It has always been SCAD’s policy to support and improve the state education system in the rural villages and only to start their own schools in special situations. The Government schools are poorly equipped and maintained. Teachers are responsible for the learning of up to 50 children of mixed ages and receive little or no support and ongoing training. SCAD’s solution with our help has been to improve the environment of the schools by building toilets, providing playground equipment, encouraging kitchen gardens and carrying out building maintenance. SCAD also provides ongoing training for the Teachers where they are taught modern teaching practices. SCAD also trains and provides teaching assistants from the mothers in the village and sets up parent /teacher associations.

Since the founding on the SCAD campus in the mid nineties of Anbu Illam, the school for children with physical and learning difficulties, this charity has taken responsibility for funding it. This residential school gives loving care and treatment to 100 children who would otherwise have led dismal, isolated and untreated lives. Originally the school was for children with physical difficulties and the majority of patients were polio sufferers. Thankfully now polio is mostly eliminated in the area. This has created space to include children with varying degrees of learning difficulties. Each child receives expert treatment each day and vocational training is also provided where necessary.

SCAD set up a special school in the Pettai Gypsy Colony which we have funded since its inception in the early nineties. It provides for the children of the 100 plus gypsy families in the colony and has a residential capacity to look after the children when their parents are travelling. It also takes in the children from the nearby Sathya Nagar village, the village for those with leprosy, and other local villages.

We also part fund a large Primary School for Saltpan children on the coast near Tuticorin. Originally it was a small school which the Government wanted to close. SCAD decided to take it over and keep it going as the nearest other schools were some way away. It has now been completely rebuilt and enlarged and is a very successful establishment with over 200 students and a long waiting list.

Each year we provide fifty bursaries for students from poor and deprived families to attend one of the higher educational establishments run by SCAD. In this way gifted but poor students are able to realise their potential by attending SCAD Universities, Polytechnics or diploma based Colleges.