Sunday, September 7, 2008

Our Biology Pioneers

The students in year 12 science are our first batch that will sit the final examinations in the subject. In the Rajasthan Education system students who study Science must study Chemistry and Physics and then choose for their third subject either Mathematics or Biology.
These photos are of our biology students. The girl in the middle of the second photo is a most brilliant student who has won several scholarships from the Government due to her results in the last two years.
What amazes me about these students is their focus on their studies. For the whole of 11th and 12th class our science students have been studying day and night. We constantly have to go to the hostel in the evenings and explain to them that there is a long way to go and that they need to keep a balance and get some sleep as well. This is their chance to take a step in life, the students largely being first generation learners, and perhaps because of that they appreciate even more the chance that lies before them.

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Computer classes

Our computer lab is one of the busiest parts of the school/college with students continuously in the class from 830am until 530pm. The computer teacher is absolutely run off his feet but he is still loving it.
Thanks to the people of Bremmer Tafe in Queensland and the Ipswich Multi Cultural Society who together are arranging for the supply of 10 computers for the school which will come in October, the first one having arrived last month.
By next year we hope to open a second computer lab in the school so that students can have more lab time. If you are upgrading your computer or your laptop keep in mind that there may be a happy home for your old computer in our school!! Anyone who wishes to help with this please contact my email.

Also thanks to the Yoga In Daily Life Ashram in Queensland who have upgraded their multimedia projector and made sure that our school got the old one. It is awesome and opens a new dimension of teaching which hasn't been seen in this area before.

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View of the school from the mountain


These photos of the school are taken from "the mountain". For those not familiar with the Ashram in Jadan one of the projects already undertaken was a rainwater harvesting project in which a dam 120m x 140m x 10 m deep was constructed in the Ashram for the purposes of catching rainwater. The earth and rock that was excavated from the dam was used to make a mountain of 45 metres height in the south west corner of the Ashram. Swamiji Maharaj's idea of making a mountain was practical as well as beautiful. It saved money on diesel which would have been used transporting the earth out of the Ashram, the mountain is a place of beauty and has become a tourist attraction in it's own right and according to the ancient science of Vastu Shastra the highest and heaviest point in a property should be in the South West corner.
The future construction of the school and college which is now starting will make the present building into a quadrangular shape extending the two sides forward and then joining across the front of the school. After that is completed a seperate college building will be constructed to the left of the school as you look in the photos.
In the distance of the top photo you can see Shree Paramhans Swami Madhavanand Hospital, built by Swamiji Maharaj and the "Austrian Hospital in India" Society from Vienna Austria. It is a beautiful building which will house a 90 bed allopathic hospital for the people of the local area. At present the building work is complete and the work of furnishing and equiping the hospital is underway so that the hospital can start in the next months.
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Morning prayers


Full house for morning prayers and assembly. When the students are singing their morning prayers and national anthem in the morning the sound goes through the whole Ashram, reaching more than 2 km away. It is a really special part of the morning.

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School scenes August 2008


Classes are on and concentration is high.

Some first class students were also lucky enough to have Swamiji teach them for a short while.
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The fleet

To everyone who helped, once again thanks. This is our fleet outside the school building. Hopefully for next year we can add one or two buses more to the photo.
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Update from August and September

It has been an interesting month in school. A lot of new students settling in and learning to work together. This week the district sports tournaments are on and a lot of students are away competing. They are competing in the badminton, tennis, cricket, handball and judo tournaments.

In Judo 9 of the girls and 4 of the boys won their divisions. The girls u/17 tennis team is in the finals today and the u/19s lost in the semis. The boys came third in the handball and in the senior cricket, the juniors are yet to play.

On the 4th of September the ground breaking ceremony was done for extensions of the school and college building. There will be construction of 30 more rooms which will then cover the needs of the school way into the future. At present the situation in the building that we have, which seemed soooooo big just 8 months ago, is really really really tight.

The real news of the last month is that broad band reached to our village! So now i hope that in the future we can get some more interesting photos and items onto this webpage for everybody to enjoy.