Making Schools Better

Making Schools Better

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Meena Manch member Prem Kumari of Amar village ensured that Anjali Kumari returned to school. The latter's parents told her that Anjali was staying back at home so that she could take care of her younger siblings.

Meena Manch is one of the many interventions under Project Utthan—the Oxfam India-HDFC Bank project—in the 15 villages in three blocks of Nalanda district in Bihar. Meena Manch is group of school girls who look after gender-based issues and try and address gender disparity in the village. One major role of Meena Manch is to ensure that no girl misses school. The members of Meena Manch visit families—where girls have dropped out of school or stopped coming to school for some reason—and convince them to come to school. Though Anjali returned, in many cases parents do not want to listen to young girls. This is where the Sugam Karta or the lady teacher identified to support the young girls is most helpful.

The Project envisaged the participation of all stakeholders—parents and children—in the efficient running of the schools and these included Bal Sansad, Meena Manch and the School Management Committees (SMC). The SMC includes teachers, parents, and elected representative like ward members.

Bal Sansad or Children’s Parliament is a students cabinet where students are assigned cabinets  such as health and water (and there is a Prime Minister as well!). They are all responsible for their respective cabinets. “I have to make sure that all taps are turned off after use and that children do not waste water,” says Nishu Kumari, Jal Mantri of Kolwan Middle School Bal Sansad.

Through Project Utthan, regular meetings are held with all the different groups in the schools. Bal Sansad–SMC meetings help teachers and parents to understand each other better, discuss issues and find solutions for the welfare of the school and the students. During the meetings, several issues such as poor attendance, lack of punctuality, and uniform availability and the problems parents face  in withdrawing money from the bank to access government funds for school uniforms. The SMC members also discussed the lack of  teachers. During these meetings, the Cleanliness Minister of Indaut High School asked the schools for dustbins in every class and the Sports Minister wanted some sports equipment for the students.

Through Project Utthan, we have held interface meetings in 16 schools in our villages and these have helped pump a new life into the way the schools are run in these villages.   

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