HOW BABY STEPS TOWARDS CHANGE BROUGHT KIDS, FUNDS TO SCHOOLS

LUCKNOW: A few small initiatives taken by some progressive teachers has brought about a considerable change in the quality of education being imparted in their respective primary and upper primary schools in the state.

These changes are also attracting community funding, which is being used to improve amenities in schools.

“As a government teacher I felt very sad when I saw that parents prefer to send their children to private schools. I decided to reach out to parents directly and appeal them to admit their children to my school with a guarantee that they will see a marked improvement in their kids,” said Sarvest Singh, 40, headmaster, primary school, Moorghat, Basti.

“I focused on improving my school to attract students and it soon it started showing results. The enrolment has almost doubled,” he added.

For Meenu Singh Pawar, a primary school teacher at primary school in rural Amroha, being a woman helped her to bring children to school.

“Girls in the village where my school is located were not sent to school. I was the first female teacher to be appointed there and this helped in changing the mindset of locals,” Pawar recalled.

“The villagers realize that girls are in safe hands at school and they can one day be successful in life. Now, the number of female student at our school is more than the male students,” she added.

Similar approach of reaching out to parents also helped in improving enrollment in other schools.

Surbhi Sharma of government primary school in Sarojini Nagar went a step further. Sharma invited the parents, especially mothers of her students to school and discussed the growth of children with them. “We also organised programme for mothers once in every three month. Because of the mothers have started taking interest in the day to day activities of the school and in education of their children,” said Sharma.

This increasing involvement of parents not only improved enrollment but also the retention rate. It also helped some schools in getting community funding.

› Girls in the village where my school is located were not sent to school. I was the first female teacher to be appointed there and this helped in changing the mindset of locals. MEENU SINGH PAWAR, A primary school teacher of Amroha

Sarvest Kumar used this opportunity effectively and has been able to collect around of ₹ 30 lakh for several developmental works at his school.

Yatika Pundir, assistant teacher of the Government English Model School in Meerut used community funding to get books for children. The school managed to collect over 1150 books for the school solely by donations.

Snehil Pandey of Government English Medium Model Primary School was able to get the building of

school whitewashed.

In Sarojini Nagar, Surbhi Sharma takes the school children for an outdoor trip twice a year solely by funds collected through crowd funding.

Sarvednra Vikram Bahadur Singh, director, basic education, UP government said the department was planning to put in a system where people or firms who donate to government schools get a tax rebate on the suggestion of teachers.

“The move will help promote donations for government schools,” said Singh.