Meet the students of VPak! The village has two schools: a primary school for 1st to 5th graders and a secondary school for 6th to 12th graders. The primary school is an English medium school, meaning the students are primarily taught in English. It is also a model school, meaning the government provides more funding for curriculum enrichment. The teachers emphasize the importance of hands-on learning and positive reinforcement. They use creative techniques and lesson plans to teach their students. For example, the teachers put on puppet shows to expose students to complex vocabulary.
The secondary school is a Tamil medium school and it is not a model school like the primary school. It is made up of 22 teachers and 12 classrooms.
Many of the students end up going to a local college, and a lot of them pursue a career in engineering or economics. However, after COVID, the headmaster of the secondary school expressed how there was a lower attention span and interest in the high schools for pursuing higher education after secondary school. The headmaster has tried to increase morale among students and inspire the students to pursue opportunities they receive by bringing in guest speakers including college students that have gone to university outside of the village. This has been successful in encouraging a few students and the parents to allow the students to take advantage of the opportunity of going to a model high school. Bringing in guest speakers could be a continued way that RISHI could help to encourage and increase morale among students.
After school, students engage in activities like playing cricket, dancing and helping their parents around the house. The young girls are responsible for doing household chores like collecting water and taking care of the cows. A lot of students attend tutoring sessions after school to review material and prepare for their tests. Since there are not many organized extracurricular opportunities for students, our Education committee is developing an initiative to encourage students to be more active in the community.