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Happy New Year! The photos above show the children and their families returning to campus for the new school year. As a parent and teacher, my heart is filled to overflowing looking at these pictures. The excitement and anxiety of the first day, long lines, reconnecting with friends (in this case, who may have gone home to other villages over the break), and all the packing! No wonder some parents chose to slow down for a little picnic time.
Thanks to you, there are now two high school classes: 9 and 10. The idea of our school maxing out in 4th grade like it did when we first visited in 2018 is more absurd now than ever before. This year, our 10th graders will beefing up their math and science studies to prepare for this year’s important national exam. Our students in Gurap will begin thinking about what their future education could look like. Thanks to your generosity and the huge advantages of having leading educators as our partners—higher education is no longer just a dream. Our Santal students have opportunities many never could have imagined before.
No less important are our young students! As we continue to grow our class sizes from the bottom up, grades 1 and 2 have two very full sections.
Year-end school exams confirmed what many teachers had already observed: students who have been at St Xavier’s Gurap from the start of their education are more comfortable with rigorous academics and achieved higher scores. In fact, all the scores are much improved from 2023, the first full year, post-pandemic. Top scoring students in middle school (grades 6, 7 and 8), who are tested in 10–yes 10– different subject areas, achieved scores ranging from the high 90s to mid 80s. And the same was true for our first graders. Remember these 6-year-olds who are not yet masters of their tribal language Santali, are now learning Bengali and introductory English, as well as Bengali and Arabic numerals. The top little scorer recorded a grade of 98%!
Your commitment and generosity are paying off. Thanks to the resources we have been able to provide Gurap students, the hard lines that caste and poverty had drawn are slowly being erased. With your continued support, one day, they may not exist at all.
St Xavier’s Burdwan Partnership
We have been sharing stories of the growing partnership between St Xavier’s Gurap and St Xavier’s Burdwan. The Gurap students attended a holiday program in Burdwan in late December before the break and then hosted 4th grade students of St Xavier’s Burdwan on Saturday, January 4. Through their Socially Productive Work Program (service program), the Burdwan students raised money to help fill in the pot holes on the playground that the heavy Fall rains created.
Medical Camp—take 2
You may recall that St Xavier’s alumni physicians volunteered their time and talents to a Medical Camp held on the Gurap campus in the late Fall. We reported on how your scholarship dollars are supporting a counselor who is helping to de-bunk period myths, which lead to a gynecologist being able to intervene with non-urgent developing medical issues and provide nutritional supplements for our young women.
In addition, several mature adults who are part of the school staff, including Santal parents, and several of the religious sisters who are partnering with the Jesuits at Gurap received cataract surgery. For them, too, the future is concretely looking much brighter.
We are grateful to the larger Jesuit community as the province fully embraces its mission to lift up the Santal people. As we have said before, Tribe Rising isn’t just about concrete structures, it’s about building a community where everyone can thrive.
Marin County has always been and continues to be a leader in protecting the environment and embracing sustainability practices. Tribe Rising India is looking for partners to provide advice and financial support on two pressing issues. First, solar lamps and solar panels have become a priority as electricity costs increase with more computers and fans running at the school. Frequent black/brown outs, though expected, are more complicated now for our students who need to traverse a much larger campus–and especially challenging for our youngest boarders who have never lived outside their small, familiar villages. Secondly, there are several agricultural needs and projects to maintain enough farming to feed the students and to preserve the pond—a needed source of water and food.
If, like me, you are still marveling that the construction costs of our amazing high school which, even with a completed 4th floor, will be just about $1.5 million; please take a moment to consider the tremendous impact your dollars can make in these areas. For example, solar panels to support the entire high school will cost just $25,000.
Please contact [email protected] if you can offer advice, suggest a good resource, or want to learn more about giving opportunities.
In many countries around the world, girls are still more likely to be excluded from education than boys. According to a UNESCO study released in late August 2024, up to 80% of school-aged girls who are currently out of school are unlikely to ever start. It was a 6-year-old girl who scored 98% on her end-of-year Gurap final. Thanks to your investment in a girls’ dormitory, St Xavier’s School Gurap can offer our Santal girls the same opportunities as their brothers all the way through 12th grade.
Education erases differences! #hopeisforeveryone
Cheers to a brighter 2025 for everyone!
Annette
