Today we visited 2 schools. The first school was Navdeep Public School. I learned that a "public" school in India is actually a private school, and a "private" school is actually a government run school. So Navdeep families pay tuition to attend. Tuition can run from 500 to 1,000 rupees per month, which is 10-20 American dollars. This is one of the nicest schools we have visited. The Kindergarten class size was 25-30 students (see first picture above). I also learned that the students come to school only speaking Malayalam. So they are learning to speak English when they arrive at school.
The second picture is from a YWCA run school for special needs students ages 5-35. I put this picture up to show that this school needs assistance! That shelf basically holds all the materials the school has. The students are mainly working on vocational skills such as sewing and rope making, though they do have activities such as a dance period. Academic instruction is not given. I am learning that India does not have inclusion with regard to "special education." Rather, students that can afford to pay are put in separate schools together regardless of disability. This was a difficult visit because I realize the alternative is that a special needs student who cannot afford to pay does not receive an education. I learned that to sponsor a child at this school, it would cost approximately 250 American dollars a year.
