Greetings to the OPEN community. We wish everyone a happy holiday season, and a happy and prosperous New Year. We are glad to bring you this update on our activities for the second half of 2016.
Post-secondary education: Ignite Scholarship Program
We support 130 students through this scholarship program for academic year 2016-17. 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. 6000-8000 per month. Our budget for the 2016-2017 academic year is $23,000.
Our goals for these students are first, that they graduate, and second, that they obtain jobs. We conducted career counseling and resume preparation classes, and mock interview sessions, for these students in August-September 2016. Classes were held over 6 Sundays at Ganapathy Iyer School in Gopalapuram, to prepare students for campus interviews that are typically held in the first semester of the academic year. This particular set of classes were organized by OPEN, and funded by the Vignesh Educational Trust, the family trust of one of the OPEN board members, Sashikala Krishna.
The video below shows one of the children who came to our career counseling sessions in Feb-March 2016. The children were coached in resume-writing, interviewing, and public speaking, and on general career options for their particular skills.
Results-based education: Supplemental Classes by Vidyarambam
We continue working with Vidyarambam Trust to bring their Easy Learning English and Easy Learning Mathematics supplemental programs to 6 partner schools in Chennai. Over 1700 students were coached in English (classes 6-8) and Math (classes 1-5) during academic year 2015-2016. Our budget for the 2016-2017 academic year is $27,000, for 1700 students, at an annual cost/student of $16.50.
The video above shows a typical Vidyarambam class in action. It is heartening to see how engaged the children are in class.
The Easy Learning English coaching pre-post comparisons below show the great improvement in performance of the children from the diagnostic phase to the mid test phase for 2016-17. The vast majority of children progress from C grade (red bar) to A grade (green bar).
Results-based education: Ashraya libraries, Arts and Science Clubs
The Ashraya Foundation runs libraries and Science and Arts clubs at 9 schools in rural Karnataka. We support librarian salaries and salaries for Arts and Science teachers at 5 of these schools. The reading program is open to all students in classes 4-8, and the Arts and Science clubs are open to the best 20 students in classes 6-8 from each school. The reading level of all students is monitored, and remedial instructions are provided to the bottom 20% of each batch. The best 20 students are enrolled in a Book of the Month Club, and get to pick the best books and do book reports. The top 20 students at each school participate in the Arts and Science clubs. Ashraya are focusing their intervention on approximately the top 10%, and bottom 20%, of students. Our budget for academic year 2016-2017 is $6800, and we support 700 children in 5 schools, at an annual cost/student of approx $10.
Ashraya are also making a concerted effort to improve the reading of the 20% of students with a dedicated Kannada teacher who coaches weak students at each school for two sessions a week. The results below show that at least half of these weak students improve by at least one reading level.
Rural Education: Single Teacher Schools
We continue funding the Single Teacher program, run by the Swami Vivekananda Rural Development Society, for operating expenses for 5 schools (168 students) in Tiruvallur district in rural Tamil Nadu. One person teaches all children in the school, who study together though they may be in different grades. After completing Class 5, students are expected to continue education at regular schools.
Ongoing Projects
We continue our support of Ganapathy Iyer Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Gopalapuram, Chennai, with tuition scholarships for poor children, and operating expenses for after-school classes (chess, karate) and breakfast/evening snacks. This program benefits 170 children.
The Turning Point Trust aims to improve life skills for the children of slum dwellers in Rotary Nagar, Chennai. A Children's parliament, personality development classes, and first aid training classes are conducted on weekends to coach children on public speaking, and help is provided to perform homework.
We are sponsoring 10 children from the Malleswaram Shishu Vihar, Bangalore, with scholarships for school. We are funding after-school Math tuition classes for standards 6-8 in 3 schools in Bangalore, in collaboration with the Adarsh Colony CSRFoundation. We continue to fund computer teacher salaries at Somasundaram School in rural Tamil Nadu
OPEN key statistics, 2003 - June 2016
The OPEN community has supported over 25,000 students in the past 13 years. A breakdown of grants is shown in the chart above. We wish to point out that for infrastructure projects such as classrooms, only the students benefited in the year of the grant have been included in the student count. The actual student count is likely much higher, as a typical classroom can be used for 5+ years, and typical furniture for 3+ years.
OPEN Needs You
OPEN has been registered as a non-profit charitable foundation in India and in the U.S. Contributions in both countries are tax-deductible. As always, our ability to fund these projects depends on your generosity. Please use the year-end opportunity to contribute to the children of India, and save on your taxes. Checks payable to OPEN Inc. may be sent to Kumar or Rajesh at:
Kumar Thiagarajan, 25470 Gimbel Dr, South Riding, VA 20152
Rajesh Ramadoss, 38 Ocean St, Millburn, NJ 07041
Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to Sriram in India in favor of OPEN India Charitable Trust: