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People

Story of the Youth who Left Delhi to Build School in Udaipur’s Villages

Rahul Dubey was mere 19-year-old when he graduated from the Delhi University and came down to Udaipur for a three-month internship. He says ‘I was always a bright child and used to get great grades in school and college and so proceeded with mathematics in my academics. But this wasn’t what I wanted to do in my life. Another reason why I came to Udaipur was to find out what I really love.’

In 2012, what started as a three-month-long unpaid internship at Kherwara, a tribal village in Udaipur district became a turning point in his life. From a city like Delhi to a village in Kherwada, this was the first time for Rahul when he was witnessing the life there including huts, cows, farming, along with the issues like scarcity of water and electricity.

During his internship, he was meant to teach basic subjects to the children of a government school. It was the first time when he came across the education system there where the teachers didn’t use to come to the school, a single teacher was assigned to attend 80 students at once, many children used to drop out, many never came to the school, poor infrastructure and facilities was a huge void and all these issues disappointed him. Maybe that’s what made him stay a little longer.

So just after three weeks, he decided to extend his stay for 3 more months. In this time period, he removed all those barriers which were stopping him to achieve what he wanted. He worked on the language barrier as the language ‘wagdi’ was spoken in the village, he stayed at the houses of the natives, understood the customs and culture there, got involved in their festivals and rituals and he says “the journey was so wonderful that today it has been 7 years since he has been in this village and it feels like it was just yesterday. However, so much has changed all this while. The organization, Alfa Educational Society, where I started as a mere volunteer has my guidance now as a CEO.”

 

This is how the school ‘Village Spirit Academy’ fell into place!

Back in the year 2013, Rahul went to Nepal for another internship of his where he saw the natives, as well as other interns from different parts of the world, renovating a very poor conditioned school made out of bamboo on a hilly area. It was a very difficult project but no one there was ready to quit. The interns, never bothered about other worldly inhibitions, gave in everything in the school. The entire episode seeded the idea of making his own school in Rahul’s mind.

This school was to be made on the land of Lokesh Kalal, Rahul’s friend and the founder of Alfa Educational Society, and on 1st July 2016, the school was officially registered. On the very first day, they received a total of 99 admissions from the village.

Rahul wanted to build a school which turns out to be an ideal space for the children to learn and study even in the harsh climatic conditions including the scorching summer and aggressive monsoons. There were several problems awaiting their journey ahead.

After a lot of struggle and research, they finally got in touch with the architects of Chennai who helped them take another step towards their dream. Another challenge was the funding for the school. Since Rahul didn’t want to take up corporate funding, he organized an online portal for crowdfunding and received great support from people all around the world gathering an amount of 6 lac rupees.

For several days Rahul burnt the midnight oil to build an eco-friendly school made with huge mud blocks that could sustain the harshness of the climatic conditions. And all his efforts paid off in the year when his school ‘village spirit academy’ finally took a shape. He says that they might not have luxurious facilities in their school like fancy speakers, massive playground, LCD, but the structure of the school is such that it is fire resistant, sound resistant, earthquake resistant, and also adapts to the climatic temperature very efficiently. Children are happy and satisfied studying here.

“When the school was in its building phase, the round structure of the school made villagers think that we were building a church and will tell the students to convert. But when it got completed and they saw that it was an ordinary school, they became decisive.” Rahul funnily says.

Republic day celebration | Before
Republic day celebration | After

How Did your Parents React to your Decision to Leave Delhi?

I belong to a very strong academic background. As every Indian parent would do, mine also wanted me to opt for secure and mainstream career options, and so apparently they were highly reluctant of my choices. During my internship period, which got unexpectedly extended, they were very concerned about where am I heading towards in my life, which clearly reflected in every phone call of theirs. They would tell me why I wanted to shift from a city to a village when everyone else was doing the opposite.

I remember them telling to continue my education and head for a master’s degree and so I enrolled in a college in Udaipur for Masters in Social Work, somewhere 100 km from my village. To attend college, I used to catch a bus at 5:30 in the morning and came to the village on the same bus by 7:30. Thereafter, I managed the school and NGO work and slept by 2:30 am and followed the same schedule every day.

One day I was traveling in the bus like any other day sitting on the ground of the bus when I received a call from the college. I heard someone saying that I had topped the University. When I communicated this to my mother, she would hardly believe that I even enrolled in a college and asked me to send the pictures of my fee receipts first.

It was actually the time which taught all of us, me to follow my dreams and them to understand my passion and let me do what I love.

Do you have any feedback or suggestions? Share it in the comment section below or write to me at juhee@udaipurblog.com

Categories
News

International Qualifications for Udaipur’s School Going Children

University of Cambridge

With tremendous growth now parents of Udaipur can afford international qualifications for their school going children. Especially those who are planning to send their children abroad for higher education. Unfortunately at present there is no school offering international qualifications in Udaipur, but IB and IGCSE are quite common options the parents of Udaipur recognizing now. Presently these curriculum’s are limited to elite class and upper middle class, as these curriculum’s demand for little higher fee structure.

International Baccalaureate, popularly known as IB (www.ibo.org), is running its programme in more than 100 countries since 1960. The IB Curriculum is designed as an academically challenging and balanced programme of education with international examinations that prepares students, for success at university and life beyond.

The IB curriculum is divided into three levels, PYP (Primary Year Programme) is for Primary years, MYP (Middle Year Programme) for middle school students and DP (Diploma Programme) for senior secondary level students. IB has gained recognition and respect from the world’s leading universities and boards.

The programme:

  • provides a package of education that balances subject breadth and depth, and considers the nature of knowledge across disciplines.
  • encourages international-mindedness in IB students, starting with a foundation in their own language and culture developed a positive attitude to learning that encourages one to become lifelong learner.
  • gains a reputation for its rigorous external assessment with published global standards.
  • emphasizes the development of the whole student–physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically.

So far, India has 74 IB schools. IB curriculum is exclusive for children belong to upper middle class and the rich.  Its fee structure is anytime higher than the RBSE and CBSE schools. Out of these 74 IB schools Rajasthan has just two schools offering IB Curriculum at present and a few are in the process to get affiliation. Interestingly these two IB schools claim that the fee in these schools is the least in India. They charge somewhere between Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh per annum. A few IB schools in Delhi and Mumbai charge as far as Rs 6 lakh to 9 lakh per annum.

IB students have an edge in appearing for exams like CET, PMT, IIT, BMS, CPT and CLAT. They are better equipped due to the in-depth self-study undertaken during the IB Programme.  The assessment of students is done through internal tests, projects, portfolios, commentaries and essays. Even participation in community service is assessed.

The main highlight of this curriculum is that many universities in the UK and US award transfer credits to IB Diploma graduates. These credits could translate into saving from six months to a year during the undergraduate degree courses.

The Association of Indian Universities (www.aiu.org) recognizes the IB Diploma (Class XII) equivalent to plus two class of CBSE, ICSE and other state boards.

Cambridge International Examinations (www.cie.org.uk) is another famous international curriculum which is spreading at very fast pace in India. Like IB, CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) is also outspreaded in more than 120 countries; Cambridge International Examination is a part of Cambridge University UK.

The University of Cambridge International Examinations hands out various qualifications. For Primary level CIE offers CIPP (Cambridge International Primary Programme), for Middle school Secondary Level-1 and Level-2 are on offer which includes Checkpoint for Grade 8, for Grade 9 and 10 exams like IGCSE, O-Level and ICE. And for plus two level students CIE offer A-Level programme.

At present there are 254 CIE-affiliated schools in India, with around 8 of them in Rajasthan. These eight schools offer different Cambridge International Examination programmes like Checkpoint, IGCSE, ICE, O and A level Exams.

Its IGCSE programme is the most popular programme in the world among 14 to 16 year age group. The main highlights of this programme are wide range of subject options, division of each subject as per the learner’s capabilities as core and extended level, and the most interesting one is on gaining C grade or up, in English as first language or as second language, the IGCSE student needs not to get into TOEFL and IELTS Exams. IGCSE English with Grade C or up is widely accepted by all Anglophone countries like UK, US, Australia, NZ, Canada and SA.

IB and CIE Curriculums are becoming popular day by day in India and Udaipur is also becoming familiar with these terms. If you want to know more you can get in touch with these boards by visiting their websites WWW.IBO.ORG  and WWW.CIE.ORG.UK.

Post by : Pradeep Sharma

Categories
Social

Cycle Rally to Increase Awareness about Health on World Health Day

World Health Day

A group of over 20 students on bicycles with posters, over 75 pedestrians with slogans and an experienced team of Hangout Adventures guiding the students all the way – that’s how the rally organised by Seedling Modern Public School and Hangout Adventures was like. This joint initiative was taken in order to increase awareness about health and to promote cycling as a healthy and green mode of transportation on the occasion of the World Health Day.

In the morning around 7:30am, about 20 students aged 10-16yrs started gathering at Madhuvan, in front of the Firefox Bike Station. Full of energy, students were motivated and guided by the teachers and the team at Hangout Adventures. Within minutes, the students were ready with the posters attached to their cycles and were all set for the rally. After starting the rally at Madhuvan, the riders went to Sukhadiya
Circle from where they pedalled all the way to Fatah Sagar. At Fatah Sagar, the rally was joined by several pedestrians from the Seedling School. Several students were cheering about healthy living and they were joined by other people passing by. From Fatah Sagar, the rally went on to Chetak Circle and took a stop at Madhuvan.

Some of the slogans used in the rally were:

Easy on the pedal, gentle on the brake, save both cash and petrol, the
environment’s at stake

The greatest wealth is health

Disease is somatic, the suffering from it, psychic

Cycle: It saves petrol and keeps you fit

Gold that buys health can never be ill spent

Save petrol: For it is the oil of life!

Check out the pictures from the rally. Well done guys!

Post By: Rohit Gautam 🙂

Categories
News

Janmashtami and Teachers Day Celebration In St. Anthony’s, Hiran Magri

Fancy Dress

Today, Janmashtami and Teachers Day Celebration Was Held in St. Anthony’s Senior Secondary School, Hiran Magri.  Primary Class Students had a Fancy Dress Competition alongwith Teacher’s Day Celebration where all the Teachers and The Staff Members of the School were Presented with Gifts. It was a Joyous Atmosphere in the Whole School. 🙂

Thanks to Vice PrincipalMrs. Jessy D’souza for providing us with all these Photographs of The Celebration held at School. She Also Extend her Wishes to All The UdaipurBlog Readers On The Occasion of Janmashtami and The Arriving Teacher’s Day. 🙂

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More

Central Academy – Best School 2010

Central Academy Udaipur

The Results Of The Online Competition is Out And Central Academy, Udaipur Bags The BEST SCHOOL OF UDAIPUR.

UdaipurBlog Team Congratulates Central Academy Team Lead by Lokesh Motwani who did a Lot of Hard Work to Get Maximum Votes to his School. We Feel That is was Great Response Of Many School Students who Voted Online.

We Would Also Like to Congratulate Other Team. We Will Keep On Conducting Such Fun and Masti Polls , Quizzes Online. With Your Support. 🙂

And The Results Follows:

  1. Central Academy School (27%, 80 Votes)
  2. St. Pauls School (22%, 66 Votes)
  3. St. Anthony’s School (14%, 40 Votes)
  4. Kendriya Vidhyala (13%, 38 Votes)
  5. Alok School (7%, 20 Votes)
  6. St. Mary’s School (4%, 13 Votes)
  7. Other(Please Tell in Comment) (4%, 13 Votes)
  8. St. Gregorious School (3%, 9 Votes)
  9. Maharana Mewar School (3%, 8 Votes)
  10. Delhi Public School (2%, 5 Votes)
  11. The Study (1%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 295

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Featured Udaipur Speaks

Best School Of Udaipur Competition

Best school of Udaipur

Udaipur Here It Goes, The Competition for the Best School Of Udaipur Online. The First Ever Competition Held Online For and By The Youth Of Udaipur.  The Aim Of This Competition is to Encourage the Youth to Participate in ‘USEFUL’  Online Activities of Udaipur. Rather Than Just Muggling Around On Internet.

Maybe Here is A chance for You All To Show Your Love towards your School And Make It Outshine Online.

Contest Will Starts Today -> 5-08-2010 And Will Be Ending In One Week on 12-08-2010.

So What Are You Waiting For Hit Down The Poll Below For The Best School or Your Own School In Udaipur. ROCK ON!!!!!!


CENTRAL ACADEMY, SARDARPURA WAS RATED THE BEST SCHOOL ACCORDING TO THE VOTES. 🙂