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Amma...............

The goal is to provide basic nutrition & healthcare to poor pregnant women without which pregnancy ceases to be a bliss for them.…more
 
Vijayam (Center for Success) :

This is a special project by the foundation to help students with high levels of academic performance in the government schools of rural and semi-urban areas by providing special complimentary teaching to them.


Why?

Through our interactions with a number of people including teachers, students, parents, eminent personalities in academia and social work, we came to know some startling facts.

  1. Child labor is normally equated to work in hazardous industries, particularly in urban areas. However, 85% of child labor is in agriculture and allied activities. With this fact, it is not difficult to imagine that an area like Amalapuram will have a large number of child labor. This is also confirmed by a number of teachers in our region. There are a number of children not enrolled in schools because they are engaged in some farm work. And, many of the enrolled ones do not attend school because of the same reason. This applies to even primary school children who are engaged normally in things like weeding.

  2. There are a number of students who come to school just for the sake of the mid-day meal. They don't eat anything (because of poverty) at home in the morning and sometimes they faint in the school.

  3. The teachers are responsible for enrollment and attendance to the schools. They have to convince the parents to send their kids to school.

  4. Furthermore, the schools' performance is measured only by the percentage pass. The schools are instructed to complete the syllabus by November itself and then do the revision for the rest of the year.

  5. Many schools do not have adequate teaching staff and they rely on Vidya Volunteers who are grossly under-qualified.

  6. Government recently increased the number of primary schools with a goal of having a primary school within a radius of 1 km for any locality. However, they did not increase the number of teachers. This is making one teacher teach up to 5 classes (even though the student-teacher ratio is still acceptable).

These policies and infrastructural issues coupled with indifference of teachers (by and large) making ‘quality education' disappear from these schools, thus depriving the meritorious students of the possibility of realizing their full potential. Few decades ago, we certainly had better quality education in these schools and an extra attention if you are one of the so-called meritorious students. The current generation of students from these schools is grossly deprived. Through high quality education, let us help them realize their full potential, create opportunity for ‘success' and make a lifelong difference in the lives of those kids, their families and their villages. By harnessing the future intellectual capital of our country, let us become a part of building a better country and world. This thought is the driving force behind the ‘Vijayam' project. This year, we started this project in the Amalapuram region in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh and will be replicated through partnerships later.

What & How?

 

 

Under this project, we provide 40-50 days of special teaching to a few selected (meritorious and economically poor) students every year. The special teaching will be designed in such a way that it helps them to improve their academic performance, prepares them for improved success in different career options and fosters overall development including learning skills, personality and values.

The goals are as follows.

Overall development of these students resulting in

better academic performance (say, 5-10% higher marks, admission into government residential junior colleges) in the immediate/short term

better success in terms of career (e.g. in X years, each Vijayam Center should produce some number of IAS, IITians, IIM grads, Doctors, Good teachers, MBAs, Engineers and other successful careers) in the medium / long term

Make better individuals out of these students (more rounded personalities, more accountable citizens and just human beings)

For 2008-09, nearly 70 students of 9th and10th standards from 6 government high schools in and around Amalapuram got benefited. In 2009-10, we have around 100 students of 8 th , 9 th and 10 th standards from 7 schools. In the first year, 15 out of 29 students who appeared for SSC got 90%+ (540+/600). 7 more got 500+.

Nearly 20 committed, good teachers in the region have participated in this effort and are still lending a great support. There are a number of others, particularly from IT industry contributing their time and skill towards teaching subjects like English, Computers, Aptitude and General Knowledge. A small computer lab is established courtesy SIS software and Intel World Ahead program. The student selection is based on their annual performance and an admission test.

We provide them transportation expenses from their village to the center in Amalapuram. We provide them very nutritious lunch and an evening fruit. We are also planning to provide basic health care to these students and their families.

The reach will be increased to a few more schools and students in 2010 and will include students of 7th standard.

 

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SuVidya..................S

The goal of SuVidya (Good Education) is to provide Supplementary education (Vidya) for the under-privileged children of the slums in urban and semi-urban areas.…more
 
 

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