Skip to main content

News from Gowri and the Future of Communication

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!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

New Headmaster

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.

"A" Grade

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