1.

Introduction
My first 6 months at school revealed to me that although the children did have a shot at excelling in academics, that was pretty much the only aspect of education they received. There was literally no way for students to discover their other talents or express themselves. The following problem soon became very clear to me: A typical student spends close to six hours in a classroom to gain academic strength which is preceded and succeeded by 2 -3 hours of private tuition. There is no channel to tap the potential of the kid, who does not remember a word of classroom lessons but remembers every line of the latest Salman song or every dance move of the billboard toppers. The only place where they attempt to express themselves is the classroom where they indulge in humming the latest Bollywood song tunes, hopping a dance step, drawing on the blackboard or cracking a smart joke in class, which however receive limited attention. Extracurricular activities in the school are a sham both in terms of facilities and organisation, and end up being formalities just being completed for the sake of it. Hence, I and a few other fellows decided to investigate the possible causes for this problem. We surveyed parents, children and conducted various field observations. We suspected five possible causes for the situation: Lack of incentive and structure, cost, Lack of resources, Time and Mindsets of stakeholders. This was a result of extensive literature survey in stage I of the BTCP. Then through careful analysis using controlled experiments, we zeroed in on lack of structures and incentives and lack of resources as the main causes impeding student involvement in extracurricular activities. In fact, in our controlled experiments, the group with lack of structures reported almost a 50 percent decrease in enjoyment and involvement. Thus setting up a structure shall be our main area of focus.

2. Proposed Solution
The solution we propose is aimed at targeting the root causes Lack of structure and Lack of resources. We are creating an extracurricular activity program in the fields of drama, dance and literary arts, where we would arrange for workshops to be conducted for students from different schools at a single location. The workshops shall be conducted with the aim of students competing with each other in a bi-annual competition with exciting prizes and incentives. Our solution clearly attacks both the root causes Lack of structure (through carefully crafted workshops tailored to students) and Lack of resources. As we reported in stage II of the BTCP, it was clear that when students were given a structured program, they clearly showed a 50 percent greater involvement and our solution seeks to do exactly that. We also aim to secure all the necessary resources, more details of which will be discussed in the next section.

3. Logistics/Operations
a. Services
There will be 12 sessions of each activity will be held at two different locations, either after school on Saturday or on Sunday. Workshops will be conducted by trained professionals, and the exact content will be determined by the expertise of professionals who will conduct these workshops.

Currently, training is being planned such that all seven sessions for different fields will happen at once on a Saturday or a Sunday.

b. Personnel
Trainers: Our qualifications for trainers will be as follows: he/she should have
conducted workshops regularly and must have prior experience working with children . We need 1 professional dance trainer, 2 theatre professionals, 1 public speaking trainer, 1 art instructor ( Amita Singh) , 2 literary arts facilitators (students) School coordinator: One teacher per grade of students from the school

c. Stakeholders
Students: A maximum of four students per genre will be allowed, due to logistical reasons. Parents: Parents of each student shall be responsible for the commute of student to and from the workshop. Volunteers: 10 NSS volunteers from IIT Bombay, each to attend on alternative weeks

d. Partner Organisations
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Shiamak Davar Academy : Provide dance trainers Toastmasters : They are a public speaking club based in Mumbai Blue Ribbon Organisation : Leadership academy National Service Scheme, IIT Bombay: For volunteer support ASHA Foundation, Mumbai: Event organising partner ( They have extensive experience in organising afterschool activities for low income schools in the Powai region) 6. Ink fruit : Printing partner We are in touch with more organisations, to partner us in terms of providing logistic support. Location Possible locations for our program include the various schools of students Jafari School, Siddharth Nagar, Shivner Vidya Mandir, Andrews ground, South Indian Education Society. We are in talks with the school and are yet to finalise a venue, which would be feasible after we know the exact number of enrolling students and their geographical distribution.

e. Timeline
We aim to conduct 12 workshop sessions, the timeline of which is represented below.

June - July 2012:

Meet partners and finalize partnerships Invest stakeholders

18 and 19 August 2012

Pilot Training Days

22/23 September 2012

Workshop 2

6/7 October 2012

Workshop 4

20/21 October 2012

Workshop 6

3/4 November 2012

Workshop 8

15/16 December
Workshop 10

August 1-15
Sign MoUs Administer BOY metrics

15/16 September 2012

Workshop 1

29/30 September 2012

Workshop 3

13/14 October 2012

Workshop 5

27/28 October 2012

Workshop 7

8/9 December 2012

Workshop 9

4. Resources/Budget
The procedure that we are following for allocating our budget would be based on the underlying fact that our partners for investing and supporting the project in terms of cash or kind can only be approached once our logistical setup is finalised and complete. Thus the allocation has also been made keeping these parameters in mind. Preparation Presentation for potential stakeholders in the project = Free Banner/advertising material to create awareness for the workshops : Printing partner takes care of this Professionals from different fields conducting workshops : Dance = 3000 x2 = Rs.6000 for maximum capacity in 2 locations (based on market rates) Drama= 2500x2 = Rs.5000 for maximum capacity in 2 locations (based on market rates) Venue(s) for conducting the workshops: Could range from free to Rs.1000 per workshop day = 12x 1000 = Rs.12000.

Execution Transportation : Buses for ferrying students to and fro from location = Rs. 15000 (maximum) for the entire duration of the workshops (based on market rates) Props for dance and drama workshops = Rs.5000. Refreshments for kids and workshop partners = Rs. 10 per kid (to be raised in kind).

5. Funding Acquisition

Based on the budgeting we have done, we need a funding of approximately Rs 75,000 for our BTCP project. For structural and operational simplicity we have broken down the cost of our project under the two heads Workshop and Competition. For the workshops the major source of funding would be from individual sources as in funds raised by individual fellows from the Give-India and other platforms. Considering our budget of Rs.75, 000 and looking at our existing unused funds from different sources, totalling over 1,50,000, we aim to successfully organize the workshops this year. However, for the competition and long term partnerships, we plan to go out for partnerships with different organizations so that the competition can be sponsored under the CSR of an organization. The idea is to create a brand of the competition even, akin the US National Spelling bee , to acquire permanent partners. Also theres a plan to sell out advertising space in the competition arena to raise the money required for the competition. The organizations that we have approached so far for funding Hindustan Pencils, Camlin ITC Limited Navneet Procter and Gamble

6. Desired Outcomes
Our aim is to not only ensure positive student development in the activity he loves, but also that his /her participation in the activity inculcates values like confidence, hard work and team-work in them. Although difficult to measure quantitatively, we plan to use psychometric tests to determine their positive growth in these areas as against the beginning of the year. Listed below are the various metrics and the ways we are going to measure them. 1.
Beginning and end of the year- Survey

a. STUDENTS:

A survey with each of the following sets of students will be taken:

(1) Students who participate in extracurricular activities (2) Students who do not participate in extracurricular activities but want to (3) Students who do not participate in extracurricular activities and do not want to. We will ensure that the sample contains students of different levels of literacy (emergent, beginning, developing, at/above grade level). The Survey shall contain the following questions What do you in their free time? What do you like to do when you are by yourself? What do you like to do when you are with friends? What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you think you are good at? What do you think about your school?

b. PARENTS AND TEACHERS They would be surveyed at the beginning and the end of the year on the following opinions about their children:

a. b. c. d. e.

General behaviour Attitude towards school and education Focus /concentration/Articulation Academic progress Proficiency in the extracurricular activity

2. Video blog: For qualitative data on confidence, articulation, proficiency in the concerned activity 3. Tracking academic scores and attendance: To check participation and trickledown effect on academics

7. Sustainability
The vision behind this project is that all other stakeholders like children, parents and school leaders continue to be invested in the belief that competitive participation in extracurricular activities help in the overall development of students. It is thus, essential for us to define metrics that track this investment at appropriate time periods through the one year duration of the project; metrics that can help us safely say that this project will fulfil its long term goals. To ensure continuity with minimal fellow intervention, we have decided to actively involve the parents of concerned students in the activity. It is clear from the very structure of the program that the fellow helps in the initial setup of the program and its publicity amongst students and parents. The first 6 months will be utilized to help a certain number of students gain proficiency and passion in every genre of extra-curricular activities. Towards, the end of the year, student-led extra-curricular activity teams by genre shall be set up in the school. This shall consist of students showcasing their learnings to the school and pitching for more student participation in the coming year. These student teams will then assist the new fellow / any other teacher to facilitate entry of newer students into the program, which by then, already has a functioning schedule and routine. All the new teachers need to do is submit names of interested students to the workshop coordinator through the school.

Students train from August 2012 - February 2013

Student led teams formed in each genre Prepare for annual showcase/competition

Students showcase activity in school to other students in an attempt to publicise the program

New students express interest in the program get in touch with students already in the program

New Students inducted into the extracurricular activity program of their interest

Thus, the annual showcase/competition shall be the main way to invest key stakeholders like parents and school teachers and school management. The goal to ensure sustainability would be to ensure that an equal number of students as this year formally express interest in the form of an application for the program at the end of the year as well. Attendance of students at the workshops shall be the main criterion to track sustainability through the first year because attendance indicates interest of students towards the program. In addition to attendance, as mentioned in the desired outcomes section, a psychometric test and student survey to evaluate student attributes shall be used to measure growth on those parameters from the beginning of the year.