Corporates labour to upgrade school education in Rajasthan

Jaipur, Nov 18: Rajasthan is sure to witness a sea change in its education sector in rural areas where the government has roped in corporates to adopt schools to improve the overall quality of education.

Corporate bigwig R K Poddar with his well-established Mayur Leather Private Ltd unit has taken up the challenge of mapping the overall development of a non-descript village school on the outskirts of Jaipur.

Mr Poddar, owner of Mayur Leather Pvt Ltd, is one of the many corporate leaders in the state, who has adopted government schools under Rajasthan Education Initiative, near his factory unit, to bring about change in the overall quality of education and ambience in the schools.

The Rajasthan government has signed MoUs with the CII and corporates to ensure public private participation under the initiative.

Mr Poddar has adopted three schools, including the government middle school at Bhojlava in Chomu. His representatives are also regular visitors to the school to assess the progress report.

He said he is here to prove some points, as the corporates are also sceptical of adopting schools due to inherent defects in the system.

He said if he succeeded in setting some examples, others would naturally follow, leaving aside their reservations.

Mr Poddar is confident he will be able to convince other members of his faternity that ''change in behaviour is through change in the belief system''.

He said before venturing in to this unknown territory, he conducted extensive surveys of six schools in the area.

Mr Poddar said when he began working in this sector six months ago, ''None of the schools had electricity, the children used to squat on the floor. There was a shortage of teachers. Compounding the problem was not only the absenteeism of children but also of teachers. Either the toilets were non-existent or were stinking.

Nobody was there to ensure that the system works''.

He said according to the MoU, the government had to provide the 'hardware' to use a business term like building, teachers, electricity and others while the rest of the things were to be taken care of by the adopting company. He said children would come to school, only if they were provided with facilities that are better than what they get at home and learning is fun, reminiscing his own experience, adding he first ensured the government was part of the agreement. The electricity connection disconnected due to non-payment of bills was restored.

The government was also asked to appoint English and maths teachers.

Mr Poddar said first priority was to put in place the necessary infrastructure, and till now an investment of Rs 15 lakhs was made for the basic infrastructure in the three schools he has adopted.

Starting from scratch, he purchased tables and chairs for the staff, a vehicle for transportation of the mid-day meal cooked in a mechanised kitchen run by a coporate NGO so that the teachers were relieved of the burden of cooking.

Since the classrooms were small, tables could not be accomodated.

So instead of benches and tables, he bought carpets so that the children need not bend to write notes.

A computer section was also started in the school with a teacher service ensured on deputation.

Mr Poddar now like an expert says the ''governemnt system did not work because there was no initiative. The regular system did not work as it had become old and irrelevant with no direct contact between the government and the people''.

He said his aim is to empower villgers to manage the school with a committee of people taking care of the school, as he regards ''a government school as a public school''.

UNI