In order to educate as many children as we can, we get our brightest children to apply for other schools, which we feel have better facilities and can give them a good education. One of the main schools we use is Navodaya Vidyalaya, set up by the Indian Government for gifted children in rural India. We currently have 30 children in these type of schools.
However, our thoughts were dashed recently by three children who separately approached Mukesh and asked if they could come back to Project Mala. They said they were not learning anything and commented that the teachers did not care about teaching.
What was most impressive is that the children made the decision to return themselves as they don't have educated parents to decide for them. The children felt that if they were going to progress their education they needed to come back to Project Mala.
This is a big compliment to our teaching staff but we now need to re-consider our policy about placing children in other schools and also what to do about the children currently in these schools.
On behalf of all at Project Mala I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
