Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/284

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Replication of IBT is very much important to realize the concept of 'RDES'. Hence, to start communication with school and to revive the project, a proposal was submitted to Asha for Education to support salary of one coordinator to activate the programme. A meeting of all IBT school principals was organized on 230 April 2004 at Pabal to review the status of IBT. It was found that out of 24 schools, 16 schools continued the programme. All of them reiterated usefulness of the programme and urged for training and monitoring support from VA. Though schools faced many difficulties in continuing the programme and also made some compromises on the way, it was satisfying to learn that the schools had continued the programme for 4 years after withdrawal of the support. This was a good indication for the usefulness and acceptance of the IBT programme. PLAN 100 The report of school principals meeting was shared with many well wishers and funding agencies. Ms Sunanda Mane of Lend-A-HandIndia (LAHI) was one of them. Ms. Mane visited VA in November 2004 as she was aware about VA's work over the years and had visited the Ashram few times in early 90s. Ms. Mane showed keen interest in the IBT replication project. She asked for more details and initially sponsored fees of 10 DBRT students. Lend-A-Hand India also decided to sponsor a survey of VA alumni to understand the impact of the DBRT/IBT programme. In 2005, LAHI supported IBT programme in two schools which were part of the Tata supported group of schools and needed financial assistance to continue the programme. From the experiences of these two schools and also taking in to account the past experience, Project PLAN 100 was conceptualized and launched. The idea was to replicate IBT in 100 schools to generate a critical mass of 20,000 IBT students to impact the public opinion and policy. Ms. Sunanda Mane contributed a lot in < Rural Development Through Education System 271