I left the Rainbow School a bit over one week ago. I found the school operating better than how I left it. The kids are very happy, they are learning very well. The teachers are happy, even with the change in headmistresses. The new headmistress is Vijaya Lakshmi, she comes from our sister school down the road. I found that the teachers are actively teaching: they use every kind of teaching tool and create new teaching ideas every day. I am so grateful things are working out so well.
While I was there, the school gave off a steady roar during school hours, like ocean waves hitting a beach. In one classroom, kids called out their answers back to the teacher. In another classroom, students gave a clap-clap-clap to reward a correct answer. In the fourth and fifth classes, students would giggle and cajole each other as they worked in small groups on projects. Down the way, the preschoolers sang songs and threw balls to each other. All the teachers kept cool in the strong heat, despite all this noise. I am so proud of them.
I found some surprises, all good surprises. First, the buildings are in perfect condition. Second, we now have a working desktop computer (donated) for administration needs and computer training for the older kids. The school has no water problems (fingers crossed). Teacher turnovers are at a record low, they only needed to hire one new teacher for 2009. The three new teachers hired in 2008 are settled in and are teaching well; the experienced teachers trained them throughly. Everyone is using child-centered methods. Our partner organizations are all making great progress: Indian Literacy Project, Lion's Club, Project 511, Naandi Foundation. Our major partners, Anita Mandava (quality teaching) and Kalpana O. (quality teaching and financial operations), still enjoy their work in the school. We hope they will be a part of the Rainbow School family for decades to come.
Even the government bureaucrats had a surprise for me. Our state had a court-imposed teacher hiring freeze for years. A few months ago, the court case precipitating this freeze was settled. [It was over salary inequities between private, government-assisted schools and regular government schools, the regular government schools payed more.] Now that the case is settled, the government can hire 1800 more professional (university-trained) teachers in our district. That means the Rainbow School may be allotted one more professional teacher in 2010.
I could see that, compared to other Indian government primary schools I saw in the city and out in the countryside, the Rainbow Primary School is just a different animal. The other schools have headmasters/mistresses that rarely show up. The teachers who do show up are poorly trained, semi-literate Vidya Volunteers (VVs) with high school degrees. At most, there is only one senior, university-trained teacher that actually teaches in a classroom. And that is when she/he shows up. Most government schools have no teaching aids, holes in their roofs and walls, few books, and sometime there is not even access to water. The children sit with dull faces in cramped rows on the floor. The teachers shout at anyone who wiggles too much.
At the Rainbow School, the kids can wiggle all they want. They always have big, happy smiles on their faces. They really do enjoy themselves, so they come to school regularly and fight with their parents to send them to school (and not to work). Our facilities are world-class, thanks to the Naandi Foundation, the ayahs, donations from places like Chirec School, and Project 511 (for electricity). We have two professional teachers with university degrees, teaching fourth and fifth standards. We have highly trained, literate Vidya Volunteer in the rest of the classrooms. And we have a headmistress who shows up and works well with the team. Every teacher and staff member is there every day, except for the headmistress, who is constantly called out on other government duties. Every teacher and VV lives in Masthan Nagar within a two-minute walk of the school; they know every kid and the family of every kid. There are so many teaching aides and books that the classroom shelves are bowed down, the floors are littered with tools, toy boxes are stacked high in every corner, and every inch of every wall has charts and pictures. Outside, I could not find any school-aged children loitering in the streets. All the children are in school and learning well.
I loved seeing everyone, really loved it. My only regret was I didn’t get more time with parents to hear what they think of the school.
I am happy.
But there is more that could be done.
One of the partners pointed out that we should become English Medium, right now. This would best prepare the children for the challenges to come, including finding jobs. I agree. There are big obstacles in the way to this dream. Sustaining the school with government funding seems to be the only solution long-term, but it really does limit our ambitions.
Note: Our operating modes require this school serve the poorest of the poor, with no fees and no costs, for the next fifty to one-hundred years. We aim to attract families who would otherwise send their kids to work.
Capital: Going to English Medium would require a lot of capital. To start, we would need to hire teachers and VVs that speak and write very good English. To attract that kind of talent, we'd need to double the salaries from 2000 rs/month (on average) to 4,000 rs+ for four to five of the VVs. The government may be able to step in and provide another teacher salary in 2010, but we won't know for sure until one year later. (The government requires we submit student numbers for one year before they will allot more teachers.) Still, we would need one year of double the private support for salaries, up from $2,000 to $4,000, and additional ongoing support of $1000 from 2010 to 2060 and beyond if we only expect the government to pay for one of these salaries. But that money would just be the tip of the iceberg, there are more needs to be met. (below)
Quality: We are not likely to find English-speaking teachers who live in Masthan Nagar. Hiring outsiders has several problems, the primary one is that teacher absenteeism would rise. And what about training these new teachers to use child-centered methods? It could be done, no doubt. But the average turnover rate for English-speaking teachers in other the government and private schools is 50%. We would have to hire at least five new teachers and train them every single year. I fear this turnover rate would decrease the quality of teaching and jeopardize our ability in insure the kids learn. Today, our Telugu-medium school staffed by locals turns out fifth standard graduates who are literate in math and language skills. Changing to an English Medium may risk this, and that would not serve them.
Quantity: If we went English Medium, we would double in size almost immediately. Then, we would need to double the teaching staff. This would increase the need for private support for teachers from $4,000 to nearly $8,000 for the first year of English Medium, and we would have to carry at least half of those costs ($4000 per year) with private funding from 2010 to 2060, if we assume we can count on the government for half the salaries (as we do today).
Here is why we would double in size: Of the 2,000 families in the slum with primary-school aged kids, most are economic refugees from the country who are here seeking a better life for their children. These upwardly-mobile country folks send their children to English-medium budget private schools. The Rainbow School students come from the economic strata below these country folk. They come from down-on-their-luck, urban-born families which have lost a breadwinner, have a sick family member, or host an alcoholic parent. Since there are fewer of these urban poor families, our “no fees” Rainbow School student population is steady at 300. If we changed to a “no fees” English Medium school, those upwardly-mobile country folks that pay 200+ rupees per month for private schools would send their children to the Rainbow School, too.
Facilities: If we held classes in every square foot, even in the landings of the staircase, we would still not have enough room to hold 600 students. We would need to split the school hours into shifts, half the students and teachers in the morning, half in the afternoon. Even with shifts, we would need two additional classrooms (we expected to build those around 2013). If we could build two classrooms on the roof, we would need to raise $4,000 right away. However, right now we cannot get permission to build more classrooms on the roof from the state engineer. And we have a land dispute that is tricking up progress on any expansion (our playground area), so building new classrooms before 2013 would take a bureaucratic miracle.
Total Cost: $12,000 in 2010 + $5,000 extra per year going forward.
We would need, in private funding for the first year to switch to English Medium, $12,000 or 4.8 lak rupees. And I would have great fears regarding the quality of teaching. This number doesn't calculate the need to privately fund someone to manage construction of additional classrooms, then help run the school in two shifts. One headmistress would struggle to manage all this. Private funding needed to for teacher salaries and staff at school going forward (2010 to 2060) would increase from $3,000 per year to $8,000 per year, of which we would need to raise an additional $5,000 per year. That $8,000 figure could go up if we cannot depend on the government to pay half of the teacher salaries.
These costs are for just one school. Imagine an entire state, over 60,000 schools. No wonder the state is not ready to switch the government schools to English Medium. The District Collector of Hyderabad switched the schools to English Medium, but has not issued new books or increased teacher salaries. So far, the government schools are ignoring the order due to lack of resources.
Conclusion: The kids do need to learn English. We're struggling now to find a way. We are shooting around ideas now, including a radical idea to start a private, very high-quality, budget English Medium school in two rooms for rent in the building next to the Rainbow School. Such a fee-based school may help some of the kids, if we held fees down to a very low level (100 rs/month) and found donors to pay for scholarships for some Rainbow School students. Another idea is to create regular scholarships for top Rainbow School students to attend a local English Medium school. Anita is already funding scholarships for a handful of students to attend private English Medium schools. She is having great success with this work. She is also funding free “Spoken English” classes on Sundays, and I can tell you they really work! I had a long conversation, in English, with Baleshwari (see this blog post
http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com/2008/07/these-three-kids.html).
More ideas of any kind are welcome! Write in, I would love to read them.
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