Yesterday Deepak and I met with RBKS to discuss pending work and future plans. It’s been 5 years that we’ve been working together now, and it was enjoyable for me to reflect a little on how things have changed over that time. We agreed on several new systems of work, including the creation of a Hunar Ghar operations manual which will be a master reference for both RBKS and Educate for Life in the running of Hunar Ghar; this will greatly improve the efficiency of our work and provide a clear channel for communicating responsibilities to each other.

We also discussed the continued capacity building of our teachers and using Hunar Ghar as a means of communicating quality education ideas back up the heirarchy and into government schemes: Typically we have to do follow the government requirements for running a school, at the risk of not being classified as a school if we don’t do this. But it is abundantly clear to everyone who see’s it that Hunar Ghar is the highest quality school in the area, and we achieve a teacher and student attendance and education level far higher than government schools. We are keen to share what we have learned in how to do this with other educators to help develop other non-Hunar Ghar schools.

Other points covered included the appointment of two new qualified teachers (to satisfy government requirements) and the appointment of a school coordinator to free Deepak up to expand his work into community and environmental development initiatives beyond Hunar Ghar. We also talked about the potential of expanding Hunar Ghar beyond 5th standard, and the utilisation of our expertise and best practice and dedicated, reliable team at Hunar Ghar to support other small primary schools (balwadis) in the area which consistently collapse or stop after 3 years.

All in all it was a effective meeting with good positive steps put in place for creating a better, stronger Hunar Ghar and improving the working relationship and depth and scope of work done by Educate for Life and RBKS as we move into our next 5 years of Hunar Ghar.

But that was yesterday (and just today I looking in the usual place, there was the case, but the horn itself was missing), today Deepak and I met with Devinder from Kautilya Vikas Sansthan (Kautilya Development Society) whom Deepak has know for a couple of years. Devinder has visited Hunar Ghar a couple of times but this is the first opportunity to meet him. He and KVS also work towards education and communities, as well as a number of other areas. It was a good experience meeting him and learning about their organisation, and discussing how Educate for Life and KVS can practically share their understanding and skills to create better education in each organisation. We agree that our teachers will go for an exposure at their school, and theirs come to us, as a way of cross-seeding our work and creating an initial working relationship with each other. Again, a good, positive meeting with genuine outcomes decided and to be acted upon in the near future. Good stuff.