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School based Education

Towards Progress: Lokmitra shows the way

The small village school in Ahal village generates considerable interest amongst the villagers. Not only do they actively participate in the parent-teacher meetings, but also take an interest in its running. The Gram Panchayat also takes the lead in implementing measures to enhance the quality of this school. The school is attended by both, girls and boys, who sit together and study. This happy scenario has ensured that the children in this sleepy village have access to some quality education.

 
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Cut to five years in the past and the picture then appeared quite stark. The villagers considered this school to be a government institution and could not be bothered less about its functioning. Leave alone send the children to the school, the more idle amongst the villagers would use its premises to carry out their past-time activities, besides turning it into a veritable club for playing cards. It was around then that Lokmitra stepped in to stem the rot in Ahal and other villages of Deeh block of Raebarelli district of central Uttar Pradesh, comprising of mainly illiterate people, belonging to the schedule castes and dependent on wage labour.

The change process initiated by Lokmitra commenced through meetings with the parents of the children in Ahal village. This received a further boost from the different Self Help Groups (SHGs) that were formed and the awareness programmes created. Presently, a cluster level Education Committee has emerged, comprising of people of three Gram Panchayats. A student group actively focuses on supporting the children's learning in the school. Ram Prakash, the Chairperson of the education committee of the Ahal school believes that they would need to intervene at the district and state level to improve the scenario of primary education. The measure of the parents' participation in the school can be gauged by instances when they have felicitated the teachers to boost their morale, on Teacher's Day.


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The para-teacher trained and arranged by Lokmitra for the school has successfully demonstrated interesting and effective methods of teaching to regular teachers. This has led to the teachers deploying innovative approaches to their classroom delivery, desisting from scolding the children, ensuring an improved attendance at the school. The initiatives taken by the SHGs towards eliminating gender based discrimination has encouraged girls to come forward, if even to join non-formal education classes.

The Trust has actively supported Lokmitra to enhance community engagement in raising the quality of government-run village schools in Uttar Pradesh, by focussing on improving the teacher to student ratio and teaching learning environment.