New Year gifts

Things are moving.

Hopefully we will give better gifts for the kids in the New year.

How about a nice children's movie collection for each school?

hmm.. not bad, should look at our funds!

Indian Schools Part 2

Yet another shocking incident happened last week. This time, close to home, in Hyderabad. On Saturday, parents demonstrated outside Sujatha high school protesting against the repeated caning of the students!

Why were the kids caned repeatedly over the last one month? Parents couldn't/wouldn't pay the hiked fee. The state government has ordered all the schools to stick to last year fees. Despite of this, Sujatha high school not only enforced the new fee structure, but started harassing the students.

This seems to be "Big-guy vs Small guy". Some of the children who failed to pay the fees were made to stand outside the classes, denied entrance into the exam hall for the first half hour. This is the action taken against the class X children who can't afford to miss classes and term exams. Obviously, at this time of the year, they can't afford to change schools. The school is trying to cash in on the parents and students desperation to have a smooth academic year. If all these punishments don't work, they can always go back to the basics - caning!

The school fees has increased from INR 3500 to 11,250 in three years. Yes!.. I can understand a steady economic growth in india. But I can't understand this ridiculous two hundred percent fee hike in three years!

Oh! we always have the international schools on the other hand. The concept of basic schooling - teachers who help the students evolve, don't beat up the children, schedules which don't kill the kids, extra-curricular activities, and a safe environment - has been magnified to such levels. International schools make us believe all such basic, implicit things about schooling are difficult to find and that this 'great degree of quality' comes at a price. An exorbitant price - no less than 1 Lakh rupees per year.

Well, it is wishful thinking that something like education (which is extremely important in a developing country like India) would be above the battle of 'Haves and the Have-nots.'

- Sivani

Indian Schools Part 1

Last week's incidents were hard to ignore.
Last Thursday, five girls were killed in a stampede while 35 others were seriously injured in a New Delhi school!
Yes, in a school..

The few known details of the story:
The children X, XI, XII classes of the school were supposed to take their first term examination.
There was a lot of confusion regarding the seating arrangement.
The boys in the school building were asked to go the first floor.
There were already a large number of girls in the first floor corridors and classrooms.
The boys started misbehaving with the girls! (in a school!? these kids are no older than 17!)
Out of panic, the girls started running down the narrow staircase resulting in a stampede .. which killed 5 girls and injured another 35 critically!

I can't help wondering how this could happen in a school, that too during exams, when all the administrative staff and teaching staff are supposed to be more vigilant.
How many children study at this school? The girl-students of 3 classes run down a staircase and it results in a stampede! Children run up and down staircases when they hear the morning school bell and the evening home bell!
Is the infra structure of the school in such a worse state that stampedes can happen?!

Secondly, Boys misbehaving with girls on finding them on the first floor?
What kind of school are these children going to.. just the sight of girl-students makes boys behave like animals?
What kind of school are these children going to.. girls panic at the sight of boys and run?
What kind of archaic/ghastly/prison-like school is this?.. which keeps students of opposite sex away from each other.
Don't they know the 'taboo factor' makes teenage kids behave in an ignorant and a negative way?

As much as we would like to believe, this is not an isolated incident. Similar things have happened in other states.
Many a time, small children, especially girls were made to strip as an act of punishment and humiliation.
Sometimes children have been tied to trees, made to stand in the scorching sun, caned to the point of death.
No wonder so many children hate the idea of schools and drop-out. They would rather go and work as manual labour.

What kind of teachers do we have in our schools?
It's not enough for India to officially declare teachers' day, children's day.
It's not enough for us to celebrate Saraswati puja and conduct other forms of reverence personifying teachers.
Let's for once stop living in the shadows of the past. Let's stop eroding the Indian culture concepts, just to cover up over nasty, humiliating deeds of today.

Arguably, many teachers in local schools, Zilla parishads do not undergo the proper teacher-training programs.
Many of them don't know how to handle a classroom. They sometimes don't even have an inclination to teach.
One of the biggest crimes committed in these kinds of schools is corporal punishments.
Some times children are even beaten by the teacher, just to satisfy his/her false ego!

Apart from being a crime, do we realize the idea we are putting in those tender minds?
Inducing corporal punishment is non-verbally saying : "I'm big, I can beat you up and no one will question me. I can get away with hurting you when ever I get angry"
This creates children who have a basic fear of being hurt by anyone or creates bullies who repeat the same acts inside and outside school. These characteristics grow with age, and start defining their personalities.

Why are there so many reports of sexual-exploitation in these kinds of schools? Looking at children as outlets for frustration and beating them is one big crime. But sexual exploitation and abuse!!
In many such cases in India, an investigation is taken up nominally, the teacher maybe dismissed or sometimes let go with a strong warning. On the other hand, in many countries, a teacher could get a lifer for these kind of crimes!

Wake up India! Its not enough to just provide the resources to educate the future generations. We have made mistakes! But let's for once stand up and say "Enough!" Let's clean up the system. Unless we address the roots of our problems, we can never create better future generation. Let's do it for them!

- Sivani

Here we come!..

This is our first post. Though it comes a little late, we plan to take C4K-India closer to people through our blog.

C4k was born in the summer of ’09. It started as a vision of three friends. Why did we feel compelled to make it a success?

Maybe, our humble backgrounds, dreams to be successful and attempts to make a difference in the world played a part in the decision.

But most importantly, we know the value of quality education. We realize how lucky we are to have technology in our lives. We also know how many children in India are deprived of the same opportunities, even when India’s economy is booming.

In a developing country like India, the right nourishment and quality education are two factors, which make a huge difference in a person’s life. The former takes care of health and productivity of a person, while the latter provides careers and economic stability. Together they provide a better quality of life for an individual.

At C4K, we are dedicated to improve the quality of education in the multitude of small schools for the poor. C4K is just not about teaching computers to children. We want to help these children dream big.

Arguably, children of low-income families have barely any role-models in their community to guide and inspire them. Our team - which includes our dedicated volunteers - strives to be a source of motivation and pillar of strength at intellectual, emotional and financial levels.

At C4K, we work to give these children a chance at a better life and bigger possibilities.