Competitive tests for teachers on a regular basis.

The rural schools that I visit have teachers who are semi-literated and sometimes not qualified.
Like the English teacher who does not know much English, Or a Math teacher who cannot do things past their text books.

How challenging it is.. for a student who turns out of these schools when they face the real world.
They lack the confidence, vision, the exposure to things outside of their text book material when they walk out after their 10th Standard.
My suggestion is for the state govt to initiate a program where the teachers have to take regular competitive exams every 2 years to stay on top of the form. That way the teachers can start thinking on lines of what the student might face when they go out of the schools.
The competitive exams for teachers would include subjects in History, Math, Science, and General Knowledge, and those who qualify will get merit or a salary hike.

Some Links of previous activities.

Mentoring Oct 29th 2011

Mentoring Oct 22

English - ESL Links

For Learning English - short stories etc etc.

http://www.english-for-students.com/

2011 School Term Start ( June )

Some photos of a mock exercise the children went thru on 2nd week in June, I had about 200 sheets of varying exercises from Arithmetic Progression, Geometric Progression ( 10th grade syllabus ) to 'Fraction Divisions' for 8th, and 9th Grade students.
These students were eager to crack these sample papers, To get them into the session - I had to team 2 kids to start looking at each sheet and most correct entries were handed a prize - a single cookie or a mango. (smile )
Once they got of hang of how many mango(es) or cookies (whichever could fit into their pockets.. ) the race to attempt the most papers was on, But once I ran out of them  the race was still on.. clearly indicating the interest in the students to do something challenging.
My next challenge is to get them more into serious math stuff, Basic English skills etc.

Open for anyone who wants to chip/help/support in any form.

After school, I got them working on this.

All it took was a few minutes of coaching to get them excited.

Parents who were grazing cattle came by to cheer their kids.

Getting parents involved, also showed that the parents knew that if the child did well then they would do well in life.

I just let the 8th grade kids, look over the seniors solve problems.

I had this from 12PM to 3 PM.

Writing on 11 June 2011

I am writing this from the Idgur school office.

Tour Photos

Science lab for High School

A Science lab kit was given to the school in 2009, This included materials like Globe, Electrical appliances, some gadgets and Human body elements.

Rural Innovation - Link on Facebook

Click on this link below - which will take you to a page on Facebook.

Click Here -->   Rural Innovation     <-- Click Here

Can you think of something too ?

School Desk and Computers at the Middle School

Uploading some old photos ( 2009 )  in which school desks were donated to the children. Although the Govt has made provision for school desks - due to reasons beyond discussion in this blog - I made an attempt to get some school desks made for the children.
Below you will see photos of 'before and 'after the desks were made.
Also, some old computers ( well not really old -but usable ones with Windows XP and sufficient for children to learn by watching some Powerpoint presentations and also for viewing the Educational DVDs which were provided to the village )


BEFORE :


This was the initial state of the school children,
There were about 40 children, and they had no desk/bench for their daily studies.

AFTER


This was after the school desks were made. Each costed around 2500 rupees, 10 such desks were ordered to be made from the local welder.

Two Computers ( Windows XP 2003, and all apps loaded )

Tutoring at native village..

Group,

Thanks to everybody who have signed up for this activity.

This involves going to a rural school, and maybe conducting some tests in
Basic English, Math/Science/ and also working with the local teachers if
they need help.

Schools started their academic year on 31 May 2011, and I'd like to take
this further with some earnest this year.

The village I have adopted since last few years, has a middle school and a
high school with a strength of about 200 students. I only expanded this to
3 additional school this past January.

So far, I have given a Science Kit, Computers, and also have organized
Science Fair ( the latest in January 2011. )

Only this week I started posting it on the blog page.

http://idgur.blogspot.com/ signup to follow - so that you will know if I
update it with content.

My mentoring web page is http://www.kiranshashi.0fees.net/sslcmentor.html
( this is slow sometimes, since I am hosting it on a shared site- However I
am open to host if anybody has a public web server )

This school is about 150 kms from Bangalore, and is my native village, near
Kunigal which is west of Bangalore towards Tumkur. and I visit this schools
a few times a year,

Just some things to know:
- Have your own vehicle, or ability to take the public transportation (*
which would mean leaving early in the mornings ) Driving takes 2 hrs by
car, and there is limited public transportation.
- Knowing local language - kannada and ability to converse with the school
teachers etc.
- Saturdays are when I go there often ( job and other personal activities
take preference )
- Some knowledge of web hosting, programming in PHP or Perl, and converting
English to Kannada or any other regional language.
- As far as expenses are concerned - there is not much - I can take care of
most. But if anyone desires to contribute school dresses /text books/ or
sponsor a bright child / or other things then they are free to do so.

- I am open for suggestions and any improvements or implementing new
technologies if we all agree to it. ( say putting up a Virtual Desktop to
conduct or evaluate students - but this requires funding )

Some urgent needs are :
- Projector ( used or if available at a reasonable price )
- White writing paper ( if you can get them at a reasonable/Wholesale
price )

Recent good news : The school secured 80% pass in the recent SSLC exams
held in March -April 2011. and got 5 distinction students.

Upcoming activities : I am working with Dutta Scientific, Bangalore to get
a Science Kit - for the Middle schools.

Shashi

Science Tour, Visit to Viswesvariah Science Museum, Bangalore

In 2010, Encouraged the students to visit the Museum and also the Nehru planetorium. The children came in a bus, visited these places and left.

Independence Day Celeb 2010

Photos from the participation in Independence Day,

Photo of a printer that we gave out. To the left are the computers that they use to teach basic English and introduction to Computers.

Middle and High School children attending the program.
The Middle and High School are housed separately, and to such programs the Middle school children come down and participate along with the High School students.

This school has some roots to my family members tracing back some 60+ years ago.

Premji Foundation Educational materials - Jan - Republic day 2011

Having heard of Azim Premji foundation which gives out educational content, I contacted the foundation and was able to get good materials in DVDs and gave them to the Middle and High School.
There were 3 DVD and in English and Kannada, - had Maths, Science, and learning English.

Here are some photos, which shows the teacher playing them, and just to keep the students continued interested - I had to play an English movie as well.

School Uniforms given in Jan 2011 for Elementary school children

This is the Idgur Elementary school, has about 50 children in this section and supports 4-5 villages in the neighborhood. The teachers reasonably educated and are eager to teach. Lack of experience in teaching in English and also advanced training is what is hindering the school teachers.

School uniforms are provided by the Govt, but only one pair, so me with the support of family members contributed towards uniforms to about 250 children. I purchased the cloth from Chickpet, Bangalore and got them tailored - Costed about 250 rupees a pair.

 

Science Fair at High School in Jan 2011.

A Science fair was conducted at the High School where about 5 nearby schools and 300 students benefitted from this . Below are some pictures.

This van had about 30 experiments, and 4-5 instructors who came in the day before and set up the lab - in preparation for the students and demos the following day.

Students at the fair,  The format was few students were selected who were first guided and taught the topics( and good at oratory skills )
These children would demo the kit to the other visiting students from different schools.

One of the apparatus.

SSLC Results -2011

Idgur School results for exams held in March 2011 was 88.88%

Distinction -5
First class- 30
Total students attempted -
Number of failed students -
Total pass percentage =
1st  class = (30 /145  X 100 )  
2nd class = ( x / y X 100 )
Just passed = ( x /y X 100 )