A Silent Revolution - Helping the helpless

The last quarter of 2015 was eventful at Shoshit Samadhan Kendra, the fully free English medium residential school run by Shoshit Seva Sangh for the poorest of the poor.

The half-yearly semester examinations were held in the first half of September. The overall results were encouraging and the students who obtained first three position in the class were given prizes for their performance by the Chairman of SSS. The prize  was T-shirt with ‘Topper’ printed at the back and this was greatly appreciated by the students.

‘Gray Matters’ an organization based in Hyderabad had done an assessment of the academic standard of Shoshit Samadhan Kendra in September, 2015. ‘Gray Matters’ have assessed over 1000 schools in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and this organization is supported by the Australian Council for Educational Research, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and The Teacher Foundation. ‘Gray Matters’ submitted their reports on SSK. It’s a lengthy report but attached are few graphs on the learning outcomes as assessed by Gray Matters in four subjects, namely, English, Maths, Science and General Ability. The report indicates that the standard of academic achievement / performance of the students of SSK was not only distinctly better than the national average, but also significantly better than the average performance of schools assessed by ‘Gray Matters’.

Diwali the festival of lights in India was celebrated with great enthusiasm by the students particularly the small children in the primary school. They enjoyed fire-works which many of them had not seen before. The faculty fully participated in the celebrations.

62 new children joined the school, Shoshit Samadhan Kendra at the commencement of the current academic year in June 2015. Some of the students had been victims of child labour working in factories for making glass bangles, knives etc. in as far away places as Hyderabad. The children mostly belong to Gaya and Nalanda districts of Bihar. They have been rescued by an NGO called ‘Justice & Care’ with headquarters at Bangalore. All the rescued children also belong to the musahar community. Most of the children admitted at the school were from various districts of Bihar. The focus was recruiting children from remote villages in the most backward districts of the state. For these children it was beginning of a new life of hope and opportunity.   

July is the special month for the school as on the 16^th of this month the school observed its 9^th Foundation Day. The students of the school put-up a grand cultural performance which included one act plays and song / dance performances. The students of the senior school enacted the court scene of Shakespeare’s play ‘Merchant of Venice’ . They also did scene from Mahabharat – Yaksh-Yudhisthir dialogue which has great philosophical  content. The younger children shown their prowess in dance. Mr. Y.M. Deosthalee, Chairman & Managing Director of L&T Finance Ltd., Mumbai,  was the Chief Guest and among several VIPs present there was a representative from multinationals such as IL&FS and HSBC. Senior functionaries of Justice & Care, a UK based NGO, were also present. Parents of the students from far and wide have come to watch their children perform on stage.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed with Riverside School, a leading school of the country based in Ahmadabad and Shoshit Seva Sangh which runs SSK to upgrade the teaching skills of the teachers at SSK. In pursuance of this Agreement to faculty members of the Riverside School were at SSK for a week conducting workshops and interacting with the teachers in the first half of July 2015. New teaching methods sharing of ideas and methodology  of cooperation between Riverside and SSK were the features of the workshop. 

Independence Day on August 15, 2015, was celebrated at the school with great enthusiasm by the students and the faculty. The Chief Guest of the occasion was Chairman of the Bihar State Electricity Board, Shri Pratyay Amrit, IAS. As usual members of the Patna branch of HSBC were present on the occasion and distributed refreshments to the students.

Shri Jitendra Dev Pandey ‘Vidyarthi’ joined SSK as Project Leader. He comes with a rich experience of working with communities and youth in Rajasthan as a Gandhi Fellow and Programme Leader. He holds a degree in Hindi, a masters in Journalism and has worked in theatre before. He will be focusing on the psycho-social development of students and being the interface between the community and school.

A feature on Shoshit Seva Sangh and its Founder-Chairman, J.K. Sinha, was telecast on a leading English Television Channel of India - Times Now under their programme ‘Amazing Indians’. This was telecast at prime-time on Saturday, August 29 and Sunday, August 30, 2015. The youtube link is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d9-YyUiWIU.