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Not another brick in the wall…
We are back, after a hiatus! When the British left the country, India had a literacy rate of about 12%. Though much progress has been made since and, as per the National Survey, the literacy rate has climbed to about 65% by 2001, India is still way below the world average of 85%. It accounts [...]
Prayatna
Albert Einstein once said that insanity is defined as trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. He probably said this in context of some scientific experiment, but this principle applies to almost every aspect of life, including primary education for children. When children don’t perform well at school, most of [...]
The Colours of Joy
In an earlier article, we had spoken about the huge potential for person-to-person lending in India and how DhanaX is tapping into this potential. Rang De is another organization working in this field. While DhanaX is a social business entrepreneurship, Rang De is a not-for-profit organization: this translates into a direct reduction in the interest [...]
Read along with the music
Years ago, waking up early on a Sunday morning was purely for a single purpose – to watch Rangoli. A song compilation feature on Doordarshan (DD), Rangoli, apart from the legendary Chitrahar was the only way to catch up with Bollywood hits on TV in those days. Though many of us have moved onto 24×7 [...]
Two cents of hope
If you ever walk down a busy street in the US, you will invariably find coins lying around. People generally do not pick them up. If you go into an average house in the US, you will find a “coin jar” where all the coins got from occasional cash transactions are stored. A cent or [...]
One school at a time
Many people (including me) firmly believe that rural education is the key to India’s success in the coming years. But unfortunately, UNESCO puts India’s adult literacy rate at a dismal 61%. Numerous organizations are working tirelessly to fill this void. OSAAT is one of them. OSAAT – “One school at a time” is a California [...]
Bamboo microscopes
Science is best learnt by conducting experiments. Children in “developed” countries have a much better science learning experience, thanks to the expensive lab equipment they get to use. Unfortunately, in “developing” countries, children hardly get to see science in action. There are many organizations trying to close this learning gap, and this article from Nature [...]