Children unite for education in India

In 1994, the Socio Economic Development Trust (SEDT) succeeded in drawing some 11,000 dropouts in 220 villages in nine tehsils of the impoverished Parbhani district of Maharashtra back to school through unique village-level children's organizations called Bal Panchayats.

These groups of 12-30 children were trained initially to identify children who had dropped out of school and to convince the parents of these children to send them back to school. SEDT has found that this project would not be anywhere without the help of the children rallying their friends back to school.

In addition, children are also involved in making these schools something worth going to. "The duty of cleaning the school compound has been taken up by the students. Children have also planted saplings around the schools and started kitchen gardens which supply vegetables for the school's midday meal. Working with limited funds, children made simple educational aids and decorated each classroom so that the atmosphere changed from dreary to colourful and inspiring. Today, each of the 220 schools with which SEDT is working boasts of clean campuses, decorated classrooms, 20-25 young trees and a functional kitchen garden."

Full article: www.indiatogether.org/2008/jan/edu-kidsedu.htm