It has been six months since ISF took the first steps of its ambitious expansion journey: starting from one school in Rajugela at the heart of its satellite school system two years ago to the opening of its first satellite, the Linklaters school, located a dozen miles away in the village of Samarua. Such hub and spoke model allows investments in educational content, technologies and managerial resources, to be shared across a larger number of students scattered across large geographic areas. However, resources and strategies are not sufficient. Getting the buy-in of the local community, including its community leader is essential.  Thanks to ISF’s reputation, the community leader in Samarua demonstrated his commitment by giving ISF access to a building that he renovated. A meeting with community members and prospective parents was also organized to present the multigrade methodology.

For the management team, the most critical aspect is to continue to deliver the best quality education at both schools, every day, despite a limited supply of highly qualified teachers. Because teachers’ performance has been excellent – 80% of students who recently took the terminal test for grade 5 met or exceeded expectations – ISF decided to increase all salaries by 500 rupees since September.  The focus now is on helping the remaining 20% learn what they have not yet understood.  Basha, ISF’s Director of Academics, plays a vital role in maintaining high quality at both schools.  His main responsibility is to ensure that new teachers understand the particularities of the ’individual ladder approach’ which enables children to learn in small groups at their own pace. Together with Amit Singh, the new Principal, he leads after-school teacher reviews every day to hear teachers’ concerns and answer their questions. In multigrade classrooms, teachers are indeed facilitators of the learning process so they can work with slower learners without penalizing those who progress more rapidly. For example, four students have progressed to the 3^rd grade in less than four months – such advancement could not have been possible in traditional classrooms.   Rahul, the school manager, who was hired from the community, is responsible for making sure the operations at both schools run smoothly, and he, or Basha, makes a daily trip to Samarua to support teachers and monitor the education process in the classroom.  Six months after opening the Linklaters school, he is particularly proud to see that, like in our first school, children attendance rate averages 82%.