What does RTU do? - 2. Education

The visit to my school last week has inspired me to write about Reaching the Unreached's work in education. Since around a thousand children and young people are cared for within the Children's Villages and teenagers' hostels, it's perhaps unsurprising that there is also a flourishing network of RTU schools in the area. More unexpectedly, though, these schools also provide places for the poorest children in many surrounding villages.

For babies and the youngest children, there are day care centres and infant schools. As well as being given educational stimulation, these children benefit from food, bathing and medical care. If the centres were not available, a parent might have to give up work, with enormous financial implications for the family. The more likely solution would be that an older sibling would look after the young child, thus missing out on their own education.

As the children grow up, they move to one of RTU's three primary schools, and then to the High School. The standard of education is high, with child-friendly teaching methods and a strict anti-corruption policy, factors which are worth mentioning in a country where corporal punishment is common and exam fraud is rife.

Many children drop out of school due to difficult family circumstances, or have learning difficulties and cannot cope with the relatively inflexible teaching methods in state schools. The RTU Open School offers a more personalised education for these children, with bridge courses enabling children to catch up lost years and gain a foundation for further studies or vocational training.

Although there are far too many aspects of RTU's educational work for me to describe here, I can't stop without mentioning the mobile science lab! This van, which has been fitted out with equipment and materials for scientific experiments and demonstrations, tours 43 local schools. As a result, local teachers have access to equipment which is otherwise completely unavailable in their schools, and 20,000 children are helped to follow the national curriculum.