GPS Daburji — A case study

In GPS Daburji of Ropar 2 block, there are 122 students (majorly belonging from the migrant families), one Head Teacher, Mrs. Harwinder Kaur, one Education Provider and one volunteer from Pratham. During our initial interactions in the school and community, we could observe a contextual gap between the Panchayat, SMC members and the Head Teacher. Panchayat’s role was very selective towards the school, SMC members were not aware about their roles and responsibilities, and the head teacher’s relation with them was also limited to the school’s functioning. Hence this was one of the core challenges we started working on. Cleanliness in the school was another which was observed with the help of the HT.

To discuss the identified challenges, a Gram Sikhiya Sabha (GSS) was conducted in the school in December’21 where activities like School tour and an open discussion on everyone’s responsibilities towards the school were conducted. Topics like hygienic surroundings, and cleanliness of school and water tanks were the highlights of the meeting. Towards the end, the panchayat took the responsibility of cleanliness and decided to give MGNREGA service to the school. After this GSS, two follow up meetings with the SMC members were also conducted in January’22 and March’22 to discuss the work done post GSS, learning issues of children, and parents’ participation in learning of child and FLN. The focus of these two SMC follow-up meetings was to increase SMC’s participation in the school.

After GSS, Panchayat completed the work of cleanliness of school and water tanks through MGNREGA. They also acknowledged and agreed on the requirement of periodical and need-based work to be done through MGNREGA in the school. Post all these three meetings, we have noted the SMC members have become more active and engaged in the school activities. They have also started to do frequent school visits.

With such effective meetings of sharing between Panchayat, SMC and the Teachers, an effort to conduct and continue such meetings on a regular basis by the School Teacher could be done. This would aid us in making a learning community of Panchayat, SMC, Teachers and students, as advised by NCF 2005.