School Chalo Abhiyan – “School Chalo Abhiyan” launched on July 1, 2017 by UP CM is an initiative to increase enrollment in government schools and to ensure that every child in the state must get basic education. Campaign’s slogan is ‘Khoob Padho, Aage Badho’. This campaign is organized every year for children between the age group of 6-14 years to promote education among students, mainly drop-outs across various towns and districts in UP.
BSHA (Behtar Shiksha Haq Abhiyan) and CCRD (Coalition of Child Right and Development) forum endeavors to create awareness among parents and children about the significance and benefits of education has actively engaged in enrollment drive with district administration. They have motivated the community and encourage parents to enroll their children in nearest government schools. This campaign has been very instrumental in the enrollment of larger number of students in the government school and in controlling the school drop-out rate in past few years. The enrolment drive has continued till July 20th, 2017.
Our intervention – Our implementation partners and networks of education campaign actively participated in the “School Chalo Abhiyan” in their respective districts. Under this campaign,
they engaged with government officials and teachers at local level to spread awareness on importance of school education and encourage enrolment in government schools. They also worked in cooperation with School Management Committees, PRI and its members to influence community, particularly parents so that they can understand the importance of enrolling their children in school. The main objective of working with SMCs and PRI was to strengthen inclusive governance so that each & everyone can take the benefit of government schemes and policies without any discrimination.
Rallies, fests, Prabhat-Pheris, Nukkad Natak and Cultural Events were organized in collaboration with basic education officials and teachers at each level—district, block and school to call attention to importance of attending school. They conducted door-to-door campaigns with SMCs & teachers to reach out to maximum number of parents targeting families of drop-outs and out of school children. They make them understand that education is the only tool that could make the future of their children bright.
Our members also facilitated their support in organizing meeting at schools where teachers, parents and basic education government officials participated. The main objective of the meeting was to discuss the issues and concerns related to school-drop outs, short attendance etc. and to collectively bring out some potential solutions to increase the strength of the students in schools.
Areas of Intervention – The districts covered by our members under this campaign are Azamgarh, Banda, Shrawasti, Sitapur, Sidhartnagar, Lucknow, Varanasi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Maharajganj, Sant Kabirnagar, Jalaun, Pratapgarh, Kushinagar, Bhadohi and Shamli.
Participation Status – School teachers, School Management Committee members, parents, children and PRIs have actively participated in the campaign.
Other Key discussions – Several meetings and collective events were organized during “School Chalo Abhiyan” in which our members drew the attention of govt. officials, SMCs and other members on the major issues as well besides school drop-outs and increased attendance. Other issues related to mid-day meal, safe drinking water, sanitation and inclusive education were also highlighted to make everyone aware of the issues and problems prevalent in government schools and encourage them to take necessary steps to eradicate them or at least control them to a certain extent in their respective areas.
Potential Challenges – One of the major issues which cropped up during “School Chalo Abhiyan’ was school classes postponement. Teachers were unable to hold classes owing to their active engagement in this campaign which will eventually effect the timely completion of school syllabus. It was suggested by several teachers that some other members of the school administration should be appointed by the government to run this campaign so that teachers can give their maximum time to conduct classes.
Significant Outcome of the intervention-
- “Door-to-door campaign” conducted by our 15 members of education campaign under School Chalo Abhiyan got good response as it gave parents an opportunity to share and discuss their issues.
- The idea of meeting parents in person also helped in positively influencing their perspective towards government schools. One-on-one interaction with parents has helped in increasing enrolment of the students in government schools.
- In addition, the meeting which was organized at schools provided teachers a platform to put forward their issues in front of government officials Our intervention eventually contributed in increasing the outreach of the campaign and its impact.
- In some districts, our intervention helped in ensuring the regular presence of teachers in the school and improving students’ attendance as well. In Banda, migrant workers also enrolled their children in the schools owing to our intervention under School Chalo Abhiyan.
Enrolment Status – Our focus was to ensure that children from marginalized community should ensure to be enrolled in schools’ special focus of girl child from excluded communities.
Our intervention in “School Chalo Abhiyan” has been successful in creating awareness on the importance of attending school and education among children and their parents. It resulted into enrollment of several children across various districts. Even after the completion of School Chalo Abhiyan, we will endeavor hard to check school drop-out rate and monitor transition rate and enroll out of school children promoting inclusive education.
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- 15 girl children have been enrolled in primary school in Kullu Khera, Banda.
- 155 children including 35 Muslim,10 Schedule Castes and10 OBC children have been enrolled in primary school in their respective area in Shamli.
- 142 children have been enrolled in primary school in Azamgarh across 7 blocks including the children of excluded community.
- 112 children from SCs Communities have been enrolled in Sant Kabir Nagar District.
- 63 children including 22 SCs, 15 OBC and 26 Muslim (33 boys and 30 girls) have been enrolled in primary school in Lucknow.
- 7 SC girls’ children have been enrolled in Sidharthnagar.
- 149 children have been enrolled in primary school in Pratapgarh.
- 96 children including 30 OBC, 29 SCs, 14 Muslim children have been enrolled in primary school in Jalaun
- 488 children including 241 SCs and 247 others (257 boys and 231 girls) have been enrolled in primary school in Maharajganj.
- 131 children have been enrolled in primary school in Varanasi.
- 65 children have been enrolled in primary school in Bhadohi.
