Education, a pathway to success!

TARA is home to many children and some are as young as 18 months old. TARA has a safe and child-friendly environment, where learning is engaging as well as fun. Since its foundation, we, at TARA promised to provide the best education possible to the children under our care.Educational values and academic growth are two important qualities, which are practiced at TARA. The significance of education is made understood to all the children. It is our aim to provide quality education to every child, they may be able to expand their abilities and knowledge; and make wise decisions for their life. 

In India, quality education is mostly practiced in English. Hence, English is the medium of education we have chosen for the children at TARA. We also encourage the children to use English as the language of communication between them and the staff, volunteers, teachers and nannies.  Local languages (such as Hindi, for Delhi) are also taught in schools, in addition to English. The Indian Govt. has in place a system of quotas to help disadvantaged people. TARA’s strategy is chiefly based around this system, which allows an underprivileged child to attend a good quality school without any fee.

TARA regularly questions the deeply rooted determinants of society and extends an opportunity to the children to succeed to the best of their abilities. According to the FICSUM (Graduate investment fund of the University of Montreal), "at present, one-third of the working population has never attended school and the majority of Indians have not completed the primary cycle". Despite facing an extraordinary population growth (demographers expect 1.5 billion people by 2030), India faces an even more profound problem, which is of social inequalities, mainly fuelled by the caste system and gender inequalities. TARA's value system emphasizes on the dignity of each individual and respect for the dignity of others, regardless of their origins and singularities. The children live in a community, within a family atmosphere, aware of their diversity and committed to the values of equality and fraternity.

In order to accurately assess the progress of children, TARA measures its impact on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that you can find here. The school results of the children are included in “good enough” or “good to very good” categories unless for only two out of 58 children, who are in “not satisfactory” category and are currently receiving intensive tuitions to bridge the gap.

Children who are admitted to TARA at an early age get the opportunity to start their quest for education. Last year we had the pleasure of seeing four toddlers, Kanchan, Shadab, Arbaz, and Shubha who had been recently placed at TARA Tots, start Kindergarten school. Kanchan and Arbaaz, who are both 3 and half years old, are very social and minded. Shadab is more of a shy boy and his beginnings were more difficult. For the first few days, he was very nervous and would easily panic. He has adjusted to the environment however. Shubha, who is five years old, did not speak Hindi or English when he first arrived at TARA. We had had to teach him from scratch the basic notions of Hindi and English, in order for him to start schooling. He is going along very well now. Ganesha, 3 years old,finally masters the basics mentioned above and is no longer taking Montessori classes at home. He has recently started school and accompanies his mates to school.

The arrival at school is a true revealer of everyone's character, even at an early age. The well being of the child is our main priority and we provide, as far as possible, a tailor-made response to their needs.

We wanted to follow the same strategy and logic of quality education for the Tots, who are just starting their school life, as well as the Big Birds (former TARA Boys), who are now in University; while working to ensure their psychological, social and emotional development and balance. Their motivation to work well in school is tenfold!

The well being of the children is the number one priority at TARA, and nothing would have been possible without the help of our partners. We would like to express our gratitude to all our individual donors and corporates and foundations: Accenture, Air France, Bolloré, Eurovent, Géodis, HRA Pharma, Lara Reiki, Logiback, Maçons Parisiens, Main tendue, Moët Hennessy, Saint Gobain India, Sonalika, Wavestone for their support and for investing in the education of the children under the care of TARA.