About

The Nanubhai Education Foundation (NEF) was founded by Raj Shah in 2004 in honor of Nanubhai Nayik, the principal of Kadod High School in Gujarat, India from 1963-1984. Principal Nanubhai transformed a small rural educational system into one which gave students tremendous opportunities. Due to his outstanding leadership and revolutionary approach to education, Nanubhai paved the way for over 500 students in rural Gujarat to obtain graduate education. Many of these students have migrated to the United States and the UK where they have enjoyed further professional opportunities. Raj's father was one of the students inspired by Nanubhai, and he settled in the United States as a practicing physician. During family trips to India, Raj was struck by the poverty in Kadod, the very village which gave his father the education to migrate to the United Sates. To make a sustainable difference through education, Raj created the Nanubhai Education Foundation to help Kadod High School continue empowering and opening doors for rural students in today's global economy.

Over the years, the successes of the Nanubhai Education Foundation have exceeded Raj's original expectations. The NEF team has created a cost-effective model for significantly improving rural government schools. The organization believes this validated model could be beneficial to schools throughout India. Nanubhai has seen dramatic improvements in test scores and graduation rates after implementing our teaching programs and providing books and computers. With the generous contributions of our supporters, the organization will be able to apply its model to improve the education of students across India.

Think Big, Start Small

Since 2004, Nanubhai has focused its efforts on Kadod, a small town in rural Gujarat located four hours north of Mumbai. The Kadod High School, our focus school, serves over 2,000 kindergarten through 12th grade students coming from over 100 surrounding farming communities.

Education has a Real Impact

Focused primarily on improving English and IT education, the NEF team operates a variety of programs at the school. Over the past 5 years NEF has been blessed with the opportunity to make tangible improvements in lives of students and teachers in Kadod.

Some tangible achievements are are listed below:

Impact on student success:
- Graduation rates increased from 25% to 75% over three years.
- Every year, students are awarded graduate school scholarships, of which at least one is dedicated to furthering the education of a female student
- For the first time in seven years a substantive number of students are continuing on to graduate school: In 2007, graduates included 3 Medical students and 15 Engineering students

Impact on student learning:
- In 2008-09, NEF's American teachers personally taught over 700 students more than 1000 hours of classroom English and Computer Technology.
- 95% of students participating in our computer programs reported high levels of confidence using the computer as compared to 60% of their non-participating peers.
- 2 current computer teachers have been given the opportunity to train at the Microsoft IT Academy in Jaipur
- A local chapter of the English Language Teachers Association of India has been started to promote local teachers' professional development.

Impact on school infrastructure:
- NEF has built 2 30-unit computer labs
- NEF has created a 500+ English children's book lending library
- NEF has provided school supplies, printers, digital cameras and other tools to the support the school's operations.

Givology supports Nanubhai's model of partnering with public schools and delivering high quality education with focus on technology and English language skills.