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About Aarohi Bal Sansar (ABS)

Since its inception in 1994, ABS has been growing steadily and continues to work at raising the standard of education of the local children in the area. ABS has been functioning with the aim to institute the process of social change at an early age in order to help children become responsible citizens of society. There are currently 174 students (80 girls and 94 boys) studying in ABS. The school manages to maintain the teacher-student ratio of 1:11, which is far better than national standards, which can be as high as 1:50.

 ABS Vision

The vision of ABS is ‘Holistic development of personality in a joyful environment’. Towards this end, ABS is an inclusive school where admission is granted to all children from the area devoid of any discrimination. We charge a nominal monthly fee of (INR 250, CHF) and for those families who are unable to afford this, we provide scholarships. Nearly 80% of students at ABS are sponsored through a scholarship.

 Academic Performance

High academic performance remains a challenge for us at ABS as most of our students are first generation learners and have little support for their studies at home. Working in these conditions, our focus now is to institute systems that enable our teachers to work around these challenges.

 Recording and Analyzing Test Results: We studied Maths performance for classes 1-8 by looking at monthly class tests and half yearly exams. It was apparent that most students who are not performing well in math are actually bright but need assistance with some aspects of the subject- like multiplication or division. It emerged that with slight changes in teaching methodology these problems could be dealt with. This information will now be used by our class teachers and remedial teachers to address their performance.

 Extra-Curricular Activities: Highlights

• First prize in Kho Kho for Primary category at Cluster, Block and District Level.
• Independence Day, Teacher’s Day and Children’s Day were celebrated with usual enthusiasm. They were dance performances, art competitions and poem recitations.

 Bal Sansar Scholarship

Those children whose parents cannot afford the monthly fee at ABS are eligible for this scholarship. These children can study at neighbouring government schools at no cost but their families aspire for them to be able to study at a school like ABS. This puts in perspective the significance of this scholarship scheme. This scholarship scheme is reviewed every year in June. As per this year’s figures so far (June 2014), there are 55 students benefitting from this scholarship scheme. Next batch of scholarships will be reviewed in June 2015.

 Volunteers: A few select Volunteers…

 Gina Ali Khan (English teacher specialized in phonics from Mercedez Benz International School in Pune).

• Conducted sessions with teachers about learning goals and gaps observed in the teaching of English.
• Created strategies to improve phonics of both children and teachers.
• Introduced the practice of collaborative meeting of English teachers at the primary level introducing the use of music and art/ craft when teaching English.

 Elizabeth Bramston and Fiona McCutcheon (Trained teachers from University of Cambridge).

• Helped teachers in English language teaching and building tools for vocabulary learning.

 Neha Jacob (CA and Company Secretar with Ernst & Young)

• Helped develop a format to analyze exam results enabling teachers to identify and address weak student performances more efficiently.

 Other news

 ABS has a 2nd floor

On 17th August, the new second floor of ABS building was inaugurated. The floor has one spacious art and craft room; one computer lab with 15 computers and internet; and finally a private office for our Principal. The new rooms shall allow for more space for primary school children.

 Education Steering Committee Meeting

Aarohi Education Steering Committee is an informal body of 10 members. It convenes twice year. On 8th November 2014, the 2nd Steering Committee Meeting for 2014 was held at Aarohi offices.

Main points of discussion and action points:

• Revisit the ‘vision’ and ‘mission’ of ABS. Keeping up with its growth pattern and overall development issues in the region, a need was felt to revisit the founding guidelines for this initiative.
• Shape and conceptualize Aarohi’s overall education initiative with respect to the needs of the region. Four main points were discussed-

-Streamline processes and effect better academic performance of students at ABS.

-Collaborate with government and other private schools in the region in order to provide quality education to more children in the region. The focus of this intervention shall be early learning and primary education.

-To increase community involvement in the education of their children.

- Finally, to continue expanding ABS infrastructure in order to make available facilities for use by other schools and community at large, in the region.

 New Appointments

 Education Co-coordinator

Rachana RK joined Aarohi as the new Education Coordinator in June 2014. She holds a Masters degree in Social Work. She will be responsible for overall management of ABS and time to time will also assist in our education expansion efforts.

 Primary School Principal

In an effort to restructure ABS administration, in addition to the Principal and Vice Principal, we now have a separate Principal for Kindergarten and Primary School. Neema Rajput has been teaching class 2 at ABS for many years now and has also recently qualified professionally as a teacher by attaining her B.Ed (this a professional qualification granted by the government of India). In addition to teaching class 2 students, Neema shall be responsible for overall management of teacher and student performances at Kindergarten and Primary School.