Our Right to Education application facilitation day was easily the most hectic because it was combined with school visits: as mentioned in our awareness raising session post, our "booth" consisted of a flimsy card table and a few plastic chairs in the middle of a dusty street. Parents approached us between the hours of 4-6, and if I recall, we conducted this session twice.
Knowing that parents couldn't speak English, we simply read the application questions to them, and typed their answers on an Excel spreadsheet. Not having a proper queue meant that it was difficult avoiding duplicate answers or putting someone else's information on another person's column. We also captured the phone number of each applicant. I remember trying to block out the extra noise of the crowds as I focused on filling in each cell of the spreadsheet. To say it was chaotic is an understatement.
At this stage, we had about 40 families approach the booth. Of those, about 25 had income certificates: knowing how stringent schools would be, we told them to come back if and when they obtained the certificate. Unfortunately, the short timespan inhibited many from completing the process. Some of these parents later got back in touch with us on account of getting the document, and we helped them individually at a later date.
After the session came the fun part: personally filling out each application! I stayed up until 2 am meticulously transferring the data from the spreadsheet to each application, and admittedly, I was quite nervous that I forgot a box or that I was filling in misheard information. My dining room table looked like a war zone with papers strewn about. I listened to music and some of the songs still remind me of that long night. I'd say I filled out roughly 45-50 applications that evening. Once finished, I then filed the applications according to the school, and attached a receipt to each. Parents were also later instructed to sign their application, and to please let us know if they had any questions regarding the boxes.
Why didn't you have the parents fill out the applications?
The next day, we called the parents and told them to be ready to submit the applications to the schools. We also told them to bring the requisite paperwork, such as the birth certificate, community certificate, ration card, etc.
Well, at the first school we got quite a surprise when trying to turn in the applications: they informed us to go to the Inspector of Matriculation's office to get a stamp. We didn't anticipate this hurdle and had never heard of this requirement, so we shuttled everyone to a government office via hired bus and spent the day getting stamped applications for all of the schools (just in case).
We also kept some volunteers stationed back at the table in case other parents showed up. We gave them money to take an auto as a way of transporting them quickly to the government office if need be.
At the end of the day, we had not submitted any of our newly-stamped applications on account of time. Unsurprisingly, government offices have a way of turning one hour into several! To the office's credit, most of the staff were absolutely lovely people. They were respectful to our parents, and overall pleased with what we were trying to achieve.
The parents, unfortunately, had to be prepared to spend another full day tomorrow going to the schools. The next day was also the stated deadline (18th of May), so my biggest fear was that we would not be able to turn in our applications to all of the institutions in time. Schools notoriously made parents "wait, please," and my concern was that an institution would make parents sit and wait for hours to meet with the correspondent who might otherwise be quite busy. If this happened, we knew our chances of submitting applications elsewhere would be slim.
During these three days in May, I'd say I slept 4 hours a night and my food intake was minimal. Stress was rampant amongst our group and the other organizations doing RTE work alongside us. The entire night, I was thinking of contingency plans: "if one school makes us wait this long, then we should go __ next. Maybe I should divide the families and send them schools as a rolling basis. Maybe I should..." My brain would not shut off, even if I wanted sleep.
What we'd do differently
As for making copies of the applications, I cannot say with a straight face that we have a beautifully-organized filing cabinet. Instead, we relied on taking pictures of each page with our iPhones and categorizing them electronically. It was hardly a perfect method, but one that worked given the constraints! The Xerox places approached required an overnight for applications, and this to me was insufficient given the precious few hours remaining the next day.
There we have it. Our application facilitation sessions were amusingly primitive, but we managed.
Addendum: I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the amazing application facilitation work conducted by the Becoming I Foundation. Their tireless volunteers set up a desk at the government office itself and advised families across the city to fill out applications on location over the course of 3-4 crucial days. They assisted all of the parents, and gave them advice on submitting them to the schools. They are still collating the data, but they helped several families gain admissions in this fashion.
Knowing that parents couldn't speak English, we simply read the application questions to them, and typed their answers on an Excel spreadsheet. Not having a proper queue meant that it was difficult avoiding duplicate answers or putting someone else's information on another person's column. We also captured the phone number of each applicant. I remember trying to block out the extra noise of the crowds as I focused on filling in each cell of the spreadsheet. To say it was chaotic is an understatement.
 |
| Welcome to our office! |
At this stage, we had about 40 families approach the booth. Of those, about 25 had income certificates: knowing how stringent schools would be, we told them to come back if and when they obtained the certificate. Unfortunately, the short timespan inhibited many from completing the process. Some of these parents later got back in touch with us on account of getting the document, and we helped them individually at a later date.
After the session came the fun part: personally filling out each application! I stayed up until 2 am meticulously transferring the data from the spreadsheet to each application, and admittedly, I was quite nervous that I forgot a box or that I was filling in misheard information. My dining room table looked like a war zone with papers strewn about. I listened to music and some of the songs still remind me of that long night. I'd say I filled out roughly 45-50 applications that evening. Once finished, I then filed the applications according to the school, and attached a receipt to each. Parents were also later instructed to sign their application, and to please let us know if they had any questions regarding the boxes.
Why didn't you have the parents fill out the applications?
- The application is in English, for starters.
- We were also operating on a short time frame. These parents would need to bring back a completed application by tomorrow at a pre-determined time, which I didn't think was a realistic request given their own work schedules and ours. I didn't want to risk a single dropout at this early stage.
- I didn't want them being intimidated by the process, to be honest, or for them to think, "how many hurdles must I complete?" My mantra throughout the RTE drive was that if I could do it personally, I would. Thus, if I could complete the application on their behalf, then I would do it.
The next day, we called the parents and told them to be ready to submit the applications to the schools. We also told them to bring the requisite paperwork, such as the birth certificate, community certificate, ration card, etc.
 |
| A professional outfit, right here... |
Well, at the first school we got quite a surprise when trying to turn in the applications: they informed us to go to the Inspector of Matriculation's office to get a stamp. We didn't anticipate this hurdle and had never heard of this requirement, so we shuttled everyone to a government office via hired bus and spent the day getting stamped applications for all of the schools (just in case).
We also kept some volunteers stationed back at the table in case other parents showed up. We gave them money to take an auto as a way of transporting them quickly to the government office if need be.
At the end of the day, we had not submitted any of our newly-stamped applications on account of time. Unsurprisingly, government offices have a way of turning one hour into several! To the office's credit, most of the staff were absolutely lovely people. They were respectful to our parents, and overall pleased with what we were trying to achieve.
The parents, unfortunately, had to be prepared to spend another full day tomorrow going to the schools. The next day was also the stated deadline (18th of May), so my biggest fear was that we would not be able to turn in our applications to all of the institutions in time. Schools notoriously made parents "wait, please," and my concern was that an institution would make parents sit and wait for hours to meet with the correspondent who might otherwise be quite busy. If this happened, we knew our chances of submitting applications elsewhere would be slim.
During these three days in May, I'd say I slept 4 hours a night and my food intake was minimal. Stress was rampant amongst our group and the other organizations doing RTE work alongside us. The entire night, I was thinking of contingency plans: "if one school makes us wait this long, then we should go __ next. Maybe I should divide the families and send them schools as a rolling basis. Maybe I should..." My brain would not shut off, even if I wanted sleep.
What we'd do differently
- Getting an early start is a consistent lesson. The time spent between raising awareness, filling out applications, and dropping them off was a matter of two days when there should be a gap of at least two months. From our experience it's clearly possible to conduct an RTE drive in just 5 days, but I wouldn't wish it on my enemy based on the stress/work involved. We are already looking forward to devising a much saner, evenly paced schedule for next year.
- Foresight with schools: the short timespan made it impossible to predict a school's wants and their reactions. When we went to submit applications, I had no idea if the school would let me submit them on behalf of parents, or if some would insist on their presence. I respected and valued both, but both methods have very different planning requirements on our end. Going forward, we will be giving schools great foresight with our presence and we will be asking well in advance how they wish to handle our RTE candidates.
- Getting application requirements in advance: Next year, we do not want to be taken off guard by a mandate to go to a government office. We will also be asking the school what their requirements are for RTE admissions as it relates to age cutoffs and paperwork.
- Letting parents fill out their own applications with the appropriate tools and support. I do not regret how we handled things given the brevity. But in the future, we will be hosting presentations and offering translated documents to help them fill out their own applications. Additionally, we will offer a drop-off point where they can submit their paperwork to us over the course of a month.
- I also had guilt about the parents, who couldn't be given the complete picture as to what was going on for reasons of time constraints. We tried our best to make the process easier for them by filling out their applications and personally shuttling them to various locations, but I'm certain they had many unanswered questions about what was going on. Some would get their stamps early and would wait for hours at an office with their toddler, wondering where they'd be going next. It was hot, crowded, and confusing. Though a volunteer was on-hand, many parents felt delicate about asking us questions.
As for making copies of the applications, I cannot say with a straight face that we have a beautifully-organized filing cabinet. Instead, we relied on taking pictures of each page with our iPhones and categorizing them electronically. It was hardly a perfect method, but one that worked given the constraints! The Xerox places approached required an overnight for applications, and this to me was insufficient given the precious few hours remaining the next day.
There we have it. Our application facilitation sessions were amusingly primitive, but we managed.
 |
| These two little girls were great assistants. |
Addendum: I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the amazing application facilitation work conducted by the Becoming I Foundation. Their tireless volunteers set up a desk at the government office itself and advised families across the city to fill out applications on location over the course of 3-4 crucial days. They assisted all of the parents, and gave them advice on submitting them to the schools. They are still collating the data, but they helped several families gain admissions in this fashion.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.