RAINBOW CENTRE SCHOOLS
The Rainbow Centre provides education for children who could not, otherwise, afford to go to school.
The Rainbow Centre is an oasis full of happy children who love being there. The Centre runs a nursery for two-year-olds and two pre-schools for three- to five-year-olds following the national curriculum. Children who graduate from the pre-school enter into two nearby mainstream schools. At the Centre, they are given lessons after morning school and a large lunch. The Centre also provides vocational training. Every child is given the most help possible to access their full potential, many receive intensive tuition. All children are transported from their slum dwellings to school, to the Centre and back to home in the Centre’s own bus. Additional transport is provided as needed. In February 2024, the Centre purchased a large, new bus to accommodate the growing numbers of students.
One of the Rainbow Centre’s key strategies is to focus on the young to ensure that, by the time they are old enough to go to mainstream school at five, they have everything they need to gain acceptance, are academically able, emotionally well-adjusted and in good health.
Star Student: Nimsara
After his father was sent to prison for murder, Nimsara joined the Centre in 2022. His mother abandoned him after meeting another man and he was left in the care of his grandparents. When Nimsara joined the Centre, he was deeply traumatised, uncommunicative and unable to sit in class. He had a bad stutter. Thanks to one-to-one tuition, counselling and being given the most loving care possible, he slowly improved. He is now seven years old, settled in school and no longer stutters. He is a good student and has the best handwriting in his class. Best of all he is a happy little boy and popular with his classmates.
The Rainbow Centre is fighting against the widely held belief that poor outcomes are inevitable for children who come from generations of illiterate, destitute families. It is seeking to change the discrimination and isolation that these children experience because of poverty. In the past, each new generation has been forced to believe that they are destined to follow in the steps of their parents, to endure teenage pregnancy and domestic abuse, and to face the insecurity and hardship of work as, for example, day labourers, rubbish collectors, toilet cleaners and exploited sex workers while drug addiction is a widespread problem. The Rainbow Centre is already demonstrating that education and welfare support can help to overcome these societal beliefs.
Star Student: Shalani
Having spent much of the first years of her life confined on her own to a small, dark shack, Shalani, 10, joined the Centre in 2021. After her parents arranged cleft palate surgery, she was not encouraged to speak and was completely non-verbal. No school or pre-school would take her, so she was sent back to her mother. The Centre discovered she had problems with her back and eyesight as well as a poor memory. An eminent clinical psychologist advised the Centre on the best way to help her. She soon learnt social skills and is in mainstream school. Always willing to help her classmates and participate in all activities she is a very happy girl.
The Rainbow Centre’s work is grounded in the philosophy that the whole centre is a place of loving support that recognises every child has unique talents and interests. Many Rainbow Centre children are extremely bright, full of potential and enthusiasm to learn. The Centre’s CEO, Shevi Balasuria, and the Senior Teachers ensure all teaching is guided by Montessori methods and continues to inspire children of all ages. In short, learning is experiential, motivated by creativity, the desire to explore natural curiosities and to encourage students to collaborate or work alone. Each child works at their own speed. At the most basic level, the Centre expects and assists all of its students to pass the key O Levels in Maths and Sinhala, which are essential to future employment.
Education is everything to a child that knows nothing about a world beyond the slums.
Ignorance of all the opportunities open to Rainbow students has been a key obstacle to overcome, especially amongst parents. During the past four years, the Rainbow Centre has consistently made a priority of raising the children’s expectations and self-esteem. The Centre provides intensive education in general knowledge and exposure to employment opportunities. Great emphasis is put on the wide range of available career opportunities, backed up by inspirational talks from professionals, some of whom had to make their own way out of poverty and who attribute their success to devoting themselves to their studies. These include: a barrister; a medical student; two IT specialist CEOs of software companies; a scientist with a special interest in robotics; and, a senior representative from the hospitality industry.
DAY CARE
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The Rainbow Centre offers day care to infants from two to three years old. These infants often have had no experience of adult affection or attention and are slow to respond. Day Care addresses their needs by providing exceptionally loving care, constant attention, appropriate stimulation and highly nutritious food. Often, even the youngest children are not fed on a regular basis at home and depend on the Rainbow Centre for milk and food and tend to be small for their age and underweight. Despite previous neglect, the babies thrive and progress into the day-care centre under the same standards of care for the three- to five-year-olds. These programmes have had great results: ensuring infants’ happiness, health and active desire to communicate their need for love and to play; putting an end to malnutrition; providing essential medical care; and, enabling mothers to find work.
PRE-SCHOOL
Since 2007, the Centre has run two pre-school classes each year for all day-care children and exceptionally deprived new students. All teachers have attended government accredited courses and receive intensive in-house training. The Rainbow Centre runs its pre-school according to a national curriculum but also gives play-based classes in English, Maths, General Knowledge and Art. Teaching is child-centric, encourages creativity, team work as well as independent thinking. To date, the Rainbow Centre has placed all of its preschool children in the mainstream educational system, who would otherwise be excluded because of prejudice and the need to make financial contributions to nominally non-fee-paying schools. Rainbow Centre children often come top of their class in the mainstream system.
‘You find children flying into our offices at all times just to say hi and give us a hug or tell us what happened in school that day. The staff are also so responsive to this, and now respond back with interest and love. There is a sense of freedom for everyone but with much needed respect for each other and discipline.’ CEO, Shevi Balasuria.
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THE RAINBOW CENTRE SENIOR SCHOOL
Rainbow Centre children who are in the mainstream school system, aged five to 18, are taken to school on the Rainbow Centre bus. They return to the Centre for a nutritious lunch and intensive education by experienced, well-qualified teachers. Their daily attendance is monitored, their needs for educational supplies met and they are all supported by the Rainbow Centre’s medical and welfare programmes. All the children spend their school holidays at the Centre’s school for a whole day, which also offers special classes, activities and opportunities to play sport.
SATURDAY SCHOOL
In September 2022, the Centre launched its Saturday School for 11- to 19-year-old students. The students work hard during lesson time when tuition classes are provided in all nine O Level subjects. Afternoon classes include sport, IT, extra English and music. Slower learners who missed out on education until their teens receive individual tuition. The students are given a special lunch and ice cream. Saturday school began with 25 students in 2022 and has grown to the point that 60 children currently attend on a voluntary basis. The students decide after taking ‘O’ Levels whether to go on to further education or enrol in vocational training.
The Rainbow Centre English Department and Student English Club
In 2022 the Rainbow Centre formed a separate English Department with an excellent head of English, Nilushka Rasangi Silva. Under her guidance, four teachers were trained and an English department was formed. The English room has shelves stacked with excellent English books. There are games, flash cards and activities which are very popular. Children gather here whenever they are free to read or have one of the English teachers read to them.
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Following the success of the English programme, the Student English Club was formed. Children who are part of the club meet weekly and have a programme for the whole school every month, for just 15 minutes, where they recite poems, sing or have a simple dialogue or full-blown drama. They have English competitions and encourage others to take an interest in improving their language skills.
The Rainbow Centre is guided by an ethos of compassion and love to ensure every child can flourish and know they are of value. The Centre is seeing a marked improvement in the confidence of its students, many of whom live in one-room tin huts, with illiterate, low status parents, in a society that calls them theives and dirty animals.
I want to be a baker!
When Pasindu,16, joined the Centre in 2023, he was unable to read or recognise letters and numbers and rarely spoke a word. He had to start at pre-school level and work his way up. He can now read and write and is very well liked. He is keen to help with the Centre’s functions. He has decided to train as a baker and will be supported by the Centre.
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I want to be a baker!
When Pasindu,16, joined the Centre in 2023, he was unable to read or recognise letters and numbers and rarely spoke a word. He had to start at pre-school level and work his way up. He can now read and write and is very well liked. He is keen to help with the Centre’s functions. He has decided to train as a baker and will be supported by the Centre.
When Pasindu,16, joined the Centre in 2023, he was unable to read or recognise letters and numbers and rarely spoke a word. He had to start at pre-school level and work his way up. He can now read and write and is very well liked. He is keen to help with the Centre’s functions. He has decided to train as a baker and will be supported by the Centre.
