Rainbow Primary School

2010 and 2011 Report

2012-01-23T21:30:00.000-08:00

Our annual report is available! CLICK HERE

Still Top Government Primary School in Hy-Tech Area
220 Students, down from 280 in 2009 (part of the slum was torn down and not rebuilt)
Challenges with high teacher turn over (expected-we have strategies in place)
“B” average for nearly all the standards on Central Government Tests in 2009, “A” for fifth standard.
A strong preschool program for 2 to 5 year olds.
64%+ funded by the Government of India (down from 70%)

*****

RPS School Year is 1/2 way done

2011-11-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

Our school year is May (really, June) through 1st of April. Here is a pic from the first day of school 2011.

This picture is my inspiration. You can tell the lunch was VERY important that first day, and this will remain in my thoughts for the rest of the school year.

Corruption

2011-10-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

Vivek at the Poli Sci deparment has a brilliant blog with his articles, on corruption and more. (My fav of his pages: "Naan Fiction," get it - Naan like the bread? naan like roti? naan... you get it)

Please take 5 mins to read his "From Fractions to Millions" because this is what I'm going to dedicate my work life to for the next however many decades. This work and NGO work like Pratham are the hope for my Rainbow Kids to reach their dreams - literacy, life skills, fair chance to have a livelihood, accountable government.

http://viveks.info/from-fractions-to-millions-getting-more-people-to-challenge-corruption-using-mobile-phones

Visited my old headsmitress' family in San Jose (her son Suresh is at HP), played with the one year old (just got her head shaved for her 1 years ceremony). I miss my Rainbow School student's little brothers and sisters so much. It was so fun to "recruit" them every day - I would stop every baby and say, "School ki po?" which means - go to school? And the two year olds would nod yes.

Here was one of my recruits, baby Said Kumar who is not a baby at all anymore - he is 5! He is at the Rainbow School. His daddy built the preschool in 14 days for us.

Welcome to the Great Madhav Chavan

2011-10-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

My new friend, Pritam (see the last post) left Hyderabad and the Rainbow School, came all the way from India to Stanford University to join a group of us to welcome Madhav Chavan, the founder and director of Pratham, one of the largest NGOs in the world and certainly my top pick for most effective.

Paul Kim, CTO and Assistant Dean at the School of Education, Vivek Srinivasan who runs the Program on Liberation Technology on campus, Molly McMahon who is an impact investor in the budget private school space in developing countries, Pritam and myself hosted Madhav for a roundtable discussion on innovation and how we want to help Pratham, and how we don't know how exactly to do it but want to experiment and innovate alongside his needs.

Madhav spoke of how the next years for Pratham will not be like the past, how we can build schools as fast as possible, but there will not be enough teachers - certainly not enough good ones. From this need, he talked about creating "learning stations" for technology - using your flash drive or mobile to download information you want from any kiosk throughout the five countries where Pratham works. From these and in conjunction with real instructors, youth and children can earn "certificates." His current certificates for Pratham-Taj Hotels (which includes the Pierre in New York) hospitality training are a great example of creating marketable human capital investments without bricks and teachers, but instructors and "when you can just in time" learning.

Paul Kim echoed many of same philosophical principals, learning needs to be de-linked and fun and relevant to livelihoods again. His last slide, a real eye popping graphic on how learning constantly evolves and needs to be constantly contextualized, reminded me so much of my favorite higher education program back in the United States, Singularity University.

I spoke about the Rainbow School, I talked about how fantastic the teachers were, how they worked through the recent strikes in Hyderabad and only stopped for Dasara. But Pratham is the way to help all the children in India, the government cannot do alone all the things required in a young democracy.

Here is a last picture of all the people, including Pritam wearing a Stanford shirt in Georgetown colors (super cool!).

Here is Pritam and Vivek in his office after the meeting.

More pictures are on Pritam's blog: http://pritamkabe.wordpress.com/

Rainbow School and Kappy:
I miss you all every day, you are the inspiration for everything I do. Pritam told me you need a playground, I agree. We need one! How do we do? Please write back!

New Pictures

2011-08-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

My new friend from Georgetown, Pritab, surprised the heck out of me by taking the time to visit the school and take these great pictures. THANK YOU Pritab! He is studying the varied quality of teaching across India - he's been everywhere. Congratulations on a great research trip.

Click the picture to see them all!

New Teachers

2011-07-27T14:54:00.001-07:00

We found out the preschool funding was short, the entire education budget is short for the state. So they are helping to fund preschools out of the health budget, and the preschools are called an anganwadi (like a feeding center/creche) but they are still preschools and under the watch of the education ministry.

We also have a new headmaster and teachers! We will get pictures soon. And maybe even video!

ECE: Vacant, we have a great lead on someone.
1st Class: Laxmi Devi and assistant teacher Renuka.
2nd Class A: Divya, B, Sunitha - two of our original teachers
3rd Class, Gowri - one of our original teachers
4th Class: Manjula
5th Class: We have a teacher assigned to us, but this may not work out and we will find someone.

Our new headmaster is Ramulu. Here he is!

ANd here is one of our Mandal Education Officer, Chary, pushing aside the chairs reserved for visiting dignitaries and sitting on the ground with some of our preschoolers.

Preschool was closed down suddenly, we are watching closely.

2011-06-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

Donors Chris Wright (pictured, 2nd picture, the big goofy guy with the little kids all around him) and Shadi Farazian (3rd pic) helped build the preschool building in a record 14 days with superman construction worker, Sai Kumar's dad!

We just learned the preschool will be closed by the government, replaced with a nutritional feeding center (not a teaching center) called an Anganwadi. This was a community decision, not one involving the school. We were surprised!

Our old 1st standard teacher Adi Laxmi was appointed to run the center. I have no firm idea of the quality of the center, and will watch very closely. Since they are occupying a building donated by Americans, I am going to ensure there is preschool instruction taking place in the building. If Adi Laxmi teaches, that is fine. If not, we will make a move.

Here she is, radiant in tangerine (right) Good Luck Adi Laxmi!

New Headmaster

2011-06-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

Today we heard the news that our headmistress, Vijaya Laxmi, will be moving on to a new school. This suits the team at the Rainbow School very well, they needed a leader who was interested to engage the community. We do not know who our new headmaster will be, but we understand it will be a very senior man, one year from retirement. He will come with a junior who will take on the headmistress role after he leaves. More will come from our great, fabulous Mandal Education Officer, Jaganmohan Chary.

Here is a picture of our first headmistress, Usha Rani, who was a stellar leader and has volunteered to help with the transition to the new headmaster.

Teaching Videos

2011-04-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

I walked into the school for a surprise inspection (after a year's absence) and this was the teaching I saw!

Teacher Divya (she just got married! congratulations!) and Teacher Esther (second video).

Update

2011-03-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

I visited the school in February, lots of pictures and updates to come. Our 2010 Annual Report will be up next week. Our budget is about to get a little help from the Government, the new student-to-teacher ratio will be 60 instead of 70 to 1 We hold at 40 to 1, so this means ours will go down a bit.

Children's Day!

2010-12-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

Kalpana Madam just wrote in describing the fun at the school on Children's Day. Here is her report:

*****

From 8.45 to 10am all the children were in their classrooms having fun with their respective class teacher. Then they all assembled down and the program started at about 11am.

Debate 4th class topic- Nehru(as november 14th, his b'day is celebrated as childrens day). There were 5 participants.

Debate 5th class topic-polution. there were 6 participants from rainbow plus 3 from other schools.

This was followed by singing and dancing.

After that it was drama.

3rd class did a great show, Lion and the rabbit/ the clever rabbit. It was all a great effort from Gowri and sujatha.They had made animal masks for each animal. The play was simple, with only masks and no other costumes, but it was a very good show.

2nd class also did a great show. The play was 'bottle gourd wedding'.
About 12to 13 kids showed up, each with a vegetable mask. The bride was the bottle gourd, groom was tomato, all other veggies performed a different task. one did cleaning, one did up the brides hair, one did the stage, one did the sweets, one performed the wedding, etc,etc.Children enjoyed it .This was organised by sunitha and divya.

Another play from 3rd class, with gowris help. This was a small kit about education of girl child.

Then there were songs and dance.
Last it was prize distribution for all the events they had today and yesterday.

class event 1st prize 2nd prize

5 essay writing Ranjit Satya
5 drawing A. Babu P.Babu
5 debate Raju -
4 essay writing Anitha Lakshmi
4 drawing Anitha Govinda
4 debate Devi -
3 drawing Kiran kumar Durga
3 lemon & spoon Kiran kumar Aparna
race
2 musical chairs Sharanya Bhoomika
2 bomb blast Basalinga Sairam
2 running Sreenu Shekar
1 running Devraj Supriya
1 musical chairs Devraj Soni
ece running Manisha Aakash
ece musical chairs Sai Manisha

Vijaya madam got chocolates for all the children and biscuits and prizes were from Prardhana.The prizes were mostly activity/colouring books,scrap books, sketch pens, clay.

*****

THANK YOU Kalpana Madam!

PS: Finances are update for this month, under "information"

Gray Matters Capital and the Rockdale Foundation

2010-10-23T12:29:00.001-07:00

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!

Chary

2010-10-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

The government official for the Rainbow School is the Mandal Education Officer, the MEO. He has dozens of schools, the most populated part of our district which has 1 million students total (big district!).

His name is Jagan Mohan Chary. He is the most wonderful man. You can see him here, standing, in the white shirt.

Other than my work with the Rainbow School, my focus is how to support public servants like Chary. But I want to do this throughout the world. There are almost 5 billion mobile phones in the world, and I hope to use SMS to reach the millions phones in the hands of public servants who seek to do good. More more on this kind of work, check out Mobile Active: http://mobileactive.org/

I miss you Chary!

More Fun

2010-07-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Another Challenge:
The State government decided that all teachers (junior teachers, too) had to pass 10th grade exams. It is very hard to find young men and women to work in a school in a slum who have passed 10th. We can find teachers who are training to pass 10th. Most of the Rainbow School teachers are training right now to take their 10th exams. But until they have a 10th pass certificate, no government salary support. No government salary support = big budget problem for the Rainbow School.

(For an example of the difficulty of this exam click here.)

The Good News:
Our Kalpana and Vijaya Madams will try to get an exception to the rule by appealing to the MEO. And we found a temporary solution with a private donor. But it will only be for the rest of the school year.

Other news:
1. We will send pictures later, but the veranda classrooms will have reinforced rain/sun shielding by the next month thanks to some American donors.

2. A lovely donation was made via Rangoo Madam: English workbooks for 100 of the children.

This little coloring book is revolutionary in the slum, no one really has their own coloring books. Paper itself is rare and expensive. The teachers sometimes have to write up pages from a single textbook on the blackboard, and then the students copy bit and pieces down in their little student notebooks.

Rangoo Madam's daugher, Pooja, was here in California for work. I saw her yesterday - she was so sweet to bring me a copy of this workbook. It was lovely to hold school materials in my hands again.

Teacher Appreciation

2010-06-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Rangoo Madam, our volunteer, just took the ladies and gentleman out for a nice, leisurely lunch. THANK YOU! Great way to start the school year.

Partners: India Literacy Project Hyderabad

2010-06-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

The Rainbow School could not exist without the partners. These non-profit and government organizations do everything from deliver the mid-day meal to sponsor extra teachers. We are only successful with our rugged, go-to partners. We can not go it alone.

Today, I want to write about Manmohan Jain and the India Literacy Project (ILP).

The ILP is a volunteer group of corporate employees from all around the Hy-Tech city area. Manmohan does a fantastic job, with his staff coordinator, making sure each government school gets at least one visit each week from the ILP volunteers.

They have worked at the Rainbow School since 2007, one of our longest partnerships.

They provide help with scholarships, stock and help with the library, and provide mentoring alongside their usual "teach-ins." When volunteers come to teach, they use big books made from huge posterboards. The children can read along even from the back of the room. This method, developed at the Columbia Teacher's College, really does work to push literacy at a fast rate. ILP uses English books, and helps students learn along with English-Hindi-Telugu as necessary.

For more information on the ILP, see this website: hyd.ilpnet.org THANK YOU, MANMOHAN and the ILP!

Here is an ILP volunteer with a former Rainbow School teacher, Neha, who now works at the ILP.

And here is a link to our previous blog posts on partners:
http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com/2008/03/leaving-india-meet-your-partner-ngos.html
http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com/2007/08/partner-organizations-mv-foundation.html
http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com/2007/07/great-wall-of-mastan-nagar-and-greatest.html
http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com/2007/10/wwwprathamorg.html
http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com/2006/10/fantastic-great-news.html
http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com/2006/04/special-needs-children.html

And on NGO work in general:
http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com/2008/10/ngos.html

School is Open Soon!

2010-06-04T14:45:00.001-07:00

School reopens June 14. It is almost time to welcome back the students!

Unfortunately, our teachers were pulled for Census Duty. Can you imagine how hot and tiring it is to take a census in 115 degree (f) heat? They will need to have an easy first week to recharge.

Remembering the Best Meeting Ever

2010-05-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

Again and again, I look at the picture of the teachers in our last meeting in the huts. They are amazing. I took a video for the record of how the teachers were expressing their ideas and needs to the headmistress. Here it is...

"A" Grade

2010-04-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

Our partner, Kalpana, reports exams are over. This year, the Rainbow School won

"A" grade for student performance

up from "B" grade in 2009.

CONGRATULATIONS TEAM!! HUGE WIN!

This means that the team is providing high quality teaching in a very sustainable way. Congratulations teachers! Congratulations Vijaya Madam!

And thanks to all the partners, the Rainbow School is very lucky to have wonderful, wonderful partner organizations like WIM, Lion's Club, and the Naandi Foundation.

Here are some of the students, taking part of their exams in the courtyard, back in 2009.

Next steps: Compete with the local budget private schools, win best government primary school in the state, and English + Telugu instruction

Hello, children – I’m your 12-year-old headmistress!

2010-04-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1TH824/www.good.is/post/12-year-old-girl-runs-make-shift-school-for-village-children1/

What an inspiration:

"As an infant, Bharti Kumari was abandoned at a railway station in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. Now, at the age of 12, she has become the head teacher at a school in Kusumbhara, her adopted village.

Every morning and evening, under the shade of a mango tree, she teaches Hindi, English and maths to 50 village children who would otherwise receive no education.

In between, she attends a state school in Akhodhi Gola, a two-mile walk away. Dressed proudly in her school uniform, she passes on the knowledge gleaned from her lessons to the village children, aged between four and 10, in her own class.

“I have a long day. My school is from 10am to 3pm and I study late,” she said. “This is what I love doing. I enjoy teaching children their ABCs as well as the Hindi alphabets.”

Kusumbhara is a poverty-stricken village 87 miles from Patna, the state capital. Most families are Dalits, India’s lowest social group, and they live in fear of Maoist insurgents waging a terror campaign against the security forces.

In the past four months 30 schools and community buildings have been blown up by the rebels. “How will we get educated if we’re scared?” asked Bharti, appealing to the government to build a proper school in the village.

Her pupils are among the 10 million Indian children who are outside the state education system because their parents are so poor that they need them to work or no schools are nearby. Earlier this month the Indian government pledged £3.6 billion for a “right to education” scheme which aims to provide free schooling for all.

Bharti’s adoptive father, Rampati, an impoverished farmhand, said he would not follow the rural tradition of pushing girls into early marriages but would allow her to continue her studies.

Her future career has already been decided. “I definitely want to become a teacher when I grow up,” she said."

*****
You are a teacher, Bharti... for everyone.

If you squint, you can see them

2010-04-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

OK, look at the lady in the coral farthest from the camera...squint and try again? That is Rangoo Madam, our new volunteer. She found room at the Google Hyderabad office and pulled in our teachers for English class. But an English class with awesome technology!

Here she is again, this time you can see her. Look at the happy teachers! This will help with teacher retaining, plus help us move towards the goal of English Medium (in part) at the Rainbow School.

THANK YOU RANGOO!

Email

2010-03-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a lot of new emails from my teachers, thanks to a partnership with some Googlers in the Hyderabad office. The teachers are now going to computer classes every Sunday. THANK YOU GOOGLERS!

Here are some of the emails:

Ashok Teacher, 5th Standard, March 28, 2010

"Hello madam how ru how ist your family ,Roy sir, your daughtr how ist .she what are doing and how ist health so we are all fine and we learn english,and computer with Rangoo madam she is every week come and take class so we are happy.we continue computer class .ok by madam"

[Rangoo Madam is our brilliant new volunteer, more on her on the next post (she finally got me to use Google WAVE). She is the mother of an outstanding young woman who works at Google in Hyderabad.]

Sunitha, Preschool Teacher, March 20, 2010

"Hai madam. How are you. how is your family

Iam pre-class teacher sunitha. My class is good . class total students 32 numbers .We are miss you
I am pass 10th class. Degree also fainal yaer . My computer class is good. Rohith sir teaching vary good.
valantaris also good .WE ARE MISS U MADAM.WE LOVE YOU."

Gowri, 1st Standard, March 9, 2010

"hi madam how are you.
we are gowri and divya
school is good. all teachers doing good work.
white papers we will got.
OFF DAY schools starting MARCH 15
now going to revision . 4th unit test are over .
sorry madam some teacher not prepared the charts because we have not thick charts.
how is your family "

Divya, 2nd Standard, February 20, 2010

"hi madam am divya ,
we are going to the computer class. on Saturday time:2:30 PM to 5:30 PM.
divya, gowri, neha, laxmi, sunitha, kalpana, laxmidevi, ashok.we are learning computer very well."

Ashok again, February 18, 2010

"hai madam how are you how is't your family and copmbell& Roy sir .madam how is all are health ,we are all fine and we learen computer .and just 2 days back Mr, Jaya Reddy sir misses give one computer our school .and so co-oparative Anitha madam and also give 3 computer's doneted so we very Happy all are niberes is fine and our children is ok ,.madam how is your mother,Father. ok bye madam. "

Can you believe this?

2010-03-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

This kid was in a fifth standard class in a government school, but when called in court to write his name... HE COULDN'T DO IT! We need schools that DELIVER quality education.

"Class-V student fails to write his name, Court summons school"

Updated on Saturday, February 20, 2010, 15:42 IST

ourt here as witness in the murder case of his father, little did he know that his educational backwardness would be exposed in public.

Though he was a class V student of Khalibagicha government UP School here, Bikash could not write his name when asked to do so by the court on Wednesday last and had to put his LTI (left thumb impression) instead.

The judge took cognisance of the situation seriously and summoned the school authorities seeking details on how the boy could be promoted to class-V though he failed to write his name.

Bikash had appeared as prosecution witness before the additional sessions judge, Boudh, B Kar as an eyewitness to the murder of his father last year.

After examination in the court, he was asked to sign on the deposition. However to the utter surprise of all present in the court room, Bikash said that he does not know how to write his name.

After coming to know that the witness is a regular student of the government school, the court asked the headmistress of the school to appear before it and ascertain the facts.

The headmistress appeared with the school records. It was found that Bikash was not only a regular student but had appeared in the recently concluded half-yearly xamination.

Bikash's mother Jhunu Moharana, who is also a witness in the case, informed that her son regularly attends the school.

Further, the court also brought the matter to the notice of the officers heading the primary education and the district administration.

http://www.zeenews.com/news605687.html

2009 Annual Report

2010-03-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

Our 2009 annual report is available!

See it on line, click on this link: http://www.box.net/shared/96el98hr2v or email leighanne@gmail.com
You can see pictures from the report on the slideshow overhead, we have such LOVELY students, wonderful faculty, and so many energetic, go-to, rugged partners!

Highlights for 2009

2007, 2008, 2009: Top Government Primary School in Hy-Tech Area
300 Students
10 Teachers, one with a university degree, four more enrolled in university classes
1 Headmistress, university degree, 10 years experience
3 Staff members, we have the cleanest government school buildings you will ever see
2 Buildings, 6 classrooms in the main building (which also has electricity), 2 in the other building.
“B” average for nearly all the standards on Central Government Tests in 2009, “A” for fifth standard.
A strong preschool program for 2 to 5 year olds.
70%+ funded by the Government of India!

*****

Goals for The Rainbow School

Create a child-centered school for 500 slum children in the community of Masthan Nagar.
Build capacity to meet the needs of all students: special needs, gifted students, migrant families.
Attract partners and leverage the partnerships to create a school that meets these needs.
Serve as a community center for the slum.
Become a top-performing government school in the state by 2014.

*****

Operating Modes

This school aims to 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 children to work.

Telangana

2010-03-02T08:55:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of political turmoil following the December 9 Central Government announcement to support the separation of Andhra Pradesh into two states, AP and Telangana. More is here, check it out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telangana

2009 Report Card: School Grade is a B!

2010-02-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

Report Card Grade: B!

Using the Central Government exam for primary school students, the average grade for most Rainbow School classes are B for the permanent students (and 10% earning A grades), and C for transient students.

Last year, on the old state exam, most of the classes earned A grades. But an A on the old exam would earn a C on the new exam. B grades on the new exam are actually an indication of improved student learning. Raising the standards with more challenging exams has helped the school.

Transient students make up about one quarter new students: every few months some families migrate in and out for work. I expected lower grades from the transient students, I’m not sure what is going on here but will investigate. (i.e.: Are the other schools they migrate in an out of showing signs of effective teaching?)

Last night, I talked to Vijaya Madam, the headmistress. She reports that the next quarter exams are in April and the teachers are working hard so that more students will earn an A grade.

The Naandi Foundation and the Mid-Day Meal at the Rainbow School

2010-01-06T09:10:00.000-08:00

Our mid-day meal at the Rainbow School is made in a central kitchen and then delivered to the school by the extremely competent and experienced folks at the Naandi Foundation, our main NGO partner. This meal is engineered and fortified to provide an entire day of nutrition for a child. I noticed that new students look substantially different after one week of mid-day meals at the school. They have shining eyes and they are full of bouncy energy. And I noticed in past years that after school holidays - like during the last week - all the children look drawn and tired. They do not get enough food at home. It makes me happy to know the mid-day meal was there for them this week when school started again.

A few days ago, one of the trucks from the Naandi Foundation's mid-day meal program was attacked as part of a larger outbreak of political violence. This is an example of the type of random events that threaten support structures for schools in the developing world. This article by the CEO of the Naandi Foundation, Manoj Kumar, tells the story.

Best in the State?

2009-12-15T15:50:00.001-08:00

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.

Playground

2009-10-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

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

UPDATE: New People at the Rainbow School

2009-08-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

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

Leigh Anne's Visit to the Rainbow School, 27 to 31 July 2009

2009-08-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

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.

12th Report of the "Administration Reforms Commission"

2009-07-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

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 open budget process.

We Need More Perfectness

2009-05-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

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 pulling together. We are so lucky to have such a deep pool of talent in our teachers!

I called the senior teacher, Ashok, on Friday and he said:

"We need more perfectness in our exam results."

Ashok is on the right.

Adult Education

2009-04-01T13:13:00.001-07:00

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 on Sundays started one month ago at the Rainbow School. She arranged for book donations, she arranged for several of the teachers to donate two hours every Sunday, and she already has over a dozen students. This old picture (above) from a parent's meeting in 2008 shows a few of the students. Some are totally illiterate, some are picking up where they left off in grade school, and some are even studying for the 10th standard exam (high school equivalency)!

I am so proud -- but not at all surprised -- that Usha Madam did all this. Teachers are always the greatest source of innovation for a school. Despite being a full-time administrator, Usha was always a teacher first and she is overjoyed to spend her Sundays teaching.

Congratulations, Rainbow School! Congratulations, Usha Madam! Thank you, thank you to everyone in Hyderabad who helped Usha Madam realize her dream. And thank you, thank you to the teachers who already work six days a week, and now volunteer to come teach on their one day off!

PS: Please send good karma to the "regular" Rainbow School students; they will take exams from April 7 to April 11.

Science Fair!

2009-02-18T05:22:00.000-08:00

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!

Q3 and Q4 Pictures

2009-02-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009 Budget

2009-02-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

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")

Pratham's ASER 2008

2009-01-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

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).

New Video

2009-01-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

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

Bricks

2008-12-04T19:32:00.001-08:00

I carried maximum of 6 bricks at a time to the construction site - check out this GUY! A Bangladeshi who proves South Asians are awesome.

Kalam's Visit Remembered

2008-12-02T21:28:00.001-08:00

Usha Madam and I got on the phone today. She was in the school, the ROAR of the students was in the background! I got to say hello to all the teachers. We talked about how one year ago (today) was the forth standard girls' visit with former President Kalam. Here is that picture again:

And we all talked about how we missed each other. I heard from the new teachers, Ashoka (5th standard) and Srinivas (4th standard). Both are university graduates.

Boy, do I miss those kids.

Kalam's trip to Hyderabad 2 December 2007

The Court and the Constitution of India

2008-11-21T08:17:00.001-08:00

I am very proud, very proud to report that Kalpana, co-founder of the Rainbow School, just told me her father published a very important book with Oxford University Press.

Judge Reddy served on the Supreme Court of India from 1978 to 1987. His excellent book outlines the history of the court over the past six decades. I had the honor of sharing some time with him, and he is an outstanding human rights thinker. Judge Reddy is so proud of his daughter, and so am I. You can buy his book, The Court and Constitution of India: Summit and Shallows here, in India: http://www.oup.co.in/search_detail.php?id=144755

And here in the United States: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Law/ComparativeLawandNationalLegalSy/?view=usa&ci=9780195696998

Thank you, Judge, for all you do for India. And thank you, Kalpana, for all you do for the Rainbow School, the Madhapur School, and the rest of our Hy-Tech area schools. You are a real treasure and we all love and thank you.

Teacher Unions

2008-11-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

We have a LOT of teacher's unions in our school district. They all held a strike in October-November for more transparency in the promotions process, among other things. The high court requested the teachers go back to work even though the government and unions did not reach an agreement. (The picture, left, is of the beautiful high court building in Hyderabad.)

The strike is over! That is good news for the Rainbow School. Our Usha Madam is back at work. Bad news: No settlement yet. More bad news: There are sharp differences between leadership in the unions. The management troubles will not be over any time soon. This comes at a time when A.P. has a critical shortage of teachers and needs new teachers fast. In a few cases, some government schools do not even have a university-trained teacher. The Rainbow School is lucky to have Usha Madam.

A short list of unions in the area is below (there are a few I have not heard of before).

For a 2008 World Bank study on A.P. teachers, click on this title: "A.P. Randomized Evaluation Study, 2008"

Andhra Pradesh Teachers Federation (APTF)
Andhra Pradesh State Teachers’ Union (APSTU)
Democratic Teacher's Union (DTU)
Democratic Teachers Front (DTF)
Progressive Recognised Teachers' Union (PRTU)
State Teachers Union (STU)
United Teachers Front (UTF)
Upadhyaya Sanghala Porata Samithi -- Andhra Pradesh (USPS-AP)

Mary Helen is at it Again

2008-11-06T08:58:00.000-08:00

*****UPDATE***** MH and her team made the papers! Atlanta Constitution Journal - see the story here: http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2008/12/07/india.html

Mary Helen, my old buddy who lives in Atlanta, did an amazing "preschoolers-to-preschoolers" fundraiser last year. (Rainbow Primary School: The Future of Philanthropy: Small Individual Donors Connected to the World") She's at it again. Superwoman Mary Helen organized an event last weekend to help raise funds to electrify the new preschool building in the slum. GOOD LUCK and THANK YOU!!

For more on the Preschool, including the history of how we built the building, see these pictures (below) or click here

NGOs

2008-10-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this blog - it talks about NGO operations in a great, plain-English way.

One great post (post before last) has this to say:

"Missionaries don’t try to do any soul-saving at first, spending a minimum of six months learning local language and culture. Mormons are renowned for their language skills. And once they have learned it, they stick around, spending years or even decades in country. They devote themselves to work in one particular place.

Compare that to your average expatriate working in development, for a donor or implementing a project. The expat lives in a little bubble of fake-home, cushioned by consumable shipments, huge shipping allowances, and hardship pay. With air conditioning and heating to ensure they’re even in a different climate. And they stay in once place for approximately 35 seconds.

Good people don’t have time to get great, and average people don’t even have time to get good. Complicated programs suffer as a result, and funding is biased toward things that are easy to implement and understand. No one has time to learn local context."

Wanted: A Few Good Maids

2008-10-09T15:00:00.001-07:00

In January, our private grant (the green part in the pie chart) is about to shrink down to half. We are ready to absorb cuts. But, there is one area where we really do need help: salary for the cleaning ladies. The grant covered their salary costs over the past four years.

Each cleaning lady costs 1,000 rs a month (USD$23.00). If anyone is interested in funding one or both cleaning ladies, we'd LOVE to hear from you! leighanne(at)gmail.com or usha.rainbow(at)gmail.com

Q3: New Pictures and Facilities Updates

2008-09-23T09:43:00.001-07:00

A new visitor to the school, Jennifer, gave us these great pictures to share, click here. The Naandi Foundation project team just finished the building. The pictures show the main building is all painted and beautiful!

I heard from Usha Madam that she hired two new junior teachers, both with university degrees. This is a phenomenal increase in the teacher talent! Now she is training them to use child-centered methods.

Thanks to fundraising by the Jayabheri families (thank you, Lakshmi and TT!) and Google Hyderabad Ex-Pats, Usha Madam was able to put windows on the preschool and lay new pipes to fix a problem in our waterworks.

Q3 is looking good!

Apply to be an Indian Government School Teacher

2008-08-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

www.rainbowprimaryschool.com 21 August 2008

This is crazy cool! http://sarkari-naukri.blogspot.com/

A private individual is trolling all the Indian government websites for government job openings, including school teachers. He then puts them on a website for anyone to browse.

*Then he offers readers a subscription option to feed these listings to anyone's mobile phone.*

That helps overcome some of the barriers to finding this information.

Here is an example, note that there are 600+ openings in the Punjab. In Andhra Pradesh (the state where the Rainbow School is located), there are thousands of openings. We need teachers.

http://sarkari-naukri.blogspot.com/2008/07/teacher-recruitment-for-ssa-punjab.html

Bribing

2008-07-30T11:09:00.001-07:00

The reason why it took two years to build the school building was we never bribed. OK, from time to time, we bought lunch for the police who protected the land from various mobs the slumlord sent around. But we never "bribed with cash." Not even to get an electricity connection. You can imagine how crazed this made my Indian staff. They had to spend long hours explaining their "crazy American" to other Indians. I carried around a copy of the 1978 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and pulled it out from time to time. I talked about getting deported if I bribed. I got the impression some people did get a giggle out of the theatrics. Anything to amuse my bureaucrats!

In the developing world, NGOs are vulnerable. They require either political godfathers or they have to bribe. This article is a great example of this: http://yoomilee.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/the-unwelcome-costs-of-running-an-ngo-in-india/

If I didn't already have the greatest job in the world (thanks, Marin!) I would sign up for work with Transparency International. Their reports make sense of the costs of corruption.

Q2 2008

2008-07-25T14:57:00.001-07:00

Here are the latest pictures!

Q2 2008 Pictures

News from Gowri and the Future of Communication

2008-07-23T11:40:00.001-07:00

www.rainbowprimaryschool.com 23 July 2008

So I was driving to a winery with my friend Ward. We were discussing his friend in East Africa, a school headmaster who regularly researches and sends along suggestions to Ward out here in California. The headmaster doesn't use his own email address, just the internet cafe's email address. We talked about how this kind of casual, catch-as-catch-can internet use in the third world will really help our work!

The next day, I got a note from Gowri teacher who is struggling to serve as the temporary headmistress while Usha Madam is visiting her son. It was from an internet center, sent by the owner of the center for Gowri (who never really got comfortable typing).

"today M.E.O (Mandal Education Officer, Sharma Mohanchary) visied (sic) our school and charts,reports,dairys (sic),big books, visied (sic) registers,food,all good.

M.E.O sharma sir.

all teachers making lesson plans,activities."

How cute is that!! Love Gowri teacher! (You can see her class in the video in the previous posting.)

Ward was right. Information will get out even with just a little tiny bit of opportunity!

New Pictures! New Video! And the usual chaos at the school...

2008-07-18T14:27:00.001-07:00

Generally, things are just chaos right now. Usha has been gone, we've had unexpected turnover with two teachers (for great reasons, they had to resign), there are more students, there is a huge water shortage and residents are out siphoning off our water, etc. etc. etc.

Jenny went by to take pictures and see what is what with the situation on the ground. I miss the kids! These pictures are sublime.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jenny309/RainbowElementarySchool

See here for a video walk-through of Gowri teacher's class:

The Future of Philanthropy: Small Individual Donors Connected to the World

2008-07-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, there was a fantastic article about youth giving to help kids in developing countries.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/14/MNON11I593.DTLhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

If you like that one, I've got a story that you'll love. PRESCHOOL school kids in Georgia raised funds for the Rainbow School!

My second oldest buddy, Mary Helen, was my back door neighbor growing up. She is a college professor and mom now, in Georgia. Back in the day, we had a lot of hang out time at her house, and she drove me to school when we got to high school. Since she was two years older, had great legs, and did whatever she darned well pleased, she was my personal hero.

Every holiday, when we're all back home, our kids play together in the driveway at her mom's house, still the back door neighbor to my parent's house. While our kids were whacking at a Christmas pinata in the driveway over December, we got to talking about the Rainbow School and she came up with a stellar idea. Now, I'm going to let her tell the rest of the story.

"I am sending our preschool's donation to the Rainbow Primary School. I have to tell you a long story about this sometime -- but the short version is that we had posters, pictures and envelopes collecting money outside every classroom in the school. The kids were bringing in their piggy bank money - not making this up -- seriously, it was very special. I have notes from parents about how glad they were we were doing this.

One night - 90% of our donations were stolen. I was out-of-town and our school director just did not think to collect the envelopes over the weekend. We have a large homeless ministry at our church and the classroom building was open for the weekend for a service for them. My director believes they just took every envelope right down the line on both floors of our school. A few teachers had the envelopes in their rooms. At the end of the year we REcollected -- explaining what had happened!"

Everyone gave again - how AMAZING is this? BIG CHEERS for the little kids and their smart parents - they are the future of philanthropy!

Thank you, MH. This was so far above and beyond all expectations! We are super happy to have your preschoolers involved! (Our buddy Kelly, left, with Mary Helen, right back in high school, GO EAGLES!)

Indiacorps

2008-07-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

A HUGE shout out to Indiacorps, which is addressing the near-intractable problem of bad/no delivery of public services: http://www.indicorps.org/volunteer-work.php?page_id=4

To my stateside Desi community - I highly, highly recommend this one!

These Three Kids

2008-07-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

www.rainbowprimaryschool.com

By popular demand, stories on three of the students, "my kids," are republished here in shorter form. More pictures can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/leighanne/OurStoryInPictures

1) Baleshwari, (past) leader of the Alpha Girls of 5th Standard
(far left, below)

The harsh politics of having a girl in a very conservative Hindu area is that dowry is enormous. To marry off a girl will likely put a family in debt for twenty years. As such, lots of little girl babies don't make it past their first few days in the slum. If they do survive, with somewhat considerate parents, they are still worked from sun up to sun down. The incentive is to make them into perfect little servants to give their future in-laws no trouble. Spunky girls have it rough. Baleshwari, 13 years old, is an incredibly bright girl with a lot of common sense and spunk and striking light brown eyes. Her mother tried to send her off to work when she turned 12, but she refused and even said she would call the police on her own mother. Baleshwari only wanted to go to school. She learned from the Rainbow School staff the police would throw parents in jail if they had truants at home. The Rainbow School has close connections to the "Cyberbad Police Force." It is a special police force for the high tech area, all around the Google.org office in Hyderabad. Baleshwari was lucky to have a credible force to back up her threat; most little girls are forced to work in someone's home as maids or servants by the time they turn 11. All during the 2007-2008 school year, she never missed a day of school. She came to every teacher meeting as the student representative. She was an outstanding example of the Montessori method; she worked so well trying to help her peers - some of whom came to school late and don't know how to read. Even her English skills are coming along, thanks to a volunteer group called WIM, one of the six partner organizations at the Rainbow School. WIM volunteers come every Sunday and use the school classrooms to teach spoken English. We predict Baleshwari's dowry costs are now far less, and will continue to decrease as she develops skills that will lead to a jobs like teaching. Her strength and conviction convinced her mother, an illiterate widow, to keep her in school until 12th standard. We will miss her! She just started 6th standard at our sister school, a government middle school, two miles away.

2) Venkatesh, the Artist

Venky is a coltish, quiet, sweet little 10 year old boy. When he was eight, he was struck by a car, a hit-and-run while he was crossing the street to go the Rainbow School. A passer-by, a real angel, immediately took him in her car to the local private hospital. At the hospital, the doctors wanted to set his bone, but the grandmother who was in charge of him took him to the Rainbow School for a second opinion. The Rainbow School staff intercepted them at the school, we immediately got him back to the hospital. The break was bad and needed surgery. The whole school pitched in and the doctor donated her time. Four hours later, he was in a full leg cast on his left leg. The doctor ordered to him to stay still. Certainly, no walking! He was so bored. We got the idea to do simple drawings. From pencils, we went to oil pastels, then painting of all kinds from paper to real canvas. After he healed up, I took him to the local gallery were we took pictures of what he liked. We printed and laminated the pictures for his future reference and he used them to death. He painted everything he saw. Now, Venky's art is all over the government buildings in Hyderabad, framed and gifted by the school staff to thank different bureaucrats for support. Our donors got original "Venky's" as well; one is in my buddy's house in San Francisco. It is much loved!

3) Eliya, a boy back from the near-dead, Cerebral Palsy

Eliya has parents that would do anything for him. His mother, Laxmi, warms up his bathwater with her precious small reserve of kerosene - bought with a government ration card. He is doted on hand and foot, but he was skin and bones when the Rainbow School staff first saw him in 2006. Eliya was born in 2003 after a difficult delivery in a rural hospital. He has very severe cerebral palsy, no chance of walking or sitting, maybe some speech someday. Of course, after the delivery experience, the last place his parents wanted to visit was a hospital. They had never seen a specialist to learn how to take care of Eliya. At the Rainbow School, we didn't know how to take care of Eliya either, but through one of our partner organizations, a free Monday morning health clinic hosted by the Lion's Club and sponsored by the government nurse program in our area, we got in touch with an amazing doctor at Nilofer Government Hospital. Right away, he started physical therapy and his mother received proper training on how to care for him. His sweet mother didn't realize he couldn't eat the food she was giving him; he would chew a mouthful of rice for a hour. Skinny doesn't begin to describe him. Today, he is actually FAT! All this parents and grandparents feed him properly mashed up food until Eliya motions STOP! stop! Telugus are like Italians, they always want to feed you. Eliya had a cushy "cadillac" stroller donated by a local expat mom, and now the kids love to push him up and down the street like a race car. Eliya is healthy, Eliya is playing, Eliya is even learning hand signs! When Eliya visits the school, he is a very special guest. The teachers complain the students love and dote on him far too much, distracting them from their classwork. His little sister just started her second year of preschool at the Rainbow School last week; his little brother starts in two more years. Through more school contacts, Laxmi got access to family planning. She decided three kids was all she wanted. She is still the best mommy in the slum.

(At the Rainbow School, special needs children of all kinds and abilities are welcomed to participate to the best of their abilities. We have three special needs students that regularly attend. We have no formal program, but the change of scene does the special needs kids a lot of good, and their mothers get a well-deserved break.)

Read Ross' Blog!

2008-07-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

www.rainbowprimaryschool.com

My buddy Ross is capturing important knowledge on how to help kids get access to quality education in Hyderabad:

http://rossbaird.wordpress.com/

Read his blog!

Usha in California

2008-06-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

The Rainbow School's headmistress (principal) is here! She is in California visiting her son who works at Hewlett Packard in Sunnyvale, California. I took Usha and family bowling, we've visited a few times at her son's house. Friday, I took Usha Madaml her husband (Rao Sir) and her grandson (Vivek) to my house to make Biryani. We went shopping for herbs (cilantro) and peppers at the local grocery store, too. At the store, she had her first face-to-face with a Dungeness crab and talked to the sushi chef, Benjamin. Usha is so curious, so fun to be with. She says "I love America!"

Shout Out on Microfinance

2008-06-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give a shout out to my awesome buddy, Anna Somos Krishnan at SKS Microfinance. She is still in Hyderabad, tending the vines out there. The stories in the link below are about three of the 1.3 million clients SKS has in Andhra Pradesh. Medak, where these stories take place, is a direct, one-hour drive north of our slum. Some parents of students at the Rainbow School are from Medak, others are from Maboobnagar. These people are true economic refugees.

SKS is helping to keep others out of the slum. These stories are about people in rural villages that created small, sustainable industries thanks to microlending.

Click here for the SKS Microfinance Client Stories.

SKS is funded, in part, by UNITUS which is back here in California. Big props to UNITUS and SKS and Anna.

Update from Usha

2008-06-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

I met with Usha this morning, and we talked over the first cup of chai I've had in months. Her amazing daughter-in-law (also Usha) is a physicist and pretty darn good cook.

Usha told me the government did not come through on its promise to pay for two more vidya volunteers plus the Early Childhood Education Center teacher (preschool). Maybe this is just a delay, but I'm a bit worried.

I contacted our India partner, and she will work with our new mandal education officer, who is a terrific man and gentle soul: Chary! He worked as the number two at the district office, we talked daily. I don't have a picture of him, he was gone, but you can see the rest of the government officers in this photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/leighanne/RangaReddySSAPersonnelApril2008

Outside, the Slum

2008-06-08T21:35:00.001-07:00

This is a fantastic article from the NYT today about life in communities just like Masthan Nagar. "Outside, the Slum."

pdf

Something that always troubled me, the housing for high tech execs was billed as "safe," but as the maids and security guards came from the slum just outside, all the health issues in that slum were brought into this "safe" place.

Usha is HERE!

2008-05-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

I will post pictures next, USHA IS HERE! She is the archetype South Indian lady, all saris and sandlewood. Our very own headmistress, Usha Rani, is here in Sunnyvale, California for three months to visit her son and grandson! We're going to have a party (end of June) for all the American supporters to see her.

Back in the USA: No Limits

2008-04-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

A few of our end users!

With the school, there was a lot of "letting go." We had to let go of assumption. We had to listen to the end users: our students, their parents and their teachers. We had to let go of grand plans and develop a vision of a school that met real needs with a real small set of resources. Backyard veggie garden? Goats ate it, we couldn't afford a fence to protect it. Classes for slow learners and gifted students? No floor space for both - we had to pick one.

The school is now a collaborative, beautiful, resilient end product. It is far from the grand visions, but far better. The experience taught me how to think; letting go gives limitless creativity. Holding on too tight made for brittle thinking, it made me afraid of outside opinion and challenges.

Letting go is sad, it is tough, it was wrenching for a Westerner with control issues. But letting go gives freedom, it gives limitless possibilities. We found the best ways to serve our end users. An open heart led to an open mind.

Leaving India: Meet Your Partner NGOs

2008-03-29T01:25:00.000-07:00

The number one lesson learned: Get partners - rugged, go-to, and knowledgeable partners – then leverage the partnerships to meet needs. None of us can go it alone.

We always have a list of the partner organizations is posted (right hand side), and pictures of our partners and the government in our photo albums (right hand side). We have many kinds of partners: financial partners, silent partners, volunteer partners, even a handful of Zen-like district government babus.

This post is dedicated to the:

"TOP TEN PLUS ONE MOST AMAZING MOMENTS IN RAINBOW SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS!"

1) Number one is Ravi-Srinu. Ravi and Srinu are our silent partners. They're connected. In a good way. They know the honest people in government and how to work levers of power to make things happen. I met Ravi through friends. He is casual for a huge, big land baron. He introduced me to Srinu. My favorite moment from this partnership was the first time meeting Srinu in his office. He guided me through the basic paperwork of presenting to a government official with serenity and precision. Later, when I reflected on what an idiot I was for troubling the big guy with my paperwork, I was so honored by his thoughtfulness. End of that story: I was well taught and never had paperwork issues again.

Many times I went back to his office to mull over next moves, it is a happy place. But there are several all-time greatest Ravi-Srinu moments where I wasn't even present and they overshadow all the others:

Ravi-Srinu raise $14k USD for the school in January 2007
Ravi-Srinu bust a stonewalling set of state officials who would not release permissions for the school (5 months of waiting)
Ravi-Srinu set the police on illegal land squatters to defend our plot

Ravi-Srinu, Ravi-Srinu, Ravi-Srinu... there are too many other moments to count. Ravi and Srinu are the angels of the school. Without them, we would not have a Rainbow School. And through their kindness, I grew up to be a proper manager.

2) Preetha Bhakta runs Naandi’s education program, “Ensuring Children Learn,” and Leena Joseph runs the Naandi “Mid-day Meals” program. Along with Jolly, they landed permission to have meals delivered to our school in about 10 seconds.

The new District Collector (a great guy) was overworked, rather remote, and tough on details. Intimidated, I stayed back.

Now, Preetha and Leena are constantly in touch with the government officials, using a steady, low drumbeat of communication. Leena, Jolly, and Preetha sailed in, sat behind the DC in a crowded audience hall full of heckling, stomping supplicants. They presented on 1/2 a page what was needed, asked him to make a call to the district education officer, and it was over. It was a lesson in old-fashioned relationship building, using the drumbeat plus the “belly-to-belly” work. I've used Preetha and Leena's example and secured dozens of "must have items" from the government using the same technique (like, uh, teachers).

3) Mallesh from the MV Foundation is patient, passionate, and modest. He guided me through a mandal (about 1/2 million people) they have "cured" of child labor. After touring fields and talking to village panchayats, I was convinced their model was unusually effective. At mid-day, I saw children with visible signs of enslavement at their child labor rehabilitation camp. They were laughing and learning to be children again. I saw the MV Foundation’s organizational structure and dedicated personnel at a district meeting late in the day, and visited the headquarters later that week. I was totally sold on the idea that you can train masses of volunteers and get such a huge job done, with only a handful of dedicated staff. Now Mallesh has staff on the ground in Masthan Nagar who – like Leena – keep a steady drumbeat of communication with the parents and panchayat. He says we have 40 children out of school and working in Masthan Nagar (tea shops, construction, housework). I can predict a drastic cut in that number by end of 2008 now that Mallesh is on the job.

4) Like the MV Foundation, Pratham uses volunteers to get the job done. Their ASER survey is a critical tool to measure student learning in government schools. I saw the ASER team in action in mid-2007: A gang of trained volunteers, all young professionals, walked into the heart of a local town and in 1/2 a day, canvassed, tested, and mapped the whole school and area. We reassembled for data collection from the teams that night in the Hyderabad office. The Ranga Reddy district is included in this survey, and I used the findings immediately in meetings with NGOs, the government, and with my teachers.

A future moment in the making is Pratham's “Read India” program. It also uses the volunteer-based model for their speed-reader program, called "Read India." It gets kids up to basic literacy in less than three weeks. Pratham's management is constantly tailoring their programs to meet changing needs on the ground. Even though we're nominally linked to Pratham at the Rainbow School through ASER (which will be independent from Pratham in 2008), we plan to grow into a full partnership with Pratham in 2009.

5) We were so touched and surprised when Swapna, a truly gifted teacher, just showed up one day in October 2005. Then we found out Project 511, an NGO in Hyderabad, had a donor that "adopted" our school. How did they find out about us? We still do not know. Since then, Project 511 have been unstinting in their support of the school, which included a teacher for one year, electricity and additional material support in 2008. For 2009, we have asked for ayahs to help clean, and it looks like they will be able to do that. Thanks go to Usha Madam, our headmistress, for cultivating this relationship.

All the schools that Project 511 adopts are long-term projects. At a meeting just this last Friday, the director, Smita, coordinated with the new district SSA man, Jagannath Reddy, to make sure the government gives every rupee possible to our school and the others in our district. The government has funds for more teachers (junion teachers), but not funds for other items, like electricity or cleaning supplies. Project 511 will step in and supplies these.

6) WIM is a group of professional women I met one day in another part of the slum (now dismantled). They came about a year later to the Rainbow School. They teach spoken English on Sundays and have financially adopted our top ranked 5th standard students, plus they donate other stop-gap measures like donations of low-cost uniforms, etc.

So what is the great moment? Our partnership has grown so deep that the head of WIM is considering taking off a year leave from her job as a professor to go work at the Rainbow School. No kidding. Thanks go to Usha Madam, our headmistress, for cultivating this relationship.

7) The Google.Com management team came to visit early in 2006. One of my all-time favorite people, Sheryl, brought another Googler, Jonathan. He had never been around India; we had the best time showing him around the school. Sheryl and Jonathan brought garlands for the teachers and flowers for the students to honor what a great job they were doing. SO SWEET. Not to be forgotten: David, another Google.Com guy, has won our award for "Most Visits by a Non-Resident Googler.” He visited three times, I owe him a bottle of …something.

8) The first meeting of the Ranga Reddy Education group was with Jayanadha Rao, our previous district SSA officer. It was held almost one year ago. This meeting was his idea. He was tired of meeting with us individually. Kidding! He really wanted to have us coordinate more effectively with each other and with him.

I met people from Dr. Reddy's Foundation, Byrraju Foundation, GMR Foundation, corporate donors from HSBC and Infotech... it was amazing to feel the support and shared desires and frustrations. We are now continuously in touch to "guide each other." His #2, Chary, and #3, Sunder are my zen-masters at the District office, good souls with every good intention. We became close friends after these meetings.

9) The government is our largest partner. When I asked our previous district education officer, Mallama, to consider switching out our non-performing headmistress, I did not expect success. But, Mallama was a dream. She stormed over to the school THE NEXT WEEK. She asked the previous HM why and what and how, made a spot-on recommendation for a "voluntary transfer" and pushed her out. We got USHA the next school year, June 2006. Seeing a gutsy government official in action gave me goosebumps! She was transferred rather quickly (like Rao, our SSA man – who is another education department not really related to the district education department, it all makes for good red tape). I learned a valuable lesson - these lovely people do not last long in the government. OK, that was a downer. But while she was around, SHA-BAM things got done.

10) Bhartee is my all-time, evergreen partner. We've worked on a weekly-to-daily basis over two years. I had to put him as #10 to build the suspense. He is the engineer from the Naandi Foundation in charge of building our school's new home. This is part of Naandi's "Building Model Schools" program (which will close soon due to unwillingness of government to pay the bills). He'd never encountered the Ranga Reddy government before, which is far more laid back than Hyderabad district government. An added disadvantage: Naandi has huge programs (and political capital) in Hyderabad, but in Ranga they are unknown. A third disadvantage: I was clueless that first year. Together we navigated about 50 meetings - most with government engineers around Ranga Reddy and the district land offices. We fought off competing claims on the land, very common when any construction is about to start. We were dealing with police, mobs of local wannabe land owners, local corrupt politicians, and incompetent land officers. After a year of red tape on the land then the building design, we were thrown a huge "NO" from the state engineers regarding minimum levels of setbacks that we could not meet due to the small plot size. It was nearly a death blow (See #1 in the Top Ten Most Amazing Moments, Ravi-Srinu). I was beyond burned out.

Bhartee turned to me and said, "Well, we will get this done. I'm up for another year of this, if that is what it takes."

Who could ever ask for better? Bhartee never showed any signs of fatigue; even when I am stomping mad at a contractor (we fired one). I love how he constantly uses his engineer eyes. When we are out for coffee, he examines the building and explain the functions to me. He reminds me of my dad, another civil engineer.

10 + 1) Kalpana. Who else can be the Plus One? In her hands, the entire finances run for the school. She got me into the school, started off our government work, held our first parent’s meeting (very boisterous), helped construct the first hut (it fell down). She has a will of iron and a soft spoken manner so misleading that no one would guess the depth of her knowledge and management skill. We’ve been through very tough times for the school, and we’ve had the highest of high times. We celebrating breakthroughs and progress, we schemed behind the scenes, and we pushed ourselves in front of countless government officials. I try to invite myself over to her house for a free lunch at every chance. She has the best food in Hyderabad, made by her cook who lives in Masthan Nagar. The cook has a grandchild in our school; she outdoes herself every time I come over.

My favorite moment with her was yesterday, over lunch with her family. Her father, a retired judge, drank whiskeys with my husband (and, um, me too). We talked politics, families, next moves, and future visits. Through Kalpana’s guidance, I’ve learned how to see Hyderabad and Hyderabadis. They open up slow, with graceful reach towards new friends. All work is no fun, they want to do belly-to-belly first. Then, over time, they are at ease. Then they are as bold and as loud as the loudest Americans! (K: That is my highest compliment.)

***

I had a theory, "If you build it, they will come." The partners came. And they were far greater than I could imagine.

Leaving India: Meet Your Bureaucrat

2008-03-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

I am sad to report my days here in India are fast running out. The school and the staff are in good hands with our many, many partner NGOs. To take the worry wrinkles away, I'd like to introduce the Rainbow School supporters to our bureaucrats. They do the best they can, promise!

http://picasaweb.google.com/leighanne/RangaReddySSAPersonnelApril2008

Monitoring

2008-03-11T03:54:00.000-07:00

We're moving into "Monitoring!"

Any visitor can help by answering these questions when they visit the school

Monitoring
Masthan Nagar Government Primary School

If any answers are NO: contact Leigh Anne Gilbert, leighanne(at)gmail.com and describe the problem.

1. Are the teachers present during working hours?
2. Are the teachers engaged in active teaching?
3. Are the teachers using activities, playtoys, games, charts, etc. – the child-centered methods?
4. Is the Headmistress present during working hours?
5. If no, is she off on school business or on leave?
6. Are the facilities clean? (including the bathroom)
7. Do you see drinking water for the children?
8. Is the school full?
9. If not, why are there fewer children? (holiday, case of fevers, or no answer?)
10. Was this monitoring fun?

Thank you!

The District Collector

2008-03-07T06:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a fantastic, fantastic article on our district collectors here in India. Must read!

Plot #2...the Legacy

2008-03-01T00:53:00.000-08:00

Plot #2 for the school was the result of Plot #1's small size.

We've got 90% of the approvals, the last one is incoming!

MV Foundation

2008-02-27T21:30:00.000-08:00

This flier is from our local government Revenue officer, she is fantastic! She is supporting the MV Foundation's work to get all children to school, including in Masthan Nagar. It says that it is illegal to hire children under the age of 15 for work, and those who do will be prosecuted. Thank you MV Foundation!

Stay Classy, Masthan Nagar!

2008-02-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

To quote "The Anchorman," Stay Classy, Masthan Nagar!

First there is new building, and someday we will have paint on the walls!
And the mid-day meal is now delivered by the Naandi Foundation, I had lunch there on Wednesday it was fantastic (spicy).
Now we have the maximum number of teachers the government will pay for (five) plus private teachers, so all the kids are happy and well tended to.

This is a long way from our first days on the dirt floor in the bamboo shed in 2005. We classy now!

Then Pavan came! He's amazing. He's the only certified Montessori teacher in INDIA for birth to teens. Others have certification for other ages, he's the only one for all ages.

I found him on-line. I was searching for Montessori tools in India. www.pinkpentagon.com

NOTE: Shameless Plug Below

He came up on the right hand side as a Google adwords advertisement (thank you, Google).

RESUME BLOG POST

Thanks to an anonymous donor, we were able to order a ton of Montessori tools for preschool (after my daughter had time to test them). When I picked up these tools, we met. He's such a calm, sweet person, I just fell for him. And Pavan is the real deal, no watered down Montessori methods.

I was a bit nervous when he said he would come by Masthan Nagar. We catch as catch can with our "Montessori methods;" the scraps we use for sensory/tactile tools are pitiful compared to his glossy beechwood tools.

Yesterday, he came to the school. For two hours, he worked with the teachers to show them how to use the tools (he has videos on-line if the reader is interested).

He mentioned several times how lucky we are to have parents who do not pressure the children. He's major problem is the high expectations parents place on children to read and write by age five. Our teachers were thoroughly happy.

This link is to a supercute little peanut showing us how to arrange the famous Montessori "Pink Tower." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkvFXnoPRCs

When Pigs Fly

2008-02-12T01:20:00.000-08:00

WOW.

In less than one week, the government bureaucracy delivered all four points from the DC.

1) We have electricity at the school.
2) Usha Madam gets to stay at the Masthan Nagar headmistress post, she will not be transfered back to her previous post at our sister school.
3) 2.4 laks for the building on Plot #1 is in writing in our file, sitting at the SSA Engineer's office, ready for disbursement when we give him the bills. (Thank you, Raja.)
4) After one year, we received confirmation from the Joint Collector's office that the boundaries for Plot #2 are secure. We can start to move forward on the preschool!!

Here was the text message today from my new favorite government officer, the Second Joint Collector. "I got the report from the RDO regarding plot no.2. I will process it today."

... he is very good.

What Happened?

2008-02-08T00:36:00.000-08:00

We got the call, the DC wanted to meet at 3 PM on Wednesday. Ismail and I ran to the district office, met with everyone at the SSA office, then tracked down the DEO to walk over to the DCs office.

The Joint Collector was there, the DC sat us all down, went over each of the four points and BOOM.

We got everything.

I'm not shocked. Praveen Prakash is very good. After six months, I think he trusts us.

Usha stays at Masthan Nagar another year, we got a new electricity connection, 2.4 laks more for the building fund (the toilet block was expensive, $2,000 U.S.!) and the Joint Collector will come and see about Plot #2 on Saturday at 11:00 AM.

NEXT UP? The DC hasn't seen the last of me.

See http://rangareddyeducationgroup.blogspot.com

We are two months before a ban on transferring bureaucrats (due to Indian election laws, forbids any transfers one year before elections). We have NO SSA officer to run the SSA program for the district. We request the DC to get us a new SSA officer, pronto!

The District Collector said "Yes, Yes"

2008-01-31T21:39:00.000-08:00

Here is what I gave the collector last night:

Here is what happened:

The DC's office went on tour of a far, far away part of the district, so the usual Thursday 11:00 AM hearing in the conference hall never happened.

I came back at 5:00 PM, sat my usual seat in the waiting area, and chatted with the usual sweet-natured, competent front office staff. There was a crowd by the front door, which is not unusual. I spoke with SSA staff waiting to discuss the latest with the DC, then I made a new friend who is a bureaucrat with a tax office.

At 5:05, the union boss for the office workers showed up. He demanded the front-office staff leave! As per their union rules, the work is 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but the DC works his staff until 9:00/10:00 PM. The union boss 1) either thinks this makes the rest of the office look bad or 2) thinks someone is actually unhappy at the DC's office. The little fellows of the front office shuffled all the paperwork into bundles for the overnight safe down the hall, cracked nervous smiles, and then pushed out through the crowd.

The crowd shifted a bit, but no one was anxious (except me). At 5:15 PM, the DC came out all by himself. He started to work the crowd. The crowed stayed respectfully still and waited in turn.

Thanks to my new friend, I was second in line. He read the four requests with unusual concentration, then said, "yes, yes." He kept the papers and moved to the next in the crowd. I started breathing again. Ismail was with me, and he said this was all a good sign and we'll come back on Monday to follow up.

Pressing the DC for help is the last thing that I want to do; he is massively overworked. At this point, there is no choice. The rest of the bureaucracy is shutting down to a shuffle - at best - due to the upcoming elections. The laws here restrict shifting of any bureaucrat for one year prior to elections, which are held in April 2009. My education officer was pushed upstairs to the state office in December. No one has replaced him. We do not expect anyone to replace him for another year. His staff, the hardest working office in the district, now sit with their hands folded. They do not like it, but they have a genuine Zen attitude about it.

And that is why so much was riding on this one-minute meeting with the DC. We'll see what happens next.

Tomorrow is a big day

2008-01-30T09:28:00.000-08:00

We have enjoyed 2008 very much. There is one - big - item left on our to-do list.

There is a plot of land, 182 sq yards, we received permission to build on in April 2007. We even got money for the construction (from the government).

We've waited 10 months for permission to build. Why? This land is next door to land that belongs to a State ministry (tourism).

Our district collector may solve the paperwork stalemate tomorrow.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Here is the video on the whole story.

Moving on UPPPP!

2008-01-19T01:22:00.000-08:00

2008 is "The Year of Enormous Change" for the school.

The building will be ready on 1 February 2008.

We're a moving on uppp, to the sky.... to a deluxe school building in the skyyyyy!!!

Many, many, many, many, many thanks to our new contractor, Vijay Kumar (Usha Madam's brother-in-law). Here he is with the Naandi team, including Bhartee, our Naandi engineer.

We are only one month behind our original schedule. (Our old contractor walked off the job in October 2007, long story and it wasn't really anyone's fault.)

THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY!

Classes moved into the first floor already. The poojas took place on 2 January 2008: a "Christian Pooja" and the "Hindu Pooja." Prayers were said in many languages and coconuts were cracked to scare all evil spirits away

Here is Kalpana teacher cracking her coconut at the Hindu pooja.

That same day, the Naandi Foundation started delivery of the Mid-Day Meal from their wonderful, amazing central kitchen.

We have no words for how wonderful this is. They can offer better food at lower cost because of economies of scale, they feed 750,000 (that's right 750,000) government school children every day out of this huge central kitchen.

We had another pooja just yesterday. The good people at the Hyderabad Water Board -- the best run government office in town -- connected the school to the main water line. The water started yesterday. This one was a bit interfaith, more of a "Pan-Indian Pooja."

Finally, the government funds were released for the building. This is a big deal. After a one month delay, we received 5 lakh rupees (about US$10,000). The delay was due to a new rule at the state level, which conflicted with rules at the local level. The District Collector, Praveen Prakash, did a champion job of untying red tape. Ismail was the go-to guy for all of this work. GREAT JOB ISMAIL! Here he is with our government engineers, Raja Ratnam.

Funny story about this check. After one month of huge work by Ismail and mountains of paperwork, Ismail and I sat down in the accountant's office to get the check. Our babu, Ramu, was all ready to write the check. Then he look up, and with a poker face said that he was out of checks. He needed a new checkbook, he would have to go to the bank. It would be another day before we could get the check. I nearly grabbed him by the collar and shook him. Surinder stopped me. He is a lovely human being in the SSA Engineers department and a true faith ally to the school. Surinder gave Ramu a talking to, and Ramu immediately found his checkbook.

Finally, we have a new addition, a future teacher. Priyanka teacher (IInd standard, retired) gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl. Priyanka is looking forward to coming back to teach as soon the baby is two and ready to go to preschool.

Good Samaritans from the International School of Hyderabad

2008-01-19T01:16:00.000-08:00

The International School of Business, lower school, visited the Rainbow School and brought GOODIES!

Thank you, Carole Farrand and family, for arranging this!!

The Naandi Foundation

2008-01-19T00:27:00.000-08:00

Please click below for a wonderful Financial Times article on our main partner organization, the Naandi Foundation. Naandi is headquartered here in Hyderabad.

Financial Times Article

KALAM

2007-12-02T23:18:00.000-08:00

Dr. Kalam, Former President of India (2002 to 2007) met with our three top 4th Standard students and Usha Rani today. He gave them this advice: "Work hard, dream big."

Thank you, Dr. Kalam!

२3/११/07

2007-11-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a fantastic picture from today. Our kids decided to help with the construction, even the little ones!

By the end of the day, the walls were over a meter tall.

Heading into 2008

2007-11-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

We had another good parents meeting today, in the new building! No major issues this time and the parents are coming around on the "no stick" rule. There is a general feeling of goodwill throughout the community. We are happy to be a small part of their lives.

This month and next we plan to work on finding more professional NGO partners. We are particularly interested in NGOs with expertise in health.

We made our financial plans for 2008 and (exciting!) we are almost ready to offer opportunities for donations to a mini-endowment for the school. This little fund will ensure consistent support for teaching aides and teacher salaries in the decades to come.

For more on our construction, the full list of activities is here.
And our workplan for the construction for the next two months can be found here.

WWW.PRATHAM.ORG

2007-10-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

http://prathamap.aissindia.com/

This is Sunitha with Pratham, a huge NGO here in India. She let me follow her team around on Monday. Here she is showing me the low-cost science kit for government schools, there are over a dozen experiments in there!

On Monday, we went out to a village where her team assessed the learning levels of children at the local primary school. Then they surveyed twenty households about their perceptions of the quality of education in the village. The team was very thorough and the data was assembled with great clarity.

The end result of this work is the ASER survey, the Annual Status of Education Report. You can see the 2006 survey here: http://www.pratham.org/aser2006.php

In the Ranga Reddy District, the Rainbow Schools home district, they are working in over 800 villages to assess the schools.

Post-survey, Pratham does work with volunteers, paid a little monthly stipend, to help children learn reading and writing after school hours. This is their famous "Read India" campaign. Here are some of the teaching materials.

Finally, Pratham is working in 164 schools in Hyderabad in a Pratham-SSA Partnership. (SSA is the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan program, the Central Government program for primary and secondary education.) Go Pratham!

The Roof! The Roof! The Roof is on the building!!

2007-10-26T05:38:00.000-07:00

This is a long video, but very amusing and fun to see Indian construction standards. This was our last piece of major construction work!

"Evidence of Actual Impact"

2007-10-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

Last year, the Hewlett Foundation president suggested in his annual report that non-profits start an "on-line marketplace" for giving that had simple, standard pieces of information. He suggested:

"1) A description of the organization’s goals and strategies for achieving them. For example, an organization dedicated to eliminating polio in a developing country would describe the scope of the problem and how it plans to tackle the problem. (How many children does it plan to vaccinate, and what steps are necessary to do this?)
2) Indicators to track the organization’s progress toward its goals and a description of what progress has been achieved. (How many vaccinations have actually been administered?)
3) Evidence of actual impact, where available, and lessons learned. (In the long run, did polio decline in the country? In the short run, what obstacles were encountered, and how were they surmounted?)
4) Reviews of the organization by its beneficiaries and other stakeholders and interested parties. (How do families, communities, governments, and others view the vaccination program?)"

This is a fantastic idea. There are simpler on-line giving sites in existence right now, but I can imagine how a larger on-line site of ALL NGOs POSSIBLE would just be ...staggering. This information can make even the smallest NGO shop open to the world. All the NGO manager would need is an internet cafe and a few hours to start. The questions listed above would help good NGOs make great descriptions of their work.

The on-line giving site that I love is www.globalgiving.com which aims to help small NGOs overseas. It asks partner organizations (larger, registered charities and NGOs) to find, vet, and organize small ones who are doing great, front-lines, grassroots work. Once screened for sound financial practices, the small NGO can post a need on-line. The site has descriptions, and the Global Giving folks makes sure donations are used within 60 days, 90% to the end user.

At the Rainbow School, we regularly ask for feedback, from students, teachers, and parents. I will post this feedback and answer the rest of the questions listed above in December 2007, in our first "annual report."

And here is a bit of feedback from last week, happy preschoolers jumping around!

See that little one in pink? You can barely see her, she is looking at the camera (left).

She is tiny, looks like half the size of her classmates. She was severely malnourished from birth to two. She started school (came with an older friend) this August. Now, through the government's mid-day-meal program, she recovering. She is even a teeny bit chubby, look at those cheeks! Her smiles come often now. She participates in class! That is a little measure of actual impact.

Quarterly Tests

2007-10-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Today they held quarterly tests, here is what first standard's test looks like.
GOOD LUCK, STUDENTS!

Parents and Classroom Management

2007-09-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

The parents very particular, they have high standards!

They insist we only hire teachers (junior teachers) who graduated from high school. That is hard to find! Only 1/3 of India's children pass on to secondary school, and most of those cannot pass the final exams.

So, despite being illiterate for the most part, the parents want only the most qualified teachers.

The second demand from the parents is for strict discipline; this means corporal punishment. Back in 2005, on the very first day of school, the parents requested we use corporal punishment. No, no, no is always our answer.

Even after two+ years, the parents are completely convinced we need to use "the stick." It comes up at EVERY parents' meeting. Finally, one parent took matters into his own hands. He brought us a huge bunch of palm tree branches, stripped down into lovely "sticks," he was more than happy to provide us with loads of sticks for the next few years.

We all had a good laugh! And threw them all away.

We are convinced that child-centered teaching methods leads to children that are happy, relaxed, and engaged in learning. Happy kids are easy to teach; they are calm and focused, just like Marie Montessori described in her first studies so long ago in Rome.

Below is an picture of the "bridge classroom" children (migrants who come to the slum for less than six months, usually without prior schooling). The children are learning about plants by collecting specimens from around the school and then making presentations to explain to the class.

Alpha Girls

2007-09-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

These girls are the Alpha Girls. They never miss a day of school, and rank at the top of the fifth standard class. The intensity of their attachment to their teachers and the school is remarkable. They stay and watch our teacher's meetings, soaking in every bit of the interaction. They have even formed a student committee, chasing down students who are tardy or skipping class. (We tried making a parent committee, but they all work during school hours!)

We are so lucky to have these girls!

Their future plans are all to become teachers. I will enjoy watching them over the coming years.

Paperwork

2007-09-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

We are dealing with some paperwork.

1) We requested three more junior teachers, "Vidya Volunteers," 1,000/mos salaries as directed by the district level bureaucrat on 2 August 2007. Paperwork is into the lower level bureaucrat, working up to the district level. (1 and 1/2 months and counting)

2) A Utilization Study for the work done to date on the building is underway at the district level. I'm organizing coordination between our contractors and the government engineers. (Only 1 week and counting!)

3) 4 March 2007, we received additional land for a preschool but we need paperwork from an adjoining neighbor, a state-level bureaucracy called the A.P. Tourism Department, to hand this land to our bureaucrat at the lower level. (6 months and counting)

4) We requested government funding for the preschool (called an Early Childhood Education Center, ECEC) from the lower level bureaucrat. (2 months and counting)

5) We requested a government nurse be reinstated (ours was transferred). I went to the municipal level, and they were most helpful. (1 month and counting)

Life is a Dilbert cartoon.

Here is our file... getting thicker by the day. Imagine how great it would be if all the departments coordinated on Google Documents? Everyone would have the same thing, see what every other government department was doing. The various education department would have what the engineers have what the DRDA has...

Archeology at the Site

2007-09-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

First, here is a full timeline on the building. It explains a lot of why we were SO delayed.

Second, we found this mask near the site and the owners gladly gave it to us for the school. It is from Kerala; Apa Rao is showing us how to wear it.

Last, look here for pictures of the latest stage of the building construction.

Vision for The Rainbow School

2007-09-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

See this link for a PPP on the vision for the school!

Vision for the Rainbow School!

Vada Prasad Update

2007-09-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ismail and I visited the Vada Prasad house today (unannounced, as per our standard operating procedures). He looks just fantastic, greeted us with giggles and belly laughs. Vada is responsive, clear-eyed, much more able to direct his limbs; he even claps his hands! His mom is doing a great job. She required a baby buggy to get him to therapy, so Ismail will deliver one on Monday.

The partner organization at the Rainbow School is the Anokhi Aasha School. Reema Gupta and her professional staff give free physical therapy and educational support to our special needs students. www.anokiaaasha.org

Thank you, Rema!

Here is Vada in action... what a crazy, good year for Vada.

Cuties!

2007-09-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today was another great day. Progress on the building, the kids are so wonderful and really settled in, and the community doesn't want to kill us (today). So I had to celebrate with this picture of our first, second, and third standard kids.

Thank you, Ismail, for taking this shot.

Best Meeting Ever

2007-08-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

After two years, we finally got the best meeting ever... the managers (Usha and myself) listened. We delegated out to the teachers some planning items. Most important, the feedback loop from teachers to management is firmly, firmly established. Usha Madam clearly enjoys her role as "listener" and "facilitator."

I am so proud!!

2007 Data, The Rainbow School

2007-08-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

The exams held last April had a big surprise. We got an "A" average for the school, over 1/3 of the students got an "A" grade, and only 10% failed outright. (These were all students who came less than 100 days out of the school year of 220 days)

All those high A's (90%+) really carried the school into the overall "A" average. THANK YOU to those A students and their outrageously dedicated teachers! It turns out, they were all the students who ALSO attended over 200 days of school.

We also found out from the data that we are doing great in recruiting the bulk of the most needy children, but we are missing students who are "Scheduled Caste." My thinking is they need special outreach programs to get them into the school. Our operating mode of "no fees" remains essential to reaching students like these.

Partner Organizations: MV Foundation

2007-08-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

The MV Foundation started 20 years ago in this state (Andhra Pradesh) to combat child labor. They now work in six states. I hope they plan to expand to every state. They work with minimal fuss, maximum understanding of the ground realities in slum and village India, keep low overhead, and produce results.

Here is a picture of the parents, community leaders (called "Gram Panchayats"), youth committee members, and two MV Foundation staffers (far right) at Khanapur village. The man standing on the right edge of the group is Mallesh, he is the MV Foundation staff member dedicated to the Rainbow School back in Masthan Nagar. He took me to Khanapur to see a functioning, effective community-MV Foundation partnership. Khanapur is one hour east of Hyderabad(see map here).
In our slum, we are really struggling with building community relations. This visit gave me great hope.

The original mission for the Khanapur Community - MV Foundation partnership was to focus on a handful of bonded labor cases. They were children whose parents "sold" their labor in return for settlement of debts. The Khanapur children work for years in the "owners" fields or houses, often incurring substantial abuse and with no access to education. The partnership closed those cases fast through a "group v owner" negotiation model. The partnership now has the goal of strengthening Khanapur's schools.

The results speak for themselves. The Khanapur-MV Foundation partnership effectively ended child labor in the area. Agricultural communities traditionally rely on children to help, so this is an even bigger win than in the slums. The entire drive there and back, I watched the wheat, corn, cabbages, bean, and cotton fields. Not once did I see a child working in the fields.

Here is Mallesh speaking on the results.

(Note: I did relate that my dad, his brothers, his cousins - no matter what age - always worked on my grandfather's farm... but after school hours).

There are women in Khanapur who, as partners with the MV Foundation, continue to lead a child protection "cell," that means a special task force in Indian English. Their mission is to prevent recurrence of child labor, child bonded labor, and child marriages. But they, too, focus on strengthen the school in order to keep children in school.

Funny thing, the urban-slum Rainbow School and the rural-village Khanapur School face the same #1 problem: drop-outs. These are children who come to school for some time, then leaving school to play truant. These are "Drop Outs." We have 10% in both schools who consistently drop out. Reasons are varied, a primary reason is kids leave bad schools. The MV Foundation is partnering with Project 511 to help strengthen A.P. schools.

WIM, one of our partner organizations

2007-08-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

This is Anita from WIM talking about her work in the slums in Hyderabad. We are lucky to have WIM on our team! They bring milk and eggs to the kids every Sunday.

Come see us on Google Maps!

2007-07-30T10:34:00.001-07:00

The Rainbow School's plot for the new building is now outlined on Google maps. Check this out!

The Great Wall of Mastan Nagar, the Video

2007-07-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a funny video of one of our engineer and our contractor explaining how the "Great Wall of Mastan Nagar" was constructed. A piece of video on our rather sad and pathetic temporary home, "the shed," is at the end. The landlady raised the rent again on that place. I think she should pay us just to be there!

The Great Wall of Mastan Nagar, and the Greatest Challenge: new and slow learners

2007-07-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

The new school year is starting off strong. There are eighty-four new students, three new teachers, and an entire new staff of helpers (except for Beeb the cook, of course). Here is a picture of our students who won "Best Attendance." From the left: Santosh, Baleshawri, and Suman. They got to see Spiderman at the IMAX and eat candy and ice cream until they could eat no more.

At the building site all is well. The team constructed “the Great Wall of Mastan Nagar,” our fourteen foot high retaining wall. The contractor starts pouring the foundation tomorrow.

I also visited an amazing Naandi-built government school in central Hyderabad to see what ours will look like (except much, much smaller) post-construction. I am very jealous of this school: trees, garden, open spaces, classrooms the size of our entire first floor, and a computer room!

Back at the school, after planning and many good ideas, Usha Madam has come up with a “scheme” to help integrate the slowest learners or new learners.

This is by far our greatest challenge. Students frustrated by their challenges are the root cause of truancy. So we have an enormous truancy problem. Another other cause is our poor shed; the place chases kids away. Truants also includes children who never received instruction at other government schools, or who had to step out of school for some years and cannot attend classes with their peer group.

Usha Madam put them into a special classroom that sits outside her office. This special class has a small number of students and their own junior teacher. Then she or the junior teacher tests the students orally every day for any improvement, and works with the individuals who are the most challenged.

There is a daily updated CLAP PROGRESS CARD (don’t ask what CLAP means, some acronym in Telugu) that has all the student names and either a check (good) or an x (needs work) that comes from the daily oral exams. There are weekly “slip” tests (on a slip of paper, and paper is a real luxury) and quarterly exams. The end result: there are no surprises. The teacher’s weekly reports at our regular meeting all include data on student performance. Now we can share what works or doesn’t work with each other to help the most challenged students and move into a set of proven teaching methods.

This weekend, we have a student rally, parent meeting, and meet with Project511 (www.project511.org). From their website: “Hyderabad Round Table 8 (HRT 8), a voluntary community service organisation and MV Foundation, a NGO put their hearts and minds together to initiate Project 511. The charter of the project is to fund the maintenance of Government schools by way of meeting their operational expenditure and any additional maintenance overheads including inducting more teachers.”

This would answer a lot of prayers. And we do mean a lot of prayers… our teachers are Hindu, Christian, and Muslim and they pray a lot. Usha Madam always says “God Proposes.”

Fun with Documents: Transparency in Government

2007-06-27T08:09:00.001-07:00

Plot Boundary Documents, The Rainbow School

The link above is to a PDF file of the original papers showing the boundaries of the plot exactly behind "The Rainbow School" plot and the school's plot itself. They correspond to those "Kadi Stones" shown in the previous video. You can see the little dots on the lines right above the word "Village Boundary" that show the placement of the stones. You can see corresponding marks on the last page, the most recent boundary marks for the school's plot. (I asked for a re-draw of the plot last January, just to be sure we were all squared up.)

It is so very cool to have a window into this typically windowless paperwork system. You see, we currently have a claim against these very clear boundary marks.

However, the credit for the first e-mailed document I ever received from the Indian government goes to the District Rural Development Agency, the best run district office in Ranga Reddy. They all have computers! IMAGINE! Nearly paperless, DRDA is a spunky office free from the heavy weight of dusty paper stacks on top of full file cabinets. There are no tired-eyed clerks constantly overrun with paper to shuffle, yet not enough file folders to hold them in any kind of order.

Srinivas would just love it. Here he is again, for old times sake.
For a good look at the future of Indian civil service work, please see www.esevaonline.com

E-seva creates the opportunities for public services, like paying an electric bill or registering a birth, to be delivered in simple computer kiosk-based, customer-friendly, bureaucrat-sanity-saving form. Of course, literacy is a help here.

The focus on schools just seems to come up all the time.

The Boundary Lines

2007-06-27T03:05:00.000-07:00

The video here shows the boundary lines for the plot. We were waiting (another two hour wait) for other parties to show up (they never did) in the current boundary dispute. So Bhartee and I started messing around with our boundary footage shot over a week ago.

Cheers! Leigh Anne