Rainbow Primary School

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:...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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

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...