“Hamaare Bacche, Hamara School”- Closure of Campaign
A successful campaign mobilizing communities to provide quality education to children
In the last two issues, we covered the launch event and campaign activities of “Hamaare Bacche, Hamara School”, held from 5th September to 14th November 2018. The campaign was implemented by DBSSs in six states of India (West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab and Delhi). More than 12,000 community members and children participated in the campaign at 78 villages, which included-5500 children, 86 schools and 880 School Management Committees members.
Providing Quality Education to Children under SDG 4 (Sustainable Development Goals) has been one of the most important thematic areas for us. We are identifying the gaps in government run system and creating a mechanism by which the empowered communities negotiate for the facilities as mentioned under RTE (Right to Education).
The campaign closure events were conducted by the DBSSs in their respective areas and schools in which the parents, children, IBU (Issue Based Units) members, PRI (Panchayati Raj Institution) members, Cluster Resource Coordinators (CRC) and School Management Committee (SMC) members were invited to discuss the future plan for their schools. They have decided that they will:
- Make sure that the infrastructural developments that were discussed with the SMC & parents of the respective felicitated schools are mentioned in the School Development Plan
- Keep a check on the accountability of work done by the SMC members
- Check Irregularity and drop outs from school
- Check for cleanliness and beautification of school premises
- Provide electricity to ICDS centre by both SMC and PRI members
- Ask PRI and SMC members to construct School boundary in all the schools in the area
- Repair drinking water sources of the schools by the SMC and PRI members
People also shared their experiences of being part of the campaign and what they will do as an individual to contribute to the development of schools in their villages. Local church leaders were also invited to provide their inputs as well. Post discussions, a draft plan was prepared and shared with the whole community. The DBSSs will further work with the IBU members to implement the plan. The CRCs also showed their appreciation for DBSS efforts and initiative to mobilize the community for holistic development of children by emphasizing on good school environment.
Apart from activation of school management committee, CNI SBSS along with DBSS will also be involved in conducting regular meetings with guardians of children and developing brochures and pamphlets for the community to promote sending children to schools. Sessions and activities would be conducted through Child Clubs to develop the children in areas of language, communication, creativity, physical health etc. Time to tome trainings would also be planned for SMCs along with the CRCs to equip them further.
