A Silent Revolution - Helping the helpless

The results of the higher secondary and secondary school examinations conducted by CBSE were announced recently. The performance of the students of Shoshit Samadhan Kendra was indeed commendable. Out of the seven students who appeared for class XII examinations, all except one obtained first division. One out of the seven scored 59% missing his first division by a narrow margin.

The performance of SSK students in class X was even better. Out of the 14 boys who appeared 2 scored a perfect 10 CGPA while 5 students got 9 and above CGPA. The average was 8.8 CGPA which would compare favorably with the better schools in India. The students of SSK are all first generation learners coming from families who are among the poorest of the poor. The results are indeed heartening and buttresses the vision of Shoshit Seva Sangh that given the opportunity the students of SSK can surely make a quantum jump in life and become catalysts of change in their community.  

A team from Bollywood had conducted a workshop on film making in the school in December, 2016. The students made two short films entitled ‘Zindagi EK Deal’ and ‘Lothwa’.  These two films alongwith a few films produced by some other schools for underprivileged children were screened in a film festival in Mumbai. The Jury comprised celebrities of Bollywood. The films produced by the students of SSK won the ‘best actor’ and the ‘best screenplay’ awards. Special mention was made of the two films produced by SSK students by some member of the Jury.

Some important developments have taken place recently with regard to Shoshit Samadhan Kendra, the fully free English medium residential school for the poorest of the poor, run by Shoshit Seva Sangh. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) granted affiliation to Shoshit Samadhan Kendra for +2 level for humanities and science streams. The school had got CBSE affiliation upto class X in 2014. The grant of +2 affiliation by the CBSE is a recognition of the high quality of the facilities and teaching faculty at SSK. The CBSE had sent an inspection team comprising two senior Principals of CBSE schools in February, 2016, to assess and evaluate SSK and its fitness for recognition for +2 level affiliation.

To further improve the sports facilities at the residential school which now has 400 students, project ‘Dronacharya’ was launched in September, 2016. Fortunately, funds could be raised to finance the employment of well-trained part-time coaches for various activities such as basket-ball, volley-ball, hockey, badminton, kho-kho/kabbadi, martial-arts and yoga. The students of SSS participate in sports activities for two hours daily under the watchful eyes of the coaches. This has had a marked impact on the health, personality and discipline of the students. They now have a packed but a very interesting and purposeful daily routine.

The school also acquired a 40 seater bus which is mainly used for excursion trips for the students on weekends. They are taken-out in batches on Sundays and holidays. They go on both educational and recreational trips within the city and its outskirts.

A trainer for English language has been appointed and he takes classes to improve the spoken English ability of the students. The library of the school has been augmented and the students routinely read novels and story books as well as write book-reviews. The first semester exams were held in September, 2016 and the performance of the students was commendable. The average marks of all the classes beginning UKG to Class XII was over 70% with many students scoring more than 90%.  The students are now preparing for the annual examinations including board examinations for classes X and XII in March, 2017.

On the occasion of the Republic Day on 26^th January, 2017, there was a flag hoisting function at the school. The students put-up a high quality PT display and an exhibition of martial-arts. Of particular interest was the display of martial-arts by a primary school student about 7 years old. Some photographs of the event are attached.