2023-January-17

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This Is a Story of One Public School in India

BY MAHENDRA GUDUR · SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TECHNICAL LEADER · UNITED STATES

3 MINUTE READ · 4 MINUTE LISTEN

My trip to India in August 2022 was so satisfying and fulfilling.

It was a moment of accomplishment as my passion project became a reality: I had finished building a library for the high school where I studied.

Why was this project so important? It addressed a serious problem faced by most public schools in India.

It all started during my summer vacation to Hyderabad in 2010.

I am a Software Engineer by profession and have been living in the U.S. since 2006.

I made the trip back home, and I happened to visit my former school, Zilla Parishad (ZP) High School Gudur, in the suburbs of Hyderabad.

It did not take long to see that the school was facing an enrollment problem:

1. In the early 2000s, parents preferred private schools for their children, reducing public school enrollment.
2. Because of reduced enrollments, public schools received less government funding.
3. Less funding meant fewer teachers and poor performance on public exams.
4. With poor performance on exams, schools attracted even fewer students the following year.
5. This vicious cycle of low enrollments caused schools to close, preventing children from families with low incomes from receiving an education because they couldn’t afford private school.

So in 2011, I started giving merit scholarships to top-performing students from each class.

I wanted to motivate them to do well and attract more students to my former public school.

Since then, I have given over 250 merit scholarships to high-performing students. There has been a 40 percent increase in student enrollment, and the public exam passing rate improved from 70 percent to 100 percent.

In 2019, to encourage more positive results, I pledged to construct an integrated library at ZP High School to provide students with a practical learning experience.

Despite delays caused by COVID-19, the library was completed and inaugurated by the Education Minister on August 3, 2022.

The school children now have access to the library and its resources. This includes biological and physical science kits, a smart TV for online classes and seminars, a computer lab, fiction, nonfiction, and competitive books, an on-site librarian to oversee the facility and teach basic computer skills, and a website to check out books.

With this new infrastructure, the school not only attracted new students but also became a model public school to promote a practical learning experience in the entire state of Telangana.

I have formed the Gudur Chinna Nasri Reddy Educational and Charitable Trust and funded it to support library maintenance for the next 50 years.

I am confident that this facility will help produce scholars of the 21st century!

But this is a story of just one public school from India.

Unfortunately, thousands of schools around the globe are struggling to survive due to the lack of infrastructure and funding. I encourage you to connect with the school where you studied or any school near you to check if you can make an impact.

You can use your Time2Give hours, too. All full-time Cisco employees can take up to 10 days of paid time off each year to volunteer for a cause they’re passionate about.

I am grateful for this project for giving me a taste of purposeful living and connecting me with many people who dedicate their lives to making a difference.

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