Kodla cluster consists of 13 villages and is a predominantly agricultural community. Due to the presence of the cement industry as well as a few quarries in the area, manual daily labor is the next common occupation in the region. So, skills attained via education are not perceived to be of much use to the average person. This in turn means that education is not valued in the region.

While developing the baseline statistics for the Kodla villages, the ILP and CDF team came across many instances of how the vicious effects of illiteracy can result in a whole community spiraling down the development ladder. Corruption, narrow-mindedness and lack of awareness are finally just outcomes of lack of education.

THE SCHOOL ISN'T READY YET!

HANDRIKI VILLAGE: The government high school in the village was sanctioned to be built on the land donated by a wealthy land owner from the village. However, when obtaining the land, the requisite transfer papers were not signed. The donor requested that the building be constructed by one of his relatives, which was agreed upon. When the building was almost ready, the donor insisted that the government pay for the land, and in the absence of appropriate documentation, there was not much the government could do. Eventually, the constructed building was demolished and the land handed back over to the donor. A new piece of land was acquired, and the village is still waiting for the school to be constructed there so that their children can go to school. If the local politicians and functionaries had the interest of the children in mind, they would have made the decision to pay for the original piece of land and saved a standing school building from being destroyed! And if the donor had the children's welfare at heart, he would not have backtracked on his donation either!

WHERE IS LITERACY LOCATED?

KODLA SC COLONY: Five volunteers were paid to complete a task of providing basic functional literacy training to fifty people within a month. The classes were supposed to be held in the local town-office from 6 to 9 PM on certain weekdays. When the ILP and CDF team went to the location, they found no one there. Thereafter they met the volunteers, and found that some of them did not even know where the classes were being held. The volunteers suggested that the villagers would be tired in the evening after their day time work, and that it was time for them to rest and recuperate rather than study. So much for an education scheme sans monitoring!

COME BY TOMORROW!

GOWDALLI VILLAGE: The village has an child care center (anganwadi) that is geared towards taking care of 20 tiny tots of the village. When the ILP and CDF team visited this center, they found it to be locked. They found out that the anganwadi helper was an alcoholic, and as a result she would usually be absent for four to five days in the week. The anganwadi teacher on the other hand was tasked with a number of other duties such as electoral surveys and hence would also be absent from the anganwadi. Knowing the ground realities, the villagers simply avoided sending their children to such an anganwadi.