The Right School

We, people of country responsible for current state of schooling in Government schools. It is easier to blame someone than picking affairs to our hands and do something. If we were to pick a peck from well-known quote “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”, we could see the other side of the issue and focus on solutions. Below could be one such idea to improve education in India.

Historically Schools and Temples are collective properties of society and they thrived when they are in the hands of the people and grown with collective wisdom. It is fair to say that Government on its part tried its best and have been doing well by;

• Optimizing curricula
• Paying reasonably good salaries
• Unifying selection & teaching methods
• Setting up trainings
• Bringing policy changes, Right to Education, National Literacy Policy etc..
• Implementing programs through SSA, RVM etc.

Now that, we tried at best to improve education and partially successful as well. It may be right time to be little more creative & innovative with solutions that can deliver the most.

School essentials: Building, Teacher, kids, black board, chalk pieces, electricity, fencing, toilets, running water, drinking water, playground, toys, plants and above all strong community which owns it.

Stake Holders: Teachers, Students, Community, Governments, NGOs and Corporates supporting for the cause.

The problem: Education becoming highest priority to household, large part of the education sector is supported by Government; less room for getting value for the money invested by government. Collective bargaining from staff seems becoming hurdle in bringing required change.

The Solution: Address the core by identifying non-core aspects of the education and slowly find ways to offload schools to society. SSA some extent tries to set up SMCs to reach the community.

The Idea:

Setup Water Purification Units & Toilets in the School premises and allow community to pay and use. To setup such units make sure there will be minimum 100+ households subscription to such facility by paying 100/- initial subscription. Later based on the usage rates can be decided. We could use Sulabh for toilets and other experts in water purification. CapX could come from donors or from CSR programs from corporates.

Benefit: It would allow community to own school indirectly linking the need. It would ensure free drinking and running water, power to schools and enables it to self sustain. It would give employment opportunities for few as well.