Vigil

This is one example of how it can be made to work, the ones that are supposed to work. The study revealed that the following were behind the success.

1. Teachers took the teacher-training seriously
2. School admin. visited the school more than 20 times in a year i.e. once every 2-3 weeks
3. Community monitoring in the mother - teacher committee was active

And this primary school is situated in one of the backward district of West Bengal (Barjora block of district Bankura). The village has more than 90 percent population belonging to backward caste and minority community. This makes the feat even more praiseworthy.

What do we learn from this?

While on one hand there is a need to rush help to backward places but a more permanent, self-reliant system can emerge if we try to make the existing machinery work effectively, maintaining vigil, recognizing superlative effort - thereby playing a catalytic role, not running something in parallel unless there is emergency or taken up as a short term measure. Greater effort should be made to make schools already in place function better.

May be we need to understand their pain points and address them.
May be we need to arrange school level, block level and then district level competition and reward students, mentoring teachers, school admin. and recognize their effort and boost their confidence.
May be we need to take up academic oriented project like publication of magazine where every school is given 4 pages each to provide content (article, drawing etc.)
May be we need to organize workshops for teachers which would be more like a get-together, picnic, edutainment gifts for their students - no preaching but success stories will be shared (no negatives, there are and will be challenges - important is how to overcome)
....

I shall add more points if they occur to me, also readers are most welcome to suggest. The idea is to make them feel good, increase confidence and stand by them instead of finding faults. May be voluntary youth groups, NSS units as those in IITs join hands and treat the people working at the grass root level as partner for a stronger and better India.

The above shows that they have the potential to excel. They are spread far and wide while youth organizations are serving only pockets and often not in a sustained manner or treated as outsider. The idea is to tap the potential of whatever is already there and channelize the energy, enthusiasm of youth groups in a more effective manner.

The little experience we have gained so far, the Govt. always encourages this and there is a sense of admiration when IIT students try to reach out to villages. Come on, folks! Let's do it.

Here is the link where this study has been published today
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Bengals-primary-education-myth-busted/articleshow/6979155.cms