Back to school
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COMMENTS 
Part of a campaign to eliminate child labour in five districts of Maharashtra, the staff of Tandulwadi's government school and the local community have transformed the school and lured dropouts and child labourers back into its cheerful classrooms
It's a small two-roomed building, but every corner spells out a lesson. Slogans are painted on the walls. Colourful mobiles with information pertaining to different subjects hang from the ceiling. Portraits of national leaders hang on the walls and small maps and models give you instant geography lessons. Cellophane packets of grain inform you about the chief crops grown in the region while a series of leaflets, unfolding like an accordion, provide information on human rights. There is even an improvised library with magazines dangling from a string running right around the middle of the room.
This is the Tandulwadi school of Gangakhed block of Parbhani which has been officially commended and cited as a model school in this part of Maharashtra.
The transformation of an ordinary government school has come about in two years thanks to the creative zeal of headmaster S B Bhatane and H K Bandhgar, his assistant. It is also the outcome of a collective effort by the village initiated by the Socio-Economic Development Trust (SEDT), a civil society organisation popularly known as Swapnabhoomi. SEDT is part of the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme, a non-governmental effort to empower millions of India's poorest in 108 of India's poorest districts spread over six states.
Under the PACS Programme SEDT has undertaken a project for ensuring children's right to education and the elimination of child labour in 260 villages of five districts of Maharashtra: Parbhani, Aurangabad, Latur, Nanded and Beed.
Making government-funded schools more attractive and useful is part of that effort. Explains Shaikh Musa, SEDT's PACS Programme coordinator, "We believe that increased access to education would decrease the incidence of child labour. Our goal is to ensure that every child under the age of 14 is in school. But we also believe that schools must provide quality education. In many schools, children in the seventh class cannot even read or write properly. So we have undertaken an awareness drive in which we emphasise how the school is the door to a village's development."
Under this drive SEDT invites participation at every level by forming groups of children, women, village elders and teachers. It urges them to coordinate efforts to create an environment in which the school and quality of primary education are seen to be most crucial for overall development.
Ramesh Ghobale, field coordinator for a cluster of six villages that includes the Tandulwadi school, has demonstrated how the formation of such groups and coordinated efforts can translate into effective action in just two years. Some of the visible differences in Tandulwadi are:
- People have planted trees and cleared the compound in front of the school so that children have a decent playground.
- People have agreed to provide land where toilets will be built. They have promised to build a compound wall.
- Government officials and the police patil have shown interest in the smooth functioning of the school and its programmes. One village official, Shrimant Nagargoje, has said he will donate money for fans.
- Many of the paintings on the walls of the school and the rangoli patterns on the floor were done by a women's group. The women's group takes active part in the school's programmes. Often women are invited to come to class and supervise the teaching. Sushila Newarti Murkutte, whose son had dropped out of school, enthusiastically sent him back after seeing the classes in progress.
- Dilip Pandhari Tandle and others of the Bhagatsingh boys' group have promised to launch a drive to collect funds and donate a music system. Some of the older boys no longer study in this school but they are as motivated as the adults to do their bit to ensure quality primary education.
- The school's two teachers, Bhatane and Bandhgar, have studied only up to class X, but have shown a high degree of motivation. It is they who have created many of the innovative teaching aids in the classrooms. SEDT coordinator Narayan Phad says this is one of the main reasons why there are no drop-outs in the school.
When the programme was launched at Tandulwadi there were six children who had dropped out of school and were labouring in the fields or taking the cattle out to graze. Ghobale persistently counseled the parents and children. "One of the biggest challenges was to convince them to view education as a tool and force for development, not necessarily linked to jobs," he says. "I pointed out that after an educated girl gets married, she may not work outside the home, but she will always be respected for her knowledge and ability to bring about change."
Jyoti was one such young girl whose mother was persuaded to let her rejoin school. Eventually all the dropout children came back to school.
Musa and Ghobale are confident that while the PACS project may end in four years, the people of Tandulwadi will ensure that children do not work as labourers - they will all be studying in a well-equipped and welcoming school.
(Freny Manecksha is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist)
InfoChange News & Features, October 2005