13-year-olds show how schools can have better facilities

While government schools in the state have been battered by the lack of amenities, a bunch of 13-year-old students has shown that all it takes is a little perseverance to solve problems the schools are facing—from getting drinking water to proper sanitation facilities.

In a school profiling programme done by Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA), students of 39 government schools in the state, discovered that they didn’t have to wait to get what they were entitled to: they could get it themselves. Over seven months, students of 14 government schools in the city took stock of facilities that their schools lacked and aspects that needed improvement.

The project is part of the ‘school profiling project’ done every year as part of the curriculum for CMCA civic clubs.

During a survey, 13-year-old students found that there are no drinking water facilities in schools and there is no water in toilets.

In some cases, there are no toilets or the toilets are in a dilapidated condition. Further, there are no benches or desks in classrooms and garbage is piled up inside or outside the school compound.

Statistics with the CMCA showed that of nine drinking water problems, six were solved during the course of the academic year. Of nine sanitation problems, 11 were solved; 15 of the 20 reported problems with regard to campus hygiene were also solved.

Marulappa PR, coordinator of CMCA’s government school programme, said: “Although we have been doing these programmes for a number of years, this is the first time that we are actually testing the students before and after the profiling in order to understand what they have learnt.”

Marulappa as well as CMCA volunteers vouch for the changes that they have seen in the kids. “They are confident in asking for what they ought to get—be it the mid-day meal, drinking water, text books or proper sanitation in schools. Children wanted to know why money is collected for text books when they should be given free of cost,” he said.

CMCA wants children to take these campaigns beyond the schools. “When they see that something is not right, they demand that it be set right. We have children who have forced their parents to segregate waste. By looking at the problems around them, they often realise that some of the problems start and end with themselves—for instance, ensuring the classrooms are clean.

They make the changes they are required to,” he said. The school profiling is done in private schools as well. According to Sushmitha Alva, CMCA’s coordinator for private schools, during the course of the profiling, children of a school went about checking whether their teachers had done their emission tests for their vehicles. “They checked whether their school buses were certified and informed the management when the canteen was not clean,” she said.

Students surveyed the facilities in schools and documented positives and negatives. They were asked to visually represent their findings and organise a campaign to solve problems. Teachers were presented with the findings.  

CMCA plans to present the findings to the education department officials. According to Maulappa, while the children managed to solve a number of issues, some, such as the lack of computer teachers, are problems that the schools cannot address. “We hope that once the findings are sent to the department, they will take some steps to solve the problems,” he said.