Help disadvantaged Bengali children + young people

Last year I wrote about the Art classes that take place as an extra-curricular activity at the New Life Centre on a Saturday so that the children who are keen to do even more Art classes than their curriculum allows can pursue this. This year Alindra Naskar, the Director of the school, has introduced extra -curricular music and karate.

The karate is proving to be very popular as the photos show, with girls and boys alike. When I spoke to Alindra recently he told me that he was initially reticent about the karate classes as he didn’t want the children to become aggressive, but he realised that this Martial Art was about instilling discipline in movement and action.

It is also encouraging to see a mixed class of boys and girls showing equal opportunity in a society, when according to Unicef ‘most women and girls in India do not fully enjoy many of their rights due to deeply entrenched patriarchal views, norms, traditions and structures.’

This highlights the ethos of this exceptional school.; a community which embraces the holistic nature of education. The academic results are important as this area of rural Bengal has been neglected in the past, and the older generation have lived at a subsistence level, so it is important that their children have the best possible chances in life.

However, Alindra recognises in a very prescient way, as is evident from further education in the west, that when academic results are higher across the board, it is the extra-curricular activities that enhance the overall C.V. and proves the breadth of education.

Breadth of vision has epitomised this school from the start, and these new classes are just another example of this.

Wouldn’t you like to be a part of this community?

Outstanding Exam results

Alindra is rightly proud of the New Life Centre (NLC) Board exam results this year, both in terms of those at 16+ who are leaving the school for further education, and those who left two years ago and are now applying to University. 100% pass rate for those at 16 is no mean feat!

All of those who passed their Board Exam at 16 are going on to further education at Senior Secondary schools in the area. Admittedly this is not a large number, as unfortunately the parents are enticed to go to the local Government schools for Secondary as they are given financial incentives! There are generally 8 – 10 students remaining, whose parents recognise the long term value of remaining in education as opposed to the short-term financial gain. This is unsurprising as the majority of the parents in this area have had little or no education.

You cannot underestimate the grounding that the NLC provides, so that even if as happens those who leave at 16 find themselves in classes of 100+ in Senior Secondary schools as I mentioned in March, they have the discipline and understanding of what is necessary to complete their courses. And so it was that this year those who weathered the storm of those exceptionally large classes are now destined for further education.

All of those who passed their Board exam two years ago at the NLC are therefore enrolled in University courses ranging from English Honours, Bengali to Pharmacy.

One of the alumni Trisit, is the son of Tumpa a teacher in the school whom I met first in 2010…and 13 years later, we were still meeting up and celebrating Diwali together.

Tumpa’s son, Trisit, a delightful young man, has just been accepted to study Pharmacology at University.

20 years after Alindra Naskar founded the school, his vision of educating a local population is being realised, perhaps not in the numbers he hoped for or expected, but in other ways that matter.