Rural Senior Secondary School, Jalundhar, Part I

KHALSA SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL, JALUNDHAR

This was one of our most moving experiences because of the innocence of the children, candidness of the mostly female teachers, and genuine concern of the village panchayat (local village government) about the welfare of their children. They greeted us with open arms and pure excitement at our arrival to the Khalsa Public School. This is the ancestral village of some of my relatives and since this was my first trip to this village, it was very special.

Here is the school committee greeting us on our arrival. "Welcome" inscribed and a flower drawn in chalk.

School Comittee members, teachers, students, and our group on our arrival.

During our visit to the school, we interviewed 3 teachers in various subjects: Punjabi language, Arts & Craft, and Mathematics.
They were very candid about the conditions of the schools, the lack of education support, and zero technology for students. We also asked them about issues of infanticide, domestic violence, and caste discriminations. We recieved very informative responses which I will discuss in a future post.

Their charisma was contagious, and we found it all too unfortunate that there is a lack of public resources for these women to expand their horizons, make use of technology to teach their classes, and to educate other women to enhance their status. We decided that we would create future projects that could potentially be sustainable for these women and children. The committee of the school, although very generous, open and dedicated to improving the school, were mostly uneducated themselves, which makes it hard to provide the children with what they need. Outside resources, international involvement, philanthropic interest, and dedicated individuals who are educated could help turn this village around.

Rebecca really got the children excited with her IPod, something they have never heard of. We took a poll and asked over 100 students if they have used a computer, and we had one boy said he has one time. There are well over 700 students and not a single computer. The school is comprised of Punjabi students who are of Sikh, Hindu and Christian faiths

Lisa taking part in class! These students who were so eager to learn.