STARAE PROJECT

Background

St Soldier day boarding School in Jandialla Guru, 20km away from the world famous Darbar Sahib or ‘Golden Temple’ in Amritsar, Panjab is a private school catering for village children which, despite its short seven year history, has surpassed its own expectations in both academic and extra-curricular performance. St Soldier School students come form 68 villages in within a 20 mile radius.

19 year old Kirandeep Kaur who had stopped schooling due to lack of funds and her younger sister, Jatinder Kaur, whose future funding was doubtful, today study at this school with 1500 students to fulfil their ambition.

From May 2004, 30 more bright and needy students who currently study at state-funded village schools will be given scholarships to study at St Soldier school under UNITED SIKHS’ project STARAE – Scholarships as a Tool to Accelerate Rural Academic Excellence.

Genesis of project

In August last year, a UNITED SIKHS volunteer from the UK spent a month in India attending a Change Agents of the Future (CAOF) camp. After this camp she was due to join a ‘seva’ project, ‘seva’ being the concept of selfless service for others. She was not, however, able to undertake this project, due to the unexpected death of her grandfather. This volunteer had come to India with a £250 Pilkington Travel Award and £400 grant from the Isaac Newton Trust of Cambridge University to do women’s projects of her choice. She left the grants with UNITED SIKHS to apply as deemed fit. At this stage UNITED SIKHS was looking to start project STARAE .

Later on that summer, on a trip for a separate project to Ekel Gedda village in Panjab, a UNITED SIKHS director met a young widow who was single-handedly bringing up her 3 daughters and young son. This lady, despite, her financial and social problems connected to being a widow, was full of enthusiasm for her daughters. She spoke to UNITED SIKHS about her daughters abilities and her dreams for them. She spoke with pride about Jatinder Kaur’s 95% marks at St Soldier School, known well for its quality of education. Kirandeep Kaur, her middle daughter, had, however, been forced to drop out of her plus two (A level) studies as the family could not afford her fees. Kirandeep Kaur had instead started to study at home, forced to switch to the arts stream for home study, whilst her ambition was to remain a science student. Throughout the meeting, Kirandeep Kaur was keen to talk about her studies, but expressed regret at not being able to further her studies in science. She had been a brilliant student in lower secondary school, but because of her father’s death and the financial restrictions facing her family, her grades had begun to fail. Her mother spoke of her concerns for the future as she was not going to be able to keep even her younger daughter at St Soldier School for long.

UNITED SIKHS saw these girls as worthy recipeints of the Pilkington Travel Award and Isaac Newton Trust grant. We met the St Soldier School Director, Mr. Mangal Singh, who confirmed that Jatinder Kaur was a top performer at school – scoring the best marks in her grade. Mr. Mangal Singh agreed to take Kirandeep Kaur on at the school at the beginning of the year, agreeing to extra assistance and coaching for her, with a view to preparing her to rejoin the science stream.

UNITED SIKHS drew up a plan to expend the Pilkington Travel Award on Jatinder Kaur’s studies, and the grant from the Isaac Newton trust on Kirandeep Kaur’s studies. These grants have enabled the STARAE project to come into fruition earlier than expected. The money will fund the girls to the end of their secondary education, covering the cost of books, uniforms, travel and extra tuition.

Encourgaed by the propitious start to the STARAE project, UNITED SIKHS has agreed to source funding for the education of 30 children at St Soldier school by recruiting them from village state-education schools for the new academic year commencing april 2004. Candidates will be awarded scholarships based on their performance and their financial means.

News Reports on Project STARAE:

April 22 2004, 7^th Vaisakh, 536 Nanakshahi, Amritsar Panjab: Project STARAE will provide scholarships worth Rs 290,000 to 30 needy and bright village students this year.