Sunday, September 23, 2007

Some insights

25.9.07

We computed index for four schools based on different infrastructure parameters in SSA report. It is interesting to note that infrastructure parception score was high for the schools that received high index in SSA report suggesting validity of the questionnaire.


21.9.07
After incorporating uluberia data in item analysis, I found high content validity for the 11 domains of school infrastructure questionnaire. Now, my anxiety about use of binomial response is gone. In collection of data, attention should be paid to mixed community so that more individual difference for each item can be obtained. It is better to collect data from road side and road away schools.

One way ANOVA showed significant mean differences in domain satisfaction across the schools.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Scrutinizing khelia and Uludanga Data

We collected data from two schools of Barasat through 4 th revision of questionnaire. By scrutinizing the data of Khelia school, I found least responded and SD=0 for few items. These items were extracted using following formula in Excel sheet.

=IF(B4<18,1, IF(D4=0,1, " "))

18= <50% of respondents
0=SD

In this way, I found following results:

CL_1 1 CL_1 1
CL_7 1 CL_7 1
DW_3 1 DW_3 1
FRND_3 1 FRND_3 1
GM_3 1 GM_3 1

So, 5 items failed to determine individual difference in both schools.

For Khelia
CL_1 1
CL_7 1
DW_3 1
BB_1 1
TCH_1 1
TLM_3 1
TLM_4 1
FRND_3 1
GM_2 1
GM_3 1
GM_6 1
CLP_5 1
MDM_1 1
HLTH_1 1
HLTH_2 1
HLTH_3 1
HLTH_6 1

Module 3
Q2 1
Q3 1

So, 17 items for module 2 and 2 items for module 3 are in the same category in case of Khelia school.

For Uludanga school

CL_1 1
CL_2 1
CL_4 1
CL_5 1
CL_7 1
DW_1 1
DW_3 1
TLM_1 1
FRND_3 1
GM_3 1
MODULE3 1
Q9 1

In case of Uludanga data, 10 items of module 2 and 1 item for module 3 are in these category.

In estimating total score, we must be very careful.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Visit to Uluberia

13.9.07

Uluberia block -1 is in Howrah district. As of 2001 India census, Uluberia had a population of 202,095. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Uluberia has an average literacy rate of 64%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 70%, and female literacy is 58%. In Uluberia, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

With the partition of India there was a massive influx of refugees from East Pakistan into Kolkata and its peripheral areas. Of over a million refugees who entered West Bengal in 1950 alone settled mostly in squatter colonies between Naihati and Sonarpur on the east bank of the Hooghly and between Mogra and Uluberia on the west bank.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluberia



Amrita and Me started for Uluberia at 10 A.M. Mr. Swapan Aich drived our Jeep. We reached Uluberia block at 11:30 approx. There we met joint BDO, Ms. Swati Chakraborty, who assisted us to visit two schools. First we reached at one school, located 3 km. away from the main road. The school has poor electricity. Amrita collected data from the students and me from the teachers and Head master. Next school was located just beside the main road. It has good infrastructure. Toilet is in the back side of school and one may find more difficulty to reach there during rainy season. School has poor water facility. Amrita collected data from sample students and I collected data from rest of others. In both schools, students of class IV participated in our project.

During our return, there was heavy rain and suddenly wiper of our jeep fell down. Swapan Babu halted jeep and found it on the way.

We reached at ISI at 6-30 P.M.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

2nd Visit to Barasat

11.9.07

This is my 2nd visit in Barasat. Chairman, DPSC arranged one ASI, Mr. Kaustav Kanti Mondol for inspecting schools. First we came to Mirhati school and submitted our internal report to Mr. Ghosh, The Headmaster. The report contains percentage of students satisfied with different domains of school infrastructures. In analysis of this data, I found positive relation between mid day meal satisfaction and school attendance motivation but no such significant relation of mid day meal satisfaction with basic academic achievement (ability to spell correctly own names, school names, roll no, class and age). In Mirhati, Head Master shown me the wall magazine as I suggested before. I advised him to display the magazine to students and guardians keeping it in front of school entrance. I suggested him to do same for each class.

Next we went to Khelia primary school, 1.5 km away from the national highway. Road is muddy, broken. It is located nearby a pond and one high Madrassa school. Amrita collected data from the students after my turn. The school has no electricity, students sit on the floor, good scientific toilets. School has no specific development fund to manage cost of electricity. School mainly depends upon the Government for its maintenance. Most of the students are Muslims.

Next we went to Uludanga Primary school, located nearby the National highway. School has very good building but electricity. Most of the students are Muslims. Students are motivated but possibly due to language problem, students fail to show their better performance in academic achievement.

Here, we met Mr. Amitava Banerjee, member of school council. I discussed how to teach students in order to reduce reading and writing errors and how to involve guardians in different academic activities of school through school magazine.

Finally, we bade good bye to ASI and returned to ISI. Data set has been handed over to data entry operator of webturbine.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Questionnaire status

Recently, I find Mrs. Amrita Panda as project assistant. She joined ISI on 3oth August, 2007. We are jointly working to develop the questionnaire. Currently, we redefine dimensions of different attitudes towards school infrastructure and accordingly change questionnaires. 9 dimensions and 55 questions are developed to assess attitudes towards 4 kinds of school infrastructures. We have to add few more questions.