In this process, the first step of change is to involve the key stakeholders - parents, teachers, local community, elected representatives, Department of Education, Women and Child Development and other civil society groups – to initiate a dialogue, begin to engage with each other and the system. In the course of our journey, we have discovered two powerful ways to create this engagement.
Collection of Local Governance Data (LEGD)
LEGD is the collection of data of district-wide school and is aimed at giving an actual status of each school with respect to infrastructure, enrolment, teacher availability and issues affecting the school adversely. This data becomes a tool for Prajayatna on the basis of which it interacts with the communities through various meetings and discusses the issues prevalent in these schools.
Shikshana Gram Sabha
This is a school level meeting organized by Prajayatna where parents of the children enrolled in school, the teachers and the elected representatives of the Panchayat, the larger community, etc participate. The LEGD data is presented to the community and responses to the situation of schools is elicited. This – over a period of time – results in the School Management Committee taking responsibility for the betterment of the school. The outcome is the formation of a plan for the development of the school which ensures a conducive environment for learning for all children.