Chairs: Mona Roy, Manasi Singhal & Hemali Nigam
Youth Chair: Diya Nigam

The IAL Education sub-committee assesses the needs of Indian Americans to support students and their families as well as community members in their engagement with the school system as well as other initiatives relating to education. The key objectives include supporting Indian Americans in Lexington to interact with/join various school-related groups, provide educational programming, and to solicit concerns and perspectives from the community regarding any issues relating to education. The Committee achieves this objective by building a coalition with schools and PTA/PTO members through the IAL school liaisons. 

In 2023-2024, we conducted: 

  • Series of meetings with LPS Middle Social Studies department head and teacher representatives about middle school curriculum 

  • Presented on topics related to India that can be sources of misinformation or misrepresentation including Hinduism and Indian independence.

  • Heard from the teacher representatives about topics they cover where we can give our input.

  • Shared alternative resources that can be used in the classroom.

  • Planning teacher workshop in December 

  • Hosted three Chai, Chaat, and Chat events in December 2023, June 2024, and September 2024 where community members and students were able to meet and talk with School Committee Members Deepika Sawhney, Larry Freeman, and Eileen Jay about major education-related issues in town, share their feedback and interact with each other.

Provided chai and snacks to LPS officials for a third year in recognition of their hard work in support of our students. 

  • Continued to work with all three LPS Social Studies Departments heads on curriculum issues related to Indian history, religion, and culture. 

  • Continued periodic feedback forms to the Indian community to learn of their thoughts and opinions on several topical issues related to education and collect information on the needs of the community to better inform the programming, resources and support we can provide. Some of the topics included graduation requirements, class leveling, standards-based grading, etc. 

  • Members are attending Lexington School Committee meetings to learn about upcoming policies and  decisions as well as representing the interests of the Indian community. 

  • Participated in the Lex250 Calendar Countdown on July 21st for Guru Purnima when we honor teachers, and had a large gathering of teachers, students, and community members.