Transit schools for Migrant workers children

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Dear Ayyappan Devotees,Rotary Greetings to you!I glad to inform you that Rotary Club of Chennai East RA Puram isconducting project for the benefit of the children of mgrant workers. Iwelcome you to go through the details of the same below.

If you are interested to support this project please let me know.Yours in RotaryRtn. Mohanakannan P.Chennai,IndiaCell Phone: +91-9840818050, Tel: +91-44-42170414 , 26269972VOIP Tel: +1-301-7607912Skype: mohanakanna: mohanakannaG-Talk: mohanakannaTransit schools for Migrant workers childrenThe Rotary club of Chennai East R.A.Puram <http://www.rcera.org/> [R.IDist 3230 <http://www.ri3230.org/> , India] has embarked on a uniqueproject by starting transit schools for migrant workers<http://www.rcera.org/gallery1.html> children in association withPoovai area brick kiln owners association at Thirumahizhisai.Migrant Brick Kiln workers are traditionally poor, hardworking peoplewho keep traveling from one place to another to live and work for a fewmonths, and then go back to their home village. Despite theirinstrumental role in construction activity, reliable statistical dataaccurately describing this population and their children are virtuallynonexistent.Numerous brick kilns dominate Thirumahizhisai a popular temple spot,about 25 km to the west of Chennai city. There are about 120 kilns inthis area offering direct and indirect employment opportunities for10,000 people. They operate every year between January and June of thefollowing year. Workers from various places migrate to this area forwork during this period. The migration is mainly from districts such asVillipuram, Thruvannamalai, Cuddalore, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Ramnad,Sivagangai, Virudhunagar and parts of Vellore and Dharmapuri. After Junethey get back to their respective places. Due to the regular repeatedmigration, the children of these migrant workers are deprived of evenbasic education apart from so many other advantages that other childrenmay get from their parents and nation.Rotary Club of Chennai East R.A.Puram thought of a school for thesechildren and approached the education authorities and got the requiredpermission to start a Transit School at Kavalcheri and Chithukadu. First2 schools were inaugurated on March 7th 2004. At Chithukadu a cattleshed was converted into a school where about 160 children were enrolledand at Kavalcheri it is within the existing Panchayat School where about112 children were enrolled. The children enrolled include schooldropouts as well. Currently there are 6 schools with 630 childrenstudying and 20 teachers taking care of them. The attendance isreassuring and phenomenal with an average of 80% attending classesregularly.ROTARY CLUB OF CHENNAI EAST R.A. PURAM <http://www.rcera.org/>The children are assessed and segregated into the followingcategories-Beginners, first and second, and third, fourth classestogether. There are children 10 years old who has never been to school.Hence there needs to be a special and different approach to educatethese children. The main objective of this school would be to make thesechildren literate. Hence their mother tongue Tamil is taught to enablethem read and write, then Mathematics followed by basic English. Scienceis being taught orally with live day-to-day examples, which wouldenliven their thought and increase their questioning and reasoningability. Each child is given an identity card and at the end of sixmonths they are evaluated and a certificate would be issued indicatingthe class the student can take up further at regular schools therebypushing the child into academic mainstream. These schools are undereducation for all Sarva Siksha Abayan scheme.The Rotary club of Chennai East R.A.Puram and the Brick Manufacturersassociation provides the required reading materials, note books andwriting boards for the children along with some basic necessities suchas slippers, Shirts, school baskets, water bottles etc. Since many ofthe children were under nourished, we then decided of providing anutrition supplement to these children, which would improve theirimmunity and also the noon meal for every child.The teachers for the schools come from nearby village giving thelocality an employment opportunity. The children from far away kilns aretransported to the school by the respective kilns. The school functionsfrom 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. The Rotarians and Anns of the club make visitsto the school and monitor the progress. The children of the migrantworkers look eager to learn and the club intends to strengthen theschool with modern teaching methods on an ongoing basis and also giverequired training to the teachers.Rotary club of Chennai East R.A.Puram <http://www.rcera.org/> findspleasure in shouldering the burden in passing on the torch of knowledgeto the next generation.http://www.rcera.org http://www.rcera.org/gallery1.html http://www.rcera.org/transit_school.html