The Loreto Sealdah Day School was first established in 1857 for the purpose of educating the daughters of colonialists. The school gradually opened to Indian students and is today almost entirely comprised of Indian students. The current director, Sister Cyril, came to Loreto in 1978 and found that most of the Day School students came from wealthy families who could afford the school fees. She immediately set about the school’s enrolment system, and today Loreto Sealdah enrolls 700 students who pay fees and 700 from the slums who do not; the school also houses over 250 homeless girls. Sister Cyril is an Ashoka scholar who has recently won one of the highest awards in India, the Sri Padma.
In the Rainbow program at Loreto, students tutor non-enrolled street children in order to help them eventually enroll. The program was developed by the students themselves, who were pained to see the street children seeking food in the garbage around the corner from the school. The students wanted the street children to have a safe space to sleep so they would not become subjected or prone to criminality, manipulation and abuse, and they wanted them to be able to go to school. Sister Cyril's empowerment of her students' compassion is an example of how change can occur in Kolkata.
Other programs at the school include the Our Folks program, which brings food to elderly street dwellers and helps them access care; the Barefoot Teachers program, in which high school graduates become traveling teachers reaching out to children who are not in school, some due to child labor; and the Child Domestic Workers program, wherein Loreto students befriend child laborers in their neighborhoods and try to convince their employers to let them play or come to school a few hours a day.
Sister Cyril’s philosophy is that of value-based education in action, with an emphasis on compassion and humility as part of the school's daily life. The more than 1,700 children are Hindus (both Brahmin caste and low-caste Shudras), Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians who all cook and eat together, which would be unthinkable in other contexts. The school's achievement scores are so high that graduation from Loreto is prestigious and there is a long waiting list for enrollment.
