Nine Families Moved Their Children Out of Private School and Back Into the Government One

The School Management Committee existed. It had members. It had a mandate under the Right to Education Act. It had never met.

Attendance at the upper-primary school in Jagdispur was low, and the reasons were the usual ones. Families surviving on daily wages cannot always spare a child. Families who could afford it sent their children to private schools, because the private school looked better cared for.

And the body legally responsible for the school had been constituted and then left alone. Members were not clear what they were entitled to do.

Muskaan started by getting parents, committee members and the rest of the village into the same conversation about their school, with training on what the committee could actually require, and a meeting that happened on a schedule.

Then the committee did the unglamorous thing. It made a list. Which children were out of school. Which were enrolled but not attending. And then somebody went and spoke to those parents.

The elected village head got involved in the facilities. Teachers started teaching differently, with more activity in the classroom. Attendance went from 35 per cent to 66.

And nine children - five girls, four boys - were moved by their families out of private schools and into the government school.

That last number is the one worth sitting with. Families do not move a child from private to government education on principle. They do it when they can see the public school is being looked after. Nine households watched a committee start functioning and drew a conclusion about where their children would be better off.

Families do not move a child from private to government education on principle. They do it when they can see the school is being looked after.