctors and few engineers as the alumni of the school.
Mr.Kalappa got my contact from a common friend in Shimoga. Mr kalappa who is also an active environmentalist wanted my advice on some sustainable technologies that can be adopted in his school. I had visited the school last month and this was my second visit.
Bhaktrahalli is a village in chikkballapur district. If you cross the international airport, you have to take the deviation into devanahalli taluk towards vijayapura and get onto to the shidalghatta road. After crossing vijayapura, it is about 10 kms.
Bhaktrahalli and surrounding villages are very dry with bore well depths reaching 1300 feet for less than 2 inches of yield. So many small time farmers depend on rains for their crop (mainly ragi). Mostly cow mulching is the main economy of Bhatrahalli and surrounding villages.
This year due to bad monsoons, sowing has not taken place as yet. There has been couple of drizzles in june and no rain since then. So many farmers have kept the land ready for sowing but rain gods haven't quite smiled on them. Mr. Kalappa is of the opinion that, if rain gods do not show mercy in next couple of weeks, the villagers will be put to hardships. Most of the Villagers are small time farmers producing marginal surplus.
Obviously BMV education trust is the biggest building in the village. Right now it has about 350 students spread over LKG to X standard. The fees for the school is rupees 30 per month for classes 1 to 7 and rupees 50 per month for classes 8 to 10. This is inclusive of the uniform, text books, note books and mid day meal.
The school also has a mini bus to get the students to school. Most importantly, the school is constructing separate toilets for boys, girls and staff.
The school does not have any dependable water source. Though the school is connected to the panchayat borewell, it seldom gets water because the yields in the borewell are less and differential head of water between the water tank of the community and the school is not in the latter's favour. .
This school is currently run by donations from benevolent philanthropists and personal money of Mr. Kalappa. Mr. Kalappa has also covered the contributions to the school under 80G Government is also giving some aid by covering staff salaries from class 1 to 7. Mainly contribution from philanthropists is running the school.
All the records are very transparent. He even showed me the balance sheet and every voucher cut till today.
Despite all the problems, The school has postet 100% positive results in SSLC in the year 2007 and 2008. This is no joke. In fact, i was shown the results sheet. This is an excellent achievement. One has to bear in mind that the teachers in that school go door to door persuade the parents to send their children to school. Training reluctant children to the level of 100% result is no small achievement. (Teachers in the school take extra classes in the evening between 6 and 9 from January to April to train class X students, sometimes without light). All this is for a sum of rupees 3800 per month.
As soon as you enter the school, you are greeted by a nice lesson on the board and rashtra kavi kuvempu smiling over it.
The ground floor has classes from nursery to class 7 with a computer room (all computers donated), a staff room and a small office. There are about 8 computers, a flat screen TV and a DVD player. All of them have been donated. Rhymes are played on the dvd and some films are shown every now and then.
The first floor has classes 8, 9 and 10. They are building couple of rooms on the first floor to accommodate more sections. All the rooms have been named after famous literary figures of karanataka.
Mr. Kalappa has done all this almost single handedly. Though there are other trustees, he has almost taken the entire responsibility on his shoulders.
He jovially remarks that his friends avoid him because he talks only about his school and ask for donations. He has also raised some donation from the Akka charity foundation in Chicago.
Mr. Kalappa must be appreciated for his efforts and given due recognition. We need more committed people like him.
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