Greetings from OPEN. We wish everyone a Happy 75th India Independence Day. Education is returning to normal in India. We are seeing a post-Covid bump in applications into our IGNITE scholarship program and are scaling up our normal budget by 35%. We are also scaling up the budget for our English supplemental program, to benefit 3400 children in 9 Government schools in Chennai. Government school K-12 children have been massively affected by school closures during the pandemic. Since children are poor, there was no attempt to provide online education. The state government of Tamil Nadu has called for make-up evening classes and is hiring special teachers for these classes.
Post-secondary education: Ignite scholarship program
This program is returning to normal strength. We saw a big bump in applications from fresh students, and expect to accept around 50 students, and a fresh crop of 16 students from the IRT Polytechnic College. We expect our budget for this academic year to be around $30,000, benefiting 110 children.
Students are predominantly in college for B.Com., B.Sc., 3 year Polytechnic, or 4-year Engineering degrees. Most students in this program are poor, with average family income of Rs. 8,000 per month, and we only admit new students to this program after income verification and house visits (or video calls, as appropriate in these pandemic times).
In partnership with the IRT (Institute of Road Transport) Polytechnic College, we expect to induct a fresh batch of 16 students in addition to the students who respond to our normal applications process (we already have 32 IRT students from the last year). The IRT program has been a success - though annual tuition is only Rs.9,000, it is still a hardship for families with multiple children, especially families that have seen income destruction during the pandemic. Graduates are getting entry level jobs at monthly salaries averaging Rs.10,000. Since we aren't able to conduct live counseling sessions, and exams are being conducted on an ad-hoc basis by the different colleges and polytechnics, it has been difficult to run this program in orderly fashion.
We are still waiting on results from the final year students of the 2021-22 academic year. On average, 80% of final year students have graduated on time and half of those on-time graduates have obtained jobs or planned for higher studies at the time of graduation, which is very creditable for such a disadvantaged cohort.
Supplemental education: English classes by Vidyarambam
We continue working with Vidyarambam Trust to bring their Easy Learning English and Math supplemental programs to partner schools in Chennai. Our budget for academic year 2021-22 was $10,600. Government schools in Chennai opened in person after a 1 1/2 year shutdown due to Covid. Vidyarambam conducted an abbreviated one-quarter session at 4 schools for the Math program, benefiting approx 1500 students; and at 7 schools for the English program, benefiting approx 1900 students. The charts below show that children see marked improvement in their skills with supplemental coaching. We have approved an English supplemental class in 9 schools for 3400 children, mainly for classes 5-8 students at a budget of $35,000 approx for academic year 2022-23.
Supplemental education: Ashraya libraries, Book of the Month, Arts and Science, Computer clubs
The Ashraya Trust runs libraries and Science and Arts, Book of the Month and Computer clubs at 9 schools in rural Karnataka. As the pandemic closed schools, Ashraya pivoted to remote learning and teaching using smartphones and Zoom classes, and eventually to lessons loaded onto YouTube and streamed to low-cost Android tablets. Our budget for academic year 2021-22 was $4432. Ashraya was able to run annual day competitions for their children where the children uploaded their submissions using their tablet cameras, and teachers were able to grade them online.
Keeping slum children in school: After-school center run by Turning Point Trust
The Turning Point Trust aims to keep children of slum dwellers in Kannagi Nagar, Chennai, in school. An after-school center for 65 children is being supported by OPEN. Students come to the center for help with academics.The center continued to be open for children through the pandemic and was somewhat of a safe haven for these children. They were taken on a field trip to the Chennai Photo Bienniale at the Government Museum, Egmore. They performed a street play at Elephant Gate, Kannagi Nagar, on the dangers of alcoholism and on water conservation.
K-12 Education: Ganapathy Iyer Girls’ Higher Secondary School
We continue our support of Ganapathy Iyer Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Gopalapuram, Chennai, with tuition scholarships for poor children, and operating expenses for morning breakfast. All 34 children who wrote the Xth standard board exam passed, with 5 girls scoring above 400 marks out of 500.
OPEN needs you
The OPEN community has supported over 38,000 students in the past 18 years with over $1.1 million in grants. As always, our ability to fund these projects depends on your generosity. OPEN is a non-profit charitable foundation in India and in the U.S. Contributions in both countries are tax-deductible.
Contributions in USD may be made online or by check.
Checks payable to OPEN Inc. may be sent to one of:
Sriram Sankaran, 7213 Lembert Hills Dr, Dublin, CA 94558
Rajesh Ramadoss, 21 S Mountain Rd, Millburn, NJ 07041
Cheques in INR may be sent in favor of:
Open India Charitable Trust # 26/91, 3rd Street, Karpagam Avenue, R.A.Puram, Chennai - 600028 Phone : +91 77086-79797.
You may also donate online in INR thru NEFT/IMPS:
Bank: Canara Bank Branch: St. Mary’s Road, Chennai Account Number: 1 2871 01 01 8901 MICR Number: 60001 5037 IFSC Code Number: CNRB0001287
Please consider investing in India's future. To delay may mean to forget.