School and Village Community- Case Study

Quit often we fail to realise the essence of the development of a school and a village, i.e. the relationship and the mutual support between the two.  What seen as natural are either villagers leave alone the school and children or put the all liability to school staffs. There was a stiff protest from the school teachers when education minister order to manage school including grants only through School Management Committee (MSC) in Manipur. The basic reason why private school are success to deliver quality education (as consumer considers-observational) is the involvement of parent either as Voice or Exit, which is clear business model. Government schools also provide space to involve parents to make voice, through formation of SMC which in most of the time schools try best not to let community know about it. Absence of this committee allows the school staff to bear no liability.  In its presence also the community fail to harness its purposes- foster relationship between the village community and school, leverage resources from the village development resources or vice versa and quality education for their children. One real case study, which I have already produced to my KCCI, Unicef colleagues at Most Significant Change (MSC) story training session, is given below which compiled from the primary information I have collected from Bihar, the detail is given in the case study itself. The case study can be read keeping in mind the following four questions as base of enquiry to the case study:

1.       What is the purpose of a school within a village?

2.       What are the roles of village community in school?

3.       Who should be involved to management a school efficiently?

4.       What are the social and structural impacts of school in the village?

Ram Gopal (name changed) is the president of School Management Committee (SMC) for the school Middle School (MS) Khor in the block Madhepur in Madhubani district. He is a passionate social worker dedicated for the development of school and the village as whole. Before be become president of School Management Committee (SMC) he was a member of Village Disaster Management Committee (VDMC). VDMC is a group of villagers that include local electives and villagers formed under the norm of the sub programme called Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) under the main programme Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) being implemented by UNICEF. Similarly School Safety Programme (SSP) is a sub programme being implemented in the schools.

When Ram Gopal becomes the SMC president of the Middle School (MS) Khor the number of teacher was very less and most of the teachers were from outside the village including the Head Master. Gopal himself was a student of the same school and has some emotional attachment with the school, perhaps which is why he is determined bring a leap-jump change in the school.

In order to bring the changes in the school he understood the importance of the involvement of Head Master (HM) of the school. He motivated the HM to the extent possible for his significance in the development of the school.

He initiated talk about the issues of the school with the teachers and HM specially. He convinced the HM that the school is very backward, the condition of the school is very bad and the need for his cooperation. One day Gopal sat with HM and from the view point of both SSP and CBDRR they started talking on the problem tree of the school. They first picked up the serious issue of enrolment. Sometimes children comes in the school is only three. They went to the villages and catch the children from the village and enrolled them in the school. And also the children who enrolled in the school but do not come in the school are taken back to the school. This bring the children back to the school was done through launching a campaign for enrolment by the students who are the members of School Disaster Management Committee which is formed under SSP. This committee includes all children from Bal Sansad (BS), Meena Manch (MM) and representatives from all classes. Bal Sansad is children parliament while Meena Manch is girl platform in the school. These BS and MM are the norms of participatory model in Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan (SSA).

When the problems are identified and started addressing they putted Mid-Day-Meal (MDM) in the priority list. There was no kitchen properly and hence it was like MDM was not there properly. They made the kitchen outside the school and started proper functioning of MDM. When MDM comes in the picture what followed is the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).  There are hand-pumps but not all were working. As the number of children has increased even using bucket does not served the purpose with two hand-pumps. Therefore involving SDMC, HM and Ram Gopal himself made plan for new hand-pump and with support from block education office the hand-pump is installed now.

There was no hospitable building to accommodate all the children enrolled. There was only two rooms and with risky roof.  SDMC and school authorities made a plan for new building with request to district education officer. They got approval of the budget of Rs.45000 for the building which is constructing now.  Earlier the school was constructed with lower floor which could be easily affected by flood from the water of either Bagmati or Kosi river. So, they have increased the height of the floor of the building destructing the earlier one. For just to increase the floor of the school they needed to talk to BDO and Engineer who were given approval by for the increase of height of the school floor.

There was no Almirah in the office because of which files were laying here and there. They increased the content of the library. They brought First Aid box also. Through the help of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) they did soil filling in the campus to prevent from water logging. The successful idea of land filling using the fund of MGNREGA is credited to the simultaneous running of SSP and CBDR in the same village by integrating both in School Development Plan (SDP), which is a norm of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

This whole change was brought by the mobilization of school community and village community from the angle of DRR by Samajik Chetna Kendra (SCK) by leveraging the resources from School Development Plan. Ram Gopal is also part of SCK in which he leads the things in addition to being president of SMC. It is the only organisation which is working in close with children and villagers from time to time as per need as a grass-root agency which is delivering the DRR. They keep orienting the children of the school and villagers through campaigns for awareness.  From government side, they get help from Block Officers, Cluster Officers, District Officers, Zilla Parishad, District Disaster Management Authority and politicians. They have the liaising upto state level.

Now the whole people both within the village and outside the village acknowledged the changes in the Khor village. People in other neighbouring villages including press people aware of the programmes like SSP and CBDR both of which they integrate with School Development Plan which  is why the village of Ram Gopal is now developed in terms of the tangible and intangible aspects of the relationship between school and village. People from other villagers requested to the workers of SCK to start these programmes. People from other villages also aware of the children committees formed in the school and its role in the development both in the school and village. This is because of which they want to run in their villages also, so that development is brought like in Ram Gopal’s intervention village. They requested to the workers of SCK to make campaigns in their villages through children for the awareness such as for school enrolment, child marriage, housing scheme and toilet construction schemes etc.

When there is school ceremonies and children fare, peoples from around the villages come to see the programmes. Children of the school do street-plays and mock-drills, and children from other places also come to see these and join sometimes. Children who are the friends of the children learning in MS Khor tell to their teachers and thus teachers and community come and requested to Ram Gopal to run this kind of programmes in their villages also. Thus, this village has become a model and example of development in the area and also thus this village has built relationship with other villages. There has in fact developed a lot, Gopal said.

Everything is just started in the last two years. The school is hundred years all. What was not in the school for the last hundred years is now in the school in the last two years. He challenged that the development brought in the school is nowhere in the block except this school. This school has become a topic of discussion in the region that why and how this school has developed so fast. The school got even proposal for Model School but Head Master declined and returned to District Officers due to lack of teachers.

Whatever the programmes comes at Panchayat level are all discussed in the public meeting. Panchayt Mukhya, Purn Mukhya, Amina Khatun (name changed), Rema Devi (name changed), all are in full contribution, they kept the school programme in top priority and completes quickly. From Panchayat they get help like campus filling through MGNREGA as mentioned above, the road from the village to the school was not commutable which is under now constructed. It is the road through which children come to school. Ram Gopal felt that the involvement of Panchayat is very important. And without SMC president all these developments are next to impossible.