Rainbow Primary School

Last month, the State office visited to assess the quality of the school. Our Rainbow School is now in the running for the best in the state. We set the goal to be best in the state in 2014. This is a little early, but the teachers say they are more than ready. We should hear back from the state office before the new years. Keep your fingers crossed for them! Congratulations Students, Teachers, and Headmistress Vijaya Laxmi! Thank you to Anita, our sponsor, and Kalpana, our co-founder, for all their support and love. You ladies are the angels of the Rainbow School.

Yesterday, I received a report from Ashok Teacher (4th standard). In a surprise court decision, the government granted the school a bit more land. We will have a playground/eating area now! Pictures to come. Who even knew we were in a court case? This time, the mysterious ways of the Indian government worked in our favor. I give thanks to Saraswati, goddess of learning and education. She is one of our favorites at the Rainbow School. You can see the entire piece of land here (pre-construction satellite picture): Click Here

Kalpana and Ashok reported that the DEO has assigned a new teacher to the Rainbow School, Ravi Kumar. Here is the picture! English Medium, Part II We are all thinking hard about ways to phase the school into English medium of instruction (English medium). Maybe we just start with one teacher (1st standard), and maybe we can convince the new "Teach for India" program to open in Hyderabad (they are in Mumbai and Pune). See more on this program at www.teachforindia.org

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,...

I left the Rainbow School a little over one week ago. I miss everyone just so, so much. They don't really need me anymore! But I need them. My heart is so happy to see everything is going well, the operating tempo fits the resources at hand. Warning, the following has shaky camera work. They were learning "A" as in "A is for Apple." They are eating Apples! Thank you, Roy, for the donation for the apples.

The heavens bless the good people at the Indian Administrative Reforms Commission. They stick pins in the bureaucratic voodoo doll. The ARC released their 12th report and they dared call for more transparency, including more Social Audits. With Ganesha's helps, will they push for a more open budget process next? One example: Once budgeted/appropriated central government funding reaches the states, the states can spend it or return it. It depends on how badly they want to keep their state accounts in the dark from central government audits. Central government mandated programs can remain unfunded... like massive education programs to be carried out on a "war footing" basis. The good people at ARC posted their 12th report here: http://www.arc.gov.in/arc_12th_report/arc_12th_Report.htm The Open Budget Institute India page is here: http://www.openbudgetindex.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2398&hd=1 Today starts my tiny, virtual pooja to Ganesha for an Indian o...

Usha Madam has particular phrases that she loves. My favorite of her phrases is: "We need more perfectness." The meaning of the phrase is (usually) that we, the Rainbow School team, are working on a plan to fix something. Usha Madam conducted an interview for a journalist, and this was one of her follow up quotes: "Before was no school, now the children and parents have good ideas about education. What changed is they understand the loss of [the] education. And, what the children love now is the [types of] respect they have in their community and what they can give their society now that they have education. They can realize their destiny with education. "If they have a choice of one chocolate or education, before they would choose chocolate. Now, they would choose education." How brilliant is that! Usha has left for her new post at the Madhapur Mandal School, about 2 miles away. We will still see her often. I'm not worried, the rest of the team is...

Almost one year ago, Usha Madam came to the United States. She stayed in California for three months at her son's house, which is 10 minutes from my house. We had a fantastic time visiting! Usha Madam found a great source of inspiration in her daughter-in-law, Rani. Rani was a physics major and worked as a very young woman in India. She "retired" when her son arrived and they moved to the United States. (Working visa for one spouse = no working visa for the other spouse.) Every semester, Rani takes a course from the local community college. She just finished a class on Java programming. Usha Madam saw this during her visit and she was amazed. She was amazed by the "life-long learner" culture and the vast number of courses available for adult education. Usha Madam never said a word to anyone, but she started a plot to bring adult education to the Rainbow School the minute she left the United States. Last week, Usha Madam informed me that Adult Education ...

No pictures (DARN) but our team won the Science and Math Fair at the Mandal level! Teacher Ashok reports via email: "Hai madam how are you how is it your family? We are all chilldrens & teachers & staff, all are safe. Yesterday I am send one mail [regarding the] science fair. We participated in mandal level competition , we win first prize, in maths subject,& selected to district competitions, so we are happy!" he heheee!!! So proud!

New pictures of the kids, the newly painted preschool (thank you Chris Wright and crew), and one of the two new teachers, Srinivas. click here for new pictures

We have our 2009 budget! It actually starts in May, because the school year starts in May. But here is a peek. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the following supporters: Druid Hills Elementary (Atlanta, GA) Ex-Pat and Indian Googlers (Hyderabad) Government of India, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Lion's Club of Jubilee Hills (Hyderabad) Miller Family (Orlando, FL) Naandi Foundation (Hyderabad) Project 511 (Hyderabad) Twin-Cities Expat Club (Hyderabad-Secunderabad) More is under "information" on the right hand side (under "Monitoring")

Sunita at Pratham just emailed me this: The 2008 Annual Status of Education Report! Statistics for Andhra Pradesh are here: http://asercentre.org/asersurvey/aser08/data/ap/ap-enr-08.php The data shows more kids staying in school until 10th grade (standard) but there is a sharp, sharp drop off after that. For more on 10th standard testing in India, click here. WARNING! This includes a test to see if you're smarter than an Indian 10th grader (it is a hard test).

more updates later, but check this out now! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxcFWoxDcE And here are some pictures from Jennifer! http://picasaweb.google.com/JenChiang1/PaintingAtTheRainbowSchool#slideshow