It's a New School Year in India

March and April mark the beginning of India’s new school year so TIG’s founder, Paul Ramsey spent last month there checking on the progress of all our students while helping the older students make some big educational decisions.  We’re pleased to report that overall, the students are doing well. However, it’s also become abundantly clear that two years of online learning during Covid has impacted our weaker students. Some of them need more intensive subject specific tutoring so we are hiring new tutors in Delhi and Varanasi. 



It also became obvious that we needed to hire someone to assist our high school students in earlier planning and preparation for what happens after high school, whether they end school with a 10th grade certificate or hope to attend university. Their overwhelmed parents have high hopes but no experience with school or occupations outside of their own as farmers, tuk tuk drivers and boatmen. TIG has hired Mrs. Hanote, one of our Khajuraho tutors/teachers, to work with all our high school students helping them research post-secondary possibilities and create a plan with them and their parents.

The Delhi Field Trip

TIG funded a Delhi field trip for our interested high school students to give them an opportunity to explore post-secondary opportunities and careers. Organized by Paul and our Khajuraho art teacher, five of our high school students traveled to Delhi in April to visit three private art schools, two government colleges and the Delhi National Museum. They were able to talk to students and admissions officials providing them and TIG with some information about post-secondary entrance requirements and costs.

2023 High School Graduates

TIG now has four high school graduates! Two Khajuraho area students graduated from high school this spring. Sakshi is an excellent student and a gifted athlete who had hoped to enter the military. Unfortunately, she has a tattoo which the military forbids, so Mrs. Hanote is working with her to explore the possibility of attending university to become a physical education teacher. 

Ajay entered the TIG program at age thirteen having dropped out of school when his sister, the only one who could help him with schoolwork, married and moved away. TIG provided him with intensive personalized tutoring to help him catch up. Two years ago, TIG enrolled him in a vocational high school, and this year, at age twenty, Ajay completed his 10th grade certificate. He is interested in studying for the entrance exam to attend an electronics trade program.

The Newest TIG Students

In our Varanasi family news, Govinda and Meera welcomed their seventh child into the family this winter. Some of you may remember Annu, one of the first children TIG assisted with medical care. When a small child, Annu fell into a cooking fire suffering disfiguring burns on her face and hands which made her chances of marriage difficult. TIG paid for her to have plastic surgery and Annu married six months later. She and her husband live in the Punjab area of India and now have two sons. TIG had previously decided to not enroll more children in our program given our financial constraints and the increasingly expensive educational needs of our current children. However, we already provide schooling for Annu’s siblings. Despite never attending school herself Annu is a committed parent who wants her children to be educated. She travelled nine hours by train with them to meet with Paul to plead that we enroll her oldest son in school. The TIG Board decided to admit Annu’s family into the program and while Paul was in India, he travelled to Pathankot to visit potential schools with Annu and enroll her oldest son, Aryan.