Kailash Bodhi School, Rangri by Thangamma Cariappa

The words "Kailash" and "Bodhi" translate to mountain and enlightenment respectively. The school for Tibetan and Nepali refugee children in Rangri echo these very words. I was definitely inspired and enlightened by the teachers, who depending on the weather would be forced to teach two classes simultaneously!
The school has a limited infrastructure and it's four classrooms are occupied by 8 grades.
Every morning select children practised karate after which the school assembled for morning prayer. Interestingly, the Tibetan, Nepali and Indian National Anthems are sung, followed by an oath in English.
The first period starts at 10 am and school closes at 3 pm. I volunteered to teach all the grades which included the pre-primary children, aged 3 years, Lower Kindergarten and Upper-Kindergarten. This proved quite a challlenge because of the language barrier but they took quickly to learning action rhymes and songs.

I was able to do beading activities to hone hand - eye co-ordination and finger dexterity skills with all but the littlest children. We also played games, coloured shapes and drew pictures to depict each alphabet.
The school also has a well stocked library and I was pleasantly surprised to find "The Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. The books were very useful for Grade 2 to 5 and the children looked forward to reading and listening to stories. Apart from constructing simple sentences, drawing and writing about themselves, the older children also did activities related to the Hungry Caterpillar story and palyed vocabulary games. Grade 4 and 5 were also introduced to the use of the apostrophe ie: My father's name is .... as opposed to "My father name is ..."

Over all the children were very diligent and eager to learn. Teachers were helpful and supportive and sunny days resulted in classes under the tree! The medium of instruction in the school is Hindi but they also learn Nepali, Tibetan and English!