Yesterday I went out to the surrounding villages of Kolkata (about 1.5 hours outside of the city by bus) with a group of about 150-200 Loreto Day School students. Every Loreto student in class five and above is responsible for teaching younger students at the overcrowded, underfunded rural government schools one Thursday a month. The students are given complete responsibility for the classes (of about 30-50 students), and it was really impressive to watch how well they did. The bus simply stopped every few minutes and dropped off the students in groups of 6-10, and they then walk the rest of the way (upwards of 40 minutes) to the schools.
Unfortunately my camera battery died midway through the day, but I still got a few decent shots:
This is the school that I visited - it had around 200 students split among four rooms:
Below is a picture of the school's 2nd grade students - I talked to them briefly about America with some translating help from one of the Loreto students.
The last two pictures are shots of Loreto students in action:
2 comments:
Are the kids in the rural schools like this appreciably different in appearance, seeming happiness, and interest level in school than the kids in the city schools?
Seeing these kids sitting so reverently on the concrete floor makes me want to kick myself 15 years ago for complaining about uncomfortable school chairs. All three of the SA posse just got to spend some time teaching in the township schools here, which was quite a week. I hope your experience was equally educational and fulfilling...
All the best and safe travels buddy...
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