Success stories

10 success stories of school leadership innovation in slum /low income school, who brought some change in lives of those students by providing them free education.

1. 10 success stories of school leadership innovation

2. Video just do it

3. What is struggle in life and success l ife is full of twist and turns. Everyone has to struggle here in this world to overcome every obstacle in the way to success. For this hard work is necessary.withhout working hard and just by sitting idle it will be hard for one to get success.   “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” ------- Martin Luther Jr

4. Objective of report To draw inspiration from people who made impossible to possible. Who have met the height of success in their life by bringing some innovation in the field of education.

5. RAJESH KUMAR - FREE SCHOOL UNDER BRIDGE IN INDIA It is unusual school in unusual location and is run by unusual teacher. Rajesh Kumar a shopkeeper by profession spend hours every morning teaching around eighty students ,in his open air class room between pillars and beneath the track of Delhi Metro from Yamuna bank station . There are no chairs or tables and the children sit on roll of polystyrene foam placed on the rubble. Three rectangle patches are painted black and used as blackboard. Anonymous donor have contributed cardigans,books,shoes,and stationery for the children

6. Rajesh Kumar visited the construction of Delhi transit station, there he saw children playing at the site instead of going to school . “ When he questioned the parents working at the site they all said there were no school in vicinity and no one cared” This made him to start a school and provide a basic education to these slum children in order to bring a ray of hopes and help them in shaping their dreams.

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8. BABAR ALI – youngest headmaster of the world

9. BABAR ALI - world’s youngest HM making remarkable change in India The story of young man from Murshidabd in west Bengal is a remarkable tale of a desire to learn amid the direst poverty. He is only16 a teenager who is in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family's backyard, where he runs the classes for poor children in the village. Babar wakes at 7 in the morning, does some house hold work, then hires a auto and later walk 5 km to reach his school “ Cossimbazar Raj Govinda Sundari Vidyapeeth” where he is class9th student. Soon after his school he make his way to an afternoon school where he is a HM of 800 students. He started a school at age of nine Anand siksha Niketan . It is a dilapidated concrete structure covered in half tone posters.

10. Where the rows of under privileged kids sit under the open blue sky and learn what most children in modern world pay hundreds of dollars for free. Coming from a privileged family Babar realized that he must do something for the other children in the village. In 2002 his school got institutionalized, started mid day meal scheme. Today the school has got 60 regular attendees and over 220 students on roll call and 800 students in total, with 10 volunteer teachers teaching grade1 through 8. Babar has not only helped out hundreds of children to get enlightened but has also inspired millions of youth like us. This tale is a testament to the difference that one person can make his/her world. His story also bears evidence to the fact that “if you have a will then there is a way…..”

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12. MAGARET ATIENO OCHIENG –inspiring teacher Kibera the slum of Nairobi Kenney's largest slum inspire the story of a teacher Margaret who makes an effort for upliftment of education for the slum children. Her daily schedule starts at 4 in the morning, catch the bus and travel for 2 hr. to reach her school. She is the one who motivate students to learn and provide the basic education in order to read and write despite of being shortage of teachers. S he says “There is no training for how to teach in slum schools! they’re given training to teach anywhere where there are children — not even in a school! Even if there is no school but there are children, you teach under a tree!”

13. Despite of all difficulties and constraints she continues to do her job for the betterment of slum students. This is great achievement by Margaret or the Nobel cause taken up by her in poverty stricken country like Africa. she is a true inspiration for many such future success project in this field.

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15. BHIKUBHAI VYAS – this man made a promise to never leave his village A man who is 84 age now has decided in his younger age not to migrate from this village but to bring a wave of change and set his village as a example. He has been working tirelessly towards upliftment of his village through education,livelyhoods,awareness and more. Born in a small town – Valod, near Surat , he has been actively involved in education, community development and various environmental initiatives . He and his friend joined primary and secondary schools to help tribal community which was not approved by traditional leaders. Later they joined the Gandhian ashram as a teacher and got a chance to exclusively work for the trial community. It was a turning point of his life.  

16. After leaving ashram, vyas continued to serve in remote tribal village in valod taluk and started a high school there. Around 28 years back vyas and his wife visited a neighboring taluka,Dharmpur which come under valsad district and found that most of the people suffer from abject poverty and illiterate which is a tribal belt consist of 231 village. He founded a Vedchhi Pradesh Seva Samiti ( VPSS ) which helped in improving education standard of that village. Later he found that the school were very few and not practically functioning, with help of Tuff(a Swedish peace organisation)he started 50 night classes for adults and 50 balwadis in as many villages, to build up a closer rapport with the community, also started 20 Non-Formal Education [NFE] classes to tap youngsters.

17. Through VPSS a special emphasis was given to girl’s education and started a girl’s hostel for 11and 12 th classes near Bilpudi and donated a acre of land for tribal family. Apart from education development he also looked after holistic development of villages through VPSS he distributed 1,11,800 mango saplings, organized mass marriages covering 40 villages, wells were dug by community as shramdaan constructed 5 large rain water harvesting tanks and many more for upliftment of villages . Today, VPSS runs 6 primary schools, 2 high schools, 1 hostel for girls for higher secondary education and a scholarship scheme for university education, serving over 1000 students in total . Vyas believes that education should not be measured simply in monetary terms; as in the long term, it is going to generate new awareness and create quality leadership.

18. VIJAY KUMAR CHAUHAN - How A Library In A Village In Bihar Is Changing The Lives Of The Students Kumar Chauhan is a Bihari youth, born to a landless daily-wage-worker family. He migrated to Ludhiana at the young age of 15 for a job. The petty salary he received was not enough to support even his basic necessities. Hence, he decided to come back and continue his studies. He knew the power of education and also encouraged other students by giving them free lessons . He met Surya P rakash R ai a person with motive to improve educational scenario in Bihar. Which led to origin of PRAYOG by Surya Prakash Rai. PRAYOG library was set up in a community open space, first day they saw mere 5 students walking but within year’s time the library was hit and saw a regular students entering. .  

19. Another initiative taken by PRAYOG is to grab people’s attention that is by exposure visit where 5 students were selected to be a part of the visit. First visit was to Parivartan NGO and the second visit was in Bhutan ,it act as a confidence booster as many students started getting connected with them. PRAYOG Team prepare kids for debate and make them socially aware . Most of families were worried that their children from high community restricted children from backward class, thus Surya Prakash Rai took initiative of clearing illusion that persisted among them. . “Today , the same kids from all the communities stay together in the same room during exposure visits, hug each other, and share their food. It is a great achievement,”

20. Apart from lack of awareness, a low teacher-student ratio was another challenge.  “Kids were more willing to attend tuition classes than school” . This problem was solved through an interesting initiative which involved older students mentoring the younger ones. Education is a powerful tool that can gain victory against all odds, poverty, superstitious, unhygienic lifestyle and other social issues. Thus PRAYOG has enlightened the younger lives by showing them the way to success.

21. OSCAR CORTES – volunteer at schools in the slums It was our first time volunteering and we planned to spend 3 weeks with the project, we had no idea that we would get so emotionally involved says Oscar Cortes.   Fundación Mariposas Amarillas (FMA) is a small grassroots organisation based in Santa Marta, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, founded by Oscar Cortes – himself a former street kid. The foundation runs two small schools in very poor neighbourhoods/slums on the outskirts of Santa Marta. There is a morning school and an afternoon school that is run by Oscar and a team of short and long term volunteers from all over the world. The FMA afternoon school is supposed to be a two hour after school program.

22. However in this slum there is very little support, funds or incentive to send their kids to schools outside and so for most of the kids here the 2 hour afternoon school is their only access to education . Some days (especially when it rains) there may be 10 or so kids, other days (especially art and sport days) there can be over 30 kids. The classrooms get split by age and ability and volunteers divide up accordingly . The morning school is in another neighbourhood and is more structured, the same kids come every day and their parents are a little more proactive about their education.   There are two classes in the morning school, one for the younger kids and one for the older kids. The teachers create the lesson plans and teach all the fundamentals like maths, Spanish, English .

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24. MUKESH KUMAR LATHIYA – who keeps his students updated with the latest news around the world. Teaching is not just a profession but opportunity to build the future of hundreds of young mind . H e is a government school teacher from Dhamil village in Gujarat, creating learning spaces in the classroom and enhancing the learning environment to students to access the latest news and events from across the globe by creating a child friendly classroom. He downloads the e- paper from the internet, takes print out and post it on the display board for the students which helps them to know what is happening across the globe and helps in the overall development. Lathiya has created an open library in the school where students can go anytime and read books of their choice and has also set up a library corner in the classroom to make more accessible to students

25. Another interesting thing which he has done is to attach a name plate with the name of students to each desk with a pen stand ,where the classroom become more organized and students feel motivated to attend school when they see their name on the seats. He’s various initiative is helping 150 students gain a holistic learning experience. This boost their confidence and they no longer hesitate in discussing and talking about the things Bad internet connection, lack of financial support and other similar challenges did not stop him from doing what he want to do for the kids. He used his personal saving to print out the newspaper, got internet connection and maintain the notice board.  

26. The efforts of Lathiya to improve the education system in one small school is a ray of hope and if other teachers followed the same path, the gap between education in public and private schools, as well as urban and rural settings, will be bridged . Students are eager to learn and explore. They should be provided with opportunities equal to mainstream schools says Mukesh Lathiya

27. N NAGARANI AND L V SHYAM SHANKAR -real heroes These two teachers the real heroes of Government P rimary Marasandahalli,Hoskote taluk spend 14 year in this school,travell 42 km to reach this school. This duo manages 34 children from Classes 1 to 5 in the school. When every parent in Bangalore scrambles for a seat in a private school, the scene in this village on the outskirts is different. Here, parents are pulling out children from private schools and getting them enrolled in a government school .    The community plays an active role in the functioning of the school, with many parents visiting the school on a day-to-day basis. "They even alert the school if a child is found loitering on the fields without attending classes .

28. These teachers feel school as apart of their of their live, journey and consider the students to be their children.   They have no complaints of workload, election duty or census work. They have proper planning and put children in charge of classes inculcating in them team work and leadership skills . They want to inculcate the young minds by showing a ray of hope in achieving their dreams by the way of education.

29. MEHER NAZUM - youth leader opens the school for children in slum   Meher Nazmun, known popularly as Tisha to her friends and family, lives in Munshipara, Rangpur District in Bangladesh. As she walked to and from her college, she was troubled at seeing children from the nearby slums on the streets and not enrolled in school .   In 2010, she was trained as a youth leader by The Hunger Project (THP)-Bangladesh’s “Youth Ending Hunger” Program. she then organized a “youth unit” in her area. With the help of her youth unit, initiated a new community intervention to improve school enrolment and started teaching the children from the slums in an open-air school that she called “School Under the Sky”

30. During monsoon the monsoon the major challenge was absence of roof which let to many children drop out .however with the initiative taken by a school principal who provided her a roofed space in the school, she could conduct classes without children being absent even in the rains. She is one of the young achiever whose tale of success can bring inspiration for today’s young generation.

31. BINA LAKSHARIA – “Door step school” “It is school on wheels , transforming buses into classroom in Mu mbai by educating many slum children. Bina Laksharia, a teacher, started this Door Step School in 1997 where a school-bus is converted into a travelling classroom across Mumbai slums.   Today, Door Step school has 5 buses in Mumbai and Pune and hold 3-hour long classes everyday. With 10 teachers on their payroll.  

32. "Initially it was very difficult for her. When she launched this bus there were lot of phone calls and every one wanted to give bus. But running expenses are more important. So she faced tough time in convincing the donor that they want running expenses .“   Besides parting education, she provides food to the children on special occasions . Bina has ignited the minds of little ones by educating them how to read and write by making their dreams come true.  

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34. Education is important and valuable because without learning the world would function more poorly. Apart from achieving success by providing education to the needy children is almost like finding God, the destination is the same ,but the roads are as varied as the seekers. All is needed to choose the right path. Nothing is impossible the word itself says “I’M POSSIBLE”