Rainbow Primary School

Rambabu, the Pratham leader for our state (Telangana) and his team are amazing. The Rainbow School now has an after school center, and after school tutoring program, and an in-school teacher training program. The after school program now has computer training! These computers will be used for some of the older kids, and I'm sure we'll get a lot more tech once things start rolling. 1. We now have four teachers working full-time at our after school center.  2. In the after school program, we have over 40 students and expect 20 more teenagers when computer and English instruction officially begin. 3. Letters to our sister school in Miami continue. 4. Our Rainbow School continues to host after-school activities as well!

Together with the students, parents, and teaching team, we did it. Ten years of the Rainbow Primary School. Our school is a government-funded, local-language (Telugu) school that serves 230 children every day absolutely free. We celebrated by opening  an after-school center last month with the best education NGO in the world, Pratham. For the past five years, I've worked on research projects and helped NGOs that have an interest in developing mobile tools for learning. Globally, there are three populations of students that need to close the education gap. 1. 52 million children globally not in school at all. Most are out of school for one or more of these reasons: conflict/no public services (fragile state), lack of legal papers, migrants, or they are female. Migration is a big issue in our area around the Rainbow School. 2. 200 million children globally are in school, but suffer from poor in-class teaching. These students cannot read at grade level. The most common reason...

For some time, the Pratham team has worked to design potential ways to collaborate with the Rainbow School. In particular, we are interested in using technology to foster learning in after-school hours and school holidays. At this time, we are eager to move forward and we are looking for advice and support from throughout our community. Email me at leighanne (at) gmail.com with your thoughts.

Today we are visiting to check in with the Rainbow School, deliver school supplies, and (most of all!) design the next year for the school with the teachers and the PRATHAM team. I can't wait!

I wanted to thank each of the teachers! Private Teachers: Meher Jain, English G. Prashanth, 4th Standard P. Raju, Computers and 5th Standard "Computer Raju!" K. Lakshmi Devi Y. Manjula U. Divya K. Renuka S. Sunitha Government Teachers Headmaster, G. Ramulu M. Parameshwari K. Sampath Kumari Thank you Teachers! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

On Monday, August 18, I was so happy to return to see the Rainbow School. The teachers have made a plan to shift from Telugu to English medium. My friend at Pratham, one of the largest education NGOs -- serving 5 million children in South Asia and Africa -- agreed to help my teachers. My co-partner, Kalpana, is taking the lead on a facilities upgrade. She will oversee an upgrade to the preschool and main building. Kalpana and I have found donors in India and the United States. The children were sharp, completely up on their marks. The teachers were creative, driven, relentless. More to come!