Project Manager: Limao Cairang (Corrine)
Purchase 15 computers, 1 copy machine, 1 digital camera, 1 campus radio and 1 pickup camera to Lake Primary School; and improve school’s condition and at the same time motivate students’ study interests and increase the school enrolment.
Asia Foundation and Shem’s private donors funded this project
Limao Cairang is from Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China. She graduated from Qinghai Normal University English Training Program in January 2008, and she is currently working as one of the program directors in Shem Women’s Group.
What? To provide 10 computers, 1 copy machine, 1 campus radio, and 1 pickup camera to Lake Primary School to improve school’s condition and at the same time motivate students’ study interests and increase the school enrolment.
Who? Lake Primary School in Lake Village, Rdo Sbis Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China
Photos of project implementation
On April 21st, the project manager Lumo Tsering went to the project location to had meeting with the school leaders again to emphasize the importance of project sustainability.
The computers were transported to Lake School by lunch time from Xining and whole school teachers and students were waiting to load the computers.
The teachers and students from Lake School help the skilled men to load the computers components.
Only the biggest students are allowed to help the skilled men to get the computer components to the computer room, because teachers were afraid that the young ones will accidently break them. Therefore the older students happily take the small ones to the computer room.
The skilled men install the computers in the computer room under teacher’s help.
When the computers arrived to the school, the school cleaned their computer room well and prepared the desk and chairs and 10 computers are put in the computer room.
After the computers are installed, the teachers asked the skilled men to test one computer to see if there are any problems. The computer in the picture is the one near the electrical outlet, so they text this one and it works very well.
The man in the picture is the school leader and after the project manager handed him the pickup camera, he opens the camera box to see how to use it.
After the computers were installed, the teachers were asking the skilled men to connect the copy machine with their computers and also teach them how to use it properly.
The teachers were helping the skilled men to tie the column loudspeaker of campus radio at the top of building. They decided to tie it to this building, so the students can hear very clearly.
These are the inside components of campus radio, the timing player, power amplifier, DVD and also there are two radio microphones.
The school asked the project manager Lumo Tsering to have a picture in the computer room before the computers and the two men in the picture are the lake school leader and the Township educational leader. The students hold the papers with 8 Chinese characters “Shem Women’s Group thank you very much”
This picture is after the project is completed. All the students stand around the project manager lumo Tsering who stands in the middle. The students at the back hold the letters which say “Shem Women’s Grou thank you very much”
Project summary
Project title: Computer Project for Lake Primary School
Project goals: to provide 10 computers, 1 copy machine, 1 campus radio and 1 pickup camera to Lake Primary School. This is to improve school’s condition and at the same time motivate students’ study interests and increase the school enrolment.
Project Location: This project is located in Lake Primary School in Lake Village, Rdo Sbis Township, which is about 30 kilometers from Xunhua County Town in the southwest of Xunhua County. Lake Village is about 180 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province. Xunhua County is a Salar Autonomous County and is situated in Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China.
Total beneficiaries: This computer project directly benefits approximately 140 students and teachers in Lake Primary School. Approximately 1323 villagers from the six villages where the students are from indirectly get benefit.
Implementation organization/individual: Lumo Tsering (Project manager), Project committee (Dengo{School leader}, Lego(chief director), Juoba Tsering(male teacher), Yangmo(female teacher), Lumo(female teacher) and Shem Women’s group.
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received
Lumo Tsering received 37,200rmb from Shem Women’s Group on April 25th 2009.
Details of project activities
1. Discussed the problems of the school with the teachers, and decide what can be done to alleviate these problems.
2. Visited the school to collect information about and for the project.
3. Discussed with the teachers the best way to make the computer project sustainable.
4. Asked the school leader to get official permission to carry out the project from our county leader.
5. Took pictures of the school conditions.
6. Talked to the students about how much they know about computers and why they want it.
7. Figured out the price of materials in Xining.
8. Chose Dengo(School leader), Lego(chief director), Juoba Tsering(male teacher), Yangmo(female teacher) and , Lumo(female teacher) to be members of the project committee and be responsible for the materials.
9. Wrote project proposal.
10. Fund is received.
11. Went the Xining electronic market to check the price of the materials again
12. Collected the local contribution from the school.
13. Held a meeting with the school teacher to emphasize the importance of being responsible.
14. Purchased computer and other materials from Xining and transport them to the school.
15. Installed the computer in the computer room and ask the skilled man to explain the usage of the other materials.
16. Transported the campus radio to the school.
17. Installed the campus radio in the school yard
18. Took picture of the project
19. Interviewed the teachers and students to gauge the success of the project.
20. wrote final report
Project Finances
|
Original Budget |
Actual Cost |
|
||||||||
| Rec eip t |
Item | Donor Contri bution in rmb |
Shem Contri bution in rmb |
Local Contri bution in rmb |
Total cost in rmb |
Donor Contri bution in rmb |
Shem Cont ribu tion in rmb |
Local Cont ribu tion in rmb |
Total cost in rmb |
Differ |
| #1 | Computer |
275 |
0 |
0 |
275 |
145 |
114 |
0 |
|
+150 |
| #2 | Copy machine |
120 |
0 |
5000 |
620 |
|
1100 |
4300 |
550 |
+700 |
| #3 | Campus radio |
340 |
0 |
0 |
340 |
|
4100 |
0 |
400 |
-600 |
| #4 | Pickup camera |
410 |
0 |
0 |
410 |
|
4300 |
0 |
430 |
-200 |
| Computer room |
0 |
0 |
5000 |
500 |
0 |
0 |
5000 |
500 |
0 |
|
| Security door |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
0 |
|
| Iron bar for Window |
0 |
0 |
400 |
400 |
0 |
0 |
400 |
400 |
0 |
|
| Curtain |
0 |
0 |
1200 |
120 |
0 |
0 |
1200 |
120 |
0 |
|
| Desk and Chairs |
0 |
0 |
2000 |
200 |
0 |
0 |
2000 |
200 |
0 |
|
|
|
Computer Manager |
0 |
0 |
800 |
800 |
0 |
0 |
800 |
800 |
0 |
|
|
Training fee |
0 |
0 |
3500 |
350 |
0 |
0 |
3500 |
350 |
0 |
|
|
Transpor tation fee |
700 |
0 |
0 |
700 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
+700 |
|
#5 |
Project manage ment expenses |
300 |
0 |
200 |
500 |
|
300 |
106 |
406 |
+94 |
|
|
Project manage ment payment |
0 |
500 |
0 |
500 |
0 |
500 |
0 |
500 |
0 |
|
|
Total |
372 |
500 |
186 |
563 |
145 |
217 |
178 |
541 |
*+21 |
The Asia Foundation contributed 14,534 Rmb and the Shem’s private donor contributed 21,766 Rmb for the project. In original proposal the total cash budget is 42,400 rmb. The project manger Lumo tsering received 37,200 rmb from Shem Women’s Group and received 5000 rmb from local people, so in total she received 42,200 rmb for this project.
*Note 1: The project manager brought the computers from a man who she usually works with, so Lumo Tsering(project manager) got cheaper price for the 10 computers.
*Note 2: The project manager arranged with the computer man about the transportation fee and finally both of them agreed to include the two times transportation fee in computer price, so 700 transportation fees was saved.
*Note 3: In Original budget, the donor contribution is 37200 and the local school cash contribution is 5200rmb, but the project manager only get 5000rmb from the school. In local 5000 rmb, only 4406rmb was spent for this project, so there are 594rmb left from school contribution. And in donor contribution, 35800 rmb was spent and there are 1400 rmb left. So in total there are 1994 rmb left from this project.
Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays
The starting date for the project was delayed for several months, because firstly the school was having winter holiday when the project was funded, and it is hard to ask the teachers to come to the school when the school is off, so the project manager couldn’t implement the project until after March. Secondly, the project manager Lumo tsering needed to go to Sweden on March 14th to attend a training which took one and half month and because she was very busy preparing for the training, she couldn’t implement the project right after the school started and also not until she came back from Sweden. Thirdly, because the skilled men didn’t know the size of school yard, so they couldn’t transport the campus radio when they transport the computers to school. So the complete date of project was delayed for one week.
Difficulties
Under the support from school and project committee, the project manger Lumo Tsering didn’t meet any serious problems. However, the project manager encountered several small problems. Firstly, because Project manger didn’t know much about the price of computers and other equipment, she went to the electronic market for several times and asked almost all the stores to see the price of the computers and other equipment. Secondly, because the project manager is now working, so she always needed to ask for day off in order to go the project location to oversee the project implementation. So it somehow affects her work and it was also hard for her to travel to the project location in the morning and come back to Xining in the evening. Also since the skilled men talk very quickly when they explain the usages, Lumo tsering need to explain to the teachers again and again and needed to be kind of translator, so she needed to make sure that she was there every time when the skilled men is explaining something.
Lesson learnt
During the implementing of the computer project, one thing which the project manger learnt was that it is very important to meet the project target group personally, in that way it will be very clear about what they need and how one can help. Also by meeting with the target group, one can avoid misunderstanding, because the project manager and target group can always explain to each other and make sure they understand each other.
The project manger also learnt that it is very important to clear all things before the project. Even though sometimes we need to say something which is not very nice to hear about, it is better to clear it out before the project. For example, the project manager told the school teachers and if any of the computers were lost, then they need to replace it by themselves and also asked them to write guarantee latter. In that way if some problem occurred after the project, then it is very clear for both the teachers and project manager who need to be responsible for the project afterward.
Also if there are any changes about project, then the project manager should communicate with the target group why there are changes and why we need to change the original plan. In that way, both groups will be very clear about the project after and there won’t be any problems or misunderstanding.
Addition to that, it is always good to explain to the target group why are we collecting local contribution from the them, in that way, they will know that it is not only donor’s project, it is also their project to which they have contributed, so in the future they will take the project as their own not the donors, and if there is any problems, then they will manage to solve it.
Interviews
Teacher Gongbo Tsering and teacher Lumo
They are teachers in Lake School now and both of them have being in the school for almost 9 years, They said, “we really like the school and have trying our best to teach the students, and the students in the school also try very hard to study. So last year, when the Township educational bureau compares the study result of all the primary school, our school was the second one which almost catches up with the best primary school at the Township. All the teachers were very happy with the result. However, because our school lacks the equipments that other schools have, so we couldn’t help the students as much as we want. Students need to go to the Township middle school after their graduation and at that time, they won’t catch up with students from the Township schools, because we had no computers and they didn’t get any of classes related to computer. But now the students in this school are luckily enough that the school has those new computers. So we would try our best to teach the students and would make sure they learn what needed to be learnt” Teacher Gongbo Tsering didn’t talk much, but he smiled when teacher lumo was talking.
Teacher Lego
He is the chief director if the school and also is one of the members of project committee. He talked to the project manager a lot about the problems that they had before, and the most interest one he said is that “we have a printer and every time before the exam, the teachers need to make exam paper and because the printer is so slow, we need to be with the printer whole day to make sure we got the exam paper correctly. If we just leave for a second, then the printer machine would stop. Also sometimes, when the machine stops we need to hit the top part, then it would work properly for a while. However, last time when teacher lumo was using the machine, it didn’t print the papers and no matter now hard she hit the machine, the paper didn’t come out. So she was very angry and said that machine discriminate the female teachers. But now with the new machine, we can finish print the exam paper in few second and it really saved lots of our times. We are very happy that we don’t need to hit the machine any more and don’t need to be with it for whole day”
The youngest students in the school
They are the youngest students in the school and were having the class outside when the project manager arrived to the school. The project manager asked them about whether they know what is computer and how much do they know about using computer. They said they all know what is computer which surprised the project manager, then when the project manager asked them how do they know what is computer, then they said their teacher showed the only one computer in the office to them just few days ago and said they will have more computers after few days. They also said they don’t know any thing about using a computer, and confidently said that they will know how to use it if the teachers teach them how to use it. Then the project manger told them that they should study hard and learn more about computer, because computer can do lots of things.
Male students in the school yard
The project manager also talked to those students in the picture and they said they need to come to school very early in the morning, because their homes are very far away from the school. Then when project manager talked to them about how much do they know about computers, they become very excited and some of them said, “it is the machine that can show movies”, and others said, “my brother go there to chat with his friends.” Then the project manager told them that it can do lots of things, include chat with your friends and also watch the movies, but there are lots of other things the computer do and asked them whether they want to learn. They answered very loudly, “Yes, we would like to learn” and the project manager guess it is the way they answer the questions during the class.
Letters from the school
(1)Letter of appreciation
The translation of thanks Letter
Dear Shem Women’s Group and the Asia Foundation,
Greetings!
Firstly, on behalf of all the teachers and students we would like to say thank you, for your generous donation to our school.
Since the establishment of our school, the school gets the concerns from higher levels officials and the local community. Under their support, our school made progress some with educational development. However, since the school is located in the remote valley where the transportation is very inconvenient and information is lacked, it created a great obstacle for school’s development. Therefore, your donation for this time is very huge, the things are very precious and all the equipments are much needed for the school. And it is definitely a great break through of our school with educational teaching equipment. It provides a great opportunity for the teachers to change the old traditional ways of teaching and could motivate the students to learn in new way. So it promoted the technology information, educational methods of our school.
In this very important moment, your donation is a great support and encouragement to our school. So once again all the teachers and students would like to say thank you and hope all have healthy and successful year!
Lake School
April 28th 2009
(2) Guarantee letter for the project
The translation of school’s Guarantee Letter
Guarantee letter
With the donation from Shem Women’s group, our school has brought computers and other teaching equipments which totally cost about forty thousand rmb, and for the long term sustainability of the project, our school set up a project committee, and the members are Dengo{School leader}, Lego(chief director), Juoba Tsering(male teacher), Yangmo(female teacher) and , Lumo(female teacher), and we guarantee to Shem Women’s Group the followings:
1. User the equipment properly. Try our best to use the computers to the class to create great atmosphere for both teachers and students.
2. We would rather use the computers until is break, not leave the computer to broke. All the teachers will help the students to use the computers well.
3. We also we take well care of the computers and other equipment if we lost any of them, we will pay it back. If the equipments break, them we will manage to fix it immediately. If we lost any of equipments, then we will pay Shem Women’s Group back.
Warrantor: Dengo, Lego, Juoba Tsering, Yangmo, and Lumo
Assuring institute: Lake School
April 27th 2009
The list of Receipts
Receipt # 1
Receipt #2
Receipt #3
Receipt 4
Receipt 5
Note: There are together 11 pieces of taxi fee, which the project manager used to go to the electronically market to check the price for several times and also transport the things to project manager’s home in order to make it convenient to transport the things to the school. Also some of the taxi receipts are the ones took from the bus station to the project manager’s office. Since there are lots of receipts there, the project manager only post one to represent them all.
Original Proposal
Project location
This project is located in Lake Primary School in Lake Village, Rdo Sbis Township, which is about 30 kilometers from Xunhua County Town in the southwest of Xunhua County. Lake Village is about 180 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province. Xunhua County is a Salar Autonomous County and is situated in Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China.
Population
Lake Village is mainly an agricultural area with 36 households. The total population is estimated as 156 villagers: 49 women, 44 men and 63 children (25 girls and 38 boys).
The population of Lake Primary School is 140. This includes 130 students (68 girls and 62 boys), 9 teachers (3 female teachers and 6 male teachers), and 1 male cook. Among the students the smallest is about 5 years old and the oldest is 12 years old.
Education
The students in Lake Primary School come from six different villages and these villages are: Deiman Village (214 villagers), Xunwa Village (268 villagers), Omando Village (258 villagers), Lake Village (156 villagers), Xia Lamelungwa Village (202 villagers) and Shang Lamelungwa Village (225 villagers). In all of these villages around 95% of the villagers are illiterate (not including the students). None of the older villagers attended school when they were young, because of heavy work load that they needed to do for living, and also because they could not afford the required school tuition.
Lake Primary School is one of the primary schools in Rdo Sbis Township and it was established in 1981. Like all other primary schools, there are only five grades in the school, from grade one to grade five, and after the students finish reading the fifth grades they need to go to the Rdo Sbis Middle school to continue their education. So far about 810 students, 324 girls and 486 boys, had graduated from this school.
In the school the students have courses like Tibetan, Chinese, Math, Nature Studies and Sociology. Among all these courses Tibetan, Chinese and Math are taken as major classes.
Cash Income
All these six villages, where Lake Primary School students come from, are agricultural villages. All these six villages are in Rdo Sbis Township and all these villages are very near to each other . The distance between the villages is about 1 or 2 kilometers. So the family conditions between these villages are pretty much the same. There are few families who have more than 10 mu (1 mu = 0.0666 hectares) of land. They can sell their excess barley and earn about 1,500 RMB each year. Most families only have 8 mu of land which is enough for them and their animals to live off; it is certainly not enough for them to make extra income. So these rich land families are able to sell their extra crops to earn money.
Secondly, even though Rdo Sbis Township is not a nomadic place, people still have some livestock, and thus they can earn some cash from the animal products. From the cow’s milk, villagers produce butter and cheese to generate extra income. Because people do not eat butter or cheese very often, most of it can be sold. A family can earn about 500-600 RMB per year by selling butter and cheese. Most households can make about 25 to 30 jin (12-15 kg) of butter and 30 jin (15 kg) of cheese each year.
The third way of generating cash income is as migrant laborers. Adults who are able to work usually go out to dig caterpillar fungus (a kind of medical herb which grows in high altitudes). Each caterpillar fungus can be sold for around 15 to 20 RMB. People usually go to dig the fungus at the beginning of May and come back home in the middle of June. During good seasons, each person can earn about 2000-3000 RMB. But good seasons have been happening less and less frequently. About 600 RMB earned in this way is spent on students who attend middle school and high school. Also, this money can cover family costs such as New Year festivities. In one year, people spend about 1000 RMB on food and 600 RMB on the clothes. In one month a household will spend another 200 RMB on electricity and other essentials. In the summer villagers need to buy fertilizer, which costs about 700-800 RMB.
In total, families in these six villages can make 3100 RMB in cash income per year, and they have to spend 3150 per year. This leaves the families no money left over each year. Sometimes if a family has students who are going to university then they need to borrow money from others to afford their tuition.
Agriculture
These six villages mostly grow barley, wheat and potatoes. Other vegetables like green pepper and tomatoes can be grown in Rdo Sbis Township because of the climate. So these three crops become the most common food of the villagers. With the land they have, one mu (1mu=0.0666 hectares) of agricultural land can produce around 350 – 400 kilograms of crops. Each household approximately has around 8 mu of land to grow crops, and each house can produce about 3,000 kilograms of crops.
Herding
All these six villages are not nomads and thus the villagers do not have much livestock. On average each household has five animals – one donkey, one cow, one pig and two goats. With the exception of the pig, these animals are used for milking and working, not for eating. As stated previously, villagers can sell butter and cheese and each family can earn about 500-600 RMB per year, depending on how much butter and cheese a family can save. This money is used to buy everyday essentials, such as medicine and salt.
Project Goals
The immediate goal of this project is to provide 15 computers, 1 copy machine, 1 digital camera, 1 campus radio and 1 pickup camera to Lake Primary School. The overarching goal of this project is to improve school’s condition and at the same time motivate students’ study interests and increase the school enrolment.
Problems
1. Increase teachers’ workload
In Lake Primary School there is only one computer which is donated by Xunhua County Education Bureau and thus all the teachers take turns to use this computer when they really need it. Otherwise they prepare teaching materials by hand. Every year during the exam time which happens in the middle of the semester and at the end of the semester, the teachers need to make exam sheet for the students and this makes their work especially hard. In the past years they had a mimeograph that they could use to copy more sheets after they had original handwriting one and they don’t need to copy more exam sheets by hand. However, after their mimeograph broke they couldn’t find a place to fix it. So the teachers in Lake Primary School needed to take turns making their exam sheets three weeks before the exam time. However, since the old computer is used by all the teachers all the time, the computer always breaks and often needs repairs. So in this case the teachers need to handwrite their exam sheets and every teacher mostly needs to copy around 30 other sheets. This makes teachers’ workloads even harder.
2. Students can’t catch up with other school students when they are in middle school
Because there are no computers at the Lake Primary School, most students do not even know what a computer is and what they can do with it. So after the students graduate and go to the Township Middle school, where they have computers and have computer classes, they cannot catch up with the other students from other schools. Most of the other Township Middle School students have learnt basic computer skills from their own primary schools. So when the Lake Primary School students begin having computer class they do not know what the teacher is talking about and can hardly learn any new skills. It is hard for the students to get to the new environment and can’t catch up with other students. So, most of them lose interest in learning computers which is really a necessary skill in this society.
3. Students’ interests toward study is decreasing
Teachers from Lake Primary School said that students are very interested in the new things, such as computers, and are eager to learn it. Whenever they saw the only computer in the office, they would peep through the window. However, because of the school condition, the school cannot provide them with a computer and make their studies more interesting.
4. School life is insipid
According to the teachers, they said now there aren’t many national festivals as there were in the past. Before, all the schools got together in the Township school and celebrated Children’s days and other festivals as well. So at the time students needed to perform which they really liked and enjoyed. However, these days many festivals are not celebrated as a big group and students do not have a chance to perform even if they want to. Additionally, the school doesn’t have a campus radio to play music during the lunch time and other important times like Children’s day (Lake School is trying to make school life little bit interesting by celebrate festivals in their school) and this makes school life even more dull.
5. Students can’t get other study materials
Right now in Lake Primary School textbooks are the only materials the students have and they have no access to other materials that can help them improve what they learnt. In the past years, the school planned to buy some study materials, but they were very expensive and the school could not afford it without collecting money from the students. The students are mostly from impoverished families and to collect money from them is hard, so the teachers just try their best to teach from the textbook. However, with the computer, they could solve the problems by use the computer to make more of these kinds of books, or they can use the computer to access the internet to find study materials]
6. Hard to get help from the education bureau
Every year, at the end of the semester all the schools need to submit an annual report to the county education bureau to show what they have done in past year. Many schools have taken pictures of the activities they conducted during the previous year. However, because Lake Primary School does not have a camera to take pictures of what they have done, it is hard to convince the education bureau that they have accomplished all those things. Also according to what the teachers say, if the school does not have a computer, then the school is considered as a none-advanced school. Because of this, when the education bureau makes decisions to help certain schools Lake Primary School does not have a good chance.
7. Hard to import other teaching methodologies to the school
There are many chances for the teachers in Lake Primary School to go to other schools in both the township and the county to supervise other classes and see the good and special teaching methodologies they are using now. The teachers do not have access to cameras or computers to record their findings. This makes it difficult to communicate and share their findings.
8. The number of students is decreasing
Two years ago there were about 200 students in Lake Primary School, and all these students were from the neighboring seven villages. But since the classes were not that interesting and the school did not have computers like other schools do, most of the students went to the township school which is far from them. Their families want their children to study in the better school. However, some families do not even send their children to school at all, because children themselves are not interesting in the school classes any more, so now there are only 130 students in Lake Primary School.
Benefits
If we have computers and other requested materials in the school, then all the problems stated above will be solved:
1) Teachers’ workload will decrease: if the school has computers, then the teachers will not need to share one computer to prepare teaching materials. Also when they need to make an exam sheet they will not need to prepare three weeks before. They can make the exam sheet in one day, and this will save lots of time.
2) Students from Lake Primary School will have no difficulties catching up with other students with using Computers: If the school has computers for the students to use, then the students will learn the basic skills of computer and will have difficulties of learn more new skills when they go to the Township Middle school.
3) Students will get interested in studying: if the school could provide a computer class to the students, it will make their studying more interesting and students will enjoy learning new technology.
4) If the school has campus radio, then they could play students’ favorite songs during lunch time since all the students in Lake Primary School love to sing. Also even though they are not celebrating the festivals as a large group, Lake Primary School could celebrate in their own school. With the campus radio, the festival will be interesting. This might attract parents’ attention to the quality of school life and could motivate them to send their children to school.
5) Students’ studies will be improved: if the school has computers then they can just make one material and type it in the computer then use the copy machine to make copies and distribute them to the students. In that way people will only need to spend a little money to get the necessary materials for the students to improve their studies.
6) The school will have possibilities of getting help from the education bureau. The school could have one camera that they could use while they are conducting interesting activities. Then the school could use the pictures on their annual report as an advertisement to show to the education bureau what they have done. If they have computers for their students to learn skills, then their school will become a school with hope which will make a high possibility for Lake Primary School to get chance to get help from the education bureau. The teachers could import some useful teaching methodologies to the school: The teachers said that if they could have a camera to record the whole process of the class, then that will help them change their teaching ways. Moreover, they can make a CD of these things and let students learn more about other schools and other students. This will make their classes more interesting and encourage students to study hard while at the same time the teachers would get more experience from other schools.
7) More students will come to the school: If the school could have computers as other schools do, then the school will be considered as good school and the students could learn computers as other students do. The neighboring villages will not need to send their children to the far away school. Also the families who keep their children at home will have more incentive to send their children to school.
Beneficiaries
This computer project will directly benefit approximately 140 students and teachers in Lake Primary School. Approximately 1323 villagers from the six villages will indirectly benefit.
Gender equality
The project will be implemented and managed by me and the teachers in Lake Primary School. It will benefit all the students and teachers in the school, but female students will especially benefit by being able to use the school computer. Now, it is culturally inappropriate for female students to go to internet bars to use the computer, so many boys have more experience with computers than girls. Having access to school computers will encourage more girls to use the computer. Also I, the project manager, as a young woman will encourage the female students to rethink their idea that boys are always smarter than girls. The female students will see me as a role model, which will encourage them to be more brave and confident.
Governmental Approval
The local government always supports schools as much as they can, but since there are lots of schools that need support and the government’s ability is limited, neither the Lake Primary School nor the government can carry out a project like this because of the money. If we can secure funding for this project, the government will support it wholeheartedly because to improve the education condition of the school is very important thing for the whole area. I, the project manager, talked to the Township government Leader, Zhoujia on 1st June, they gave me permission to do this project.
The Steps of Project
1. Discuss the problems of the school with the teachers, and decide what can be done to alleviate these problems. (Done)
2. Talk with teachers about the community’s most essential needs and how the school problem can be solved. (Done)
3. Visit the school to collect information about and for the project. (Done)
4. .Discuss with the teachers the best way to make the computer project sustainable. (Done)
5. Ask the school leader to get official permission to carry out the project from our county leader. (Done)
6. Take pictures of the school conditions. (Done)
7. Talk to the students about how much they know about computers and why they want it. (Done)
8. Figure out the price of materials in Xining. (Done)
9. Contact the school leader to choose Ake Jiaoba (male), Yangmo (female) and Legu (male) to be members of the project committee and be responsible for the materials. (Done)
10. Write project proposal. (Done)
11. Funds are received.
12. Hold a meeting with the school teacher to emphasize the importance of being responsible.
13. Purchase computer and other materials from Xining and transport them to the school.
14. Load the computers in the computer room and take pictures.
15. Interview the teachers and students to gauge the success of the project.
16. Send final report to donor.
Time frame
This project will take 7 days to complete.
1 day: Have a meeting with Lake School teachers and discuss the start date of the project.
1 day: Sign contract with Mr. Yu (the person who is managing computer businesses in company).
2 days: Purchase other materials in Xining in Shengli Lu Electronics market.
1 day: Transport the materials from Xining to Lake Primary School.
1 day: Install computers.
1 day: Interview the teachers and students in the School and take pictures.
In total, the project will take 7 days to complete, though there might be potential weather delays or other unforeseen delays.
Detailed Budget
| Item | Price for per item in rmb |
Number of item |
Donor Contribution in rmb |
Local Contribution in rmb |
Shem Contri bution in rmb |
Total cost in rmb |
|
Computer |
2,750 |
10 |
27,500 |
0 |
0 |
27,500 |
|
Copy machine |
6,200 |
1 |
1,200 |
5000 |
0 |
6,200 |
|
Campus radio |
3,400 |
1 |
3,400 |
0 |
0 |
3,400 |
|
Pickup camera |
4,100 |
1 |
4,100 |
0 |
0 |
4,100 |
|
Transportation fee |
|
|
700 |
0 |
0 |
700 |
|
Computer room |
|
|
0 |
5,000 |
0 |
5,000 |
|
Security door |
500 |
1 |
0 |
500 |
0 |
500 |
|
Iron bar for Window |
100 |
4 windows |
0 |
400 |
0 |
400 |
|
Curtain |
300/ |
4 windows |
0 |
1,200 |
0 |
1,200 |
|
Desk and Chairs |
200 |
10 |
0 |
2,000 |
0 |
2,000 |
|
Computer Manager |
|
|
0 |
800 |
0 |
800 |
|
Project management |
|
|
300 |
200 |
0 |
500 |
|
Training fee* |
|
|
0 |
3,500 |
0 |
3,500 |
|
Project management |
|
|
|
0 |
500 |
500 |
|
Total |
|
|
37,200 |
18,600 |
500 |
56,300 |
Project management expenses: Money spent on tickets for going to the school to collect information needed for the Project phone calls to the school for collecting additional information, and transportation fees needed for implementing the project after funds are received.
Training fee:
the school is planning to send one teacher to Xunhua County for computer training for each month in summer vacation and winter vacation.
Sustainability
Because there will be three teachers implementing the project, it will remain sustainable and also we have a care taking committee after the project is implemented. All the teachers and students will have a vested interest in the long-term success of the project and will take good care of the computers because they will get great benefits from this computer project.
The school also planned to buy a security door for the computer room. All teachers are also responsible for looking after the security of the school and are willing to be extra vigilant in guarding the computer room even during the vacations. So computers will be very safe in the school. Also the project manager has been working together with the computer company in past two years and the project manger is confident the quality of their products is very high. The suppliers have guaranteed a return policy up to three years and can repair the computer with any hardware and software problems. They guarantee maintenance forever Additionally, in Xunhua County there is a company which is about one hour by bus from Lake Primary School to Xunhua County, and this company will fix the computer if it has any technical problems. If it is necessary then the school can hire a technician from this company to go to the school and fix the computer.
Additional Information
The project manager LumoTsering is currently working in Shem Women’s Group as one of the program directors. She has successfully managed and completed a running water project in 2007 with the support of Shem Women’s Group and The Shambala Connection.
From April 2003 to 2006, LumoTsering completed two second-hand clothes project that benefited about 200 people in Huadi Village, Rso Sbis Township, Xunhua County, Qinghai Province in China.
About the project location
This is the gate of Lake Primary School
This is one of the five classrooms in Lake Primary School
These are some of the students in the school and the project manger is the one standing at the back in the middle.
The project manager is discussing the problems with the teachers and collects the information for the project.
The project manager is interviewing some of the students about how much do they know about computer and why they want computer.
This is the computer which is donated by education bureau six years ago and it the only computer the school have in teacher’s office and the teachers said that this computer always have problem because it is over used for all school businesses.
She is the only one who knows how to use computer and do the basic things like typing. She learnt the skills from her father, because her father is the leader of the school and he has his own computer at home.
This is the computer room the school prepared for five years and because of financial problems school don’t even have one computer for student to learn computer skills.
The day the project manger visited the school was National Children’s Day. The school celebrated by rewarding the students who studied very hard and scored well on their exams.
Since this is Children’s day, students are wearing their best Tibetan robes and ornaments. They are preparing a performance for their school.
The teachers are distributing candy, seeds and peanuts to the children for their Children’s Day.
The students are singing songs with their loudest voices while they are eating the snacks provided by the school.
Map of the project location
