School Is In Session! And, Introducing Cuddles.

School is BACK! We have new students, a WHOLE BUNCH. We are up to 165 students. In addition, we couldn't stand to let our fourth standard students go on to our sister school, even though it is an excellent school, so we just kept them and added a fifth standard. The teachers are very, very excited. But the most exciting news is that Usha, our new headmistress, has arrived. In the three days she has been on the job, she has made a fantastic impression. When the junior teachers tried to compliment her, she said, "Don't, I have only been here for a few days. Tell me later, after I have worked very, very hard, if I have done well."

I am so happy, I am so happy for the teachers. But I am most happy for the children, and the parents who sacrifice so much to send them to school.

Here are pictures of the new textbooks and the new bookbags, donated by a lovely lady here in Hyderabad.

Also, here are some pictures of some of the new students. Several of the girls are bringing their baby sibiling to school, as usual.

And this little guy is my new buddy. I can't even pronounce his very long Telegu name, so I have started to call him "Cuddles." He is super cute and has fantastically long eyelashes, I'm very jealous. Now, my first little buddy, Naga, was fiesty and incredibly independent. This little guy is a loving little cuddle worm, the counterpart to Naga. Cuddles finds me about ten times a day for a good, long hug.

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MobilesForGood: EDU

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

Gray Matters Capital and the Rockdale Foundation

While all is very well at the Rainbow School, I'll pause to highlight a "sister organization" supporting budget private schools in India. Gray Matters Capital and the Rockdale Foundation have an annual symposium in Hyderabad, called "Enterprising Schools." Buddies of mine from here in Palo Alto, the Hewlett Foundation and IDEO, are heading out there next week. More info is on www.enterprisingschools.com My IDEO fellas organized a whole list of very low-cost teaching aide ideas to present at the symposium. Ideas like using old newpapers to teach literacy. They put the list up on the website under "STEAL THIS IDEA" - click here for the list! (in pdf form) BEST WISHES for a successful symposium, I miss you all in Hyderabad!

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!

Rainbow Primary School

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