Community participation, an effective strategy

What constitutes quality education? The parameters may vary, but policy-makers and educators seek ways to utilise limited resources to provide quality education to children.
Citing some success stories from Gujarat schools, R C Patel, nodal officer, supervising and monitoring committee of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), explains how school infrastructure can be effectively used.He explains, ���Mid-day meal is an effective way to ensure attendance but while visiting various schools in Gujarat, we found that the food served to students was of poor quality with no mineral or vitamin content. The menu was confined to potatoes and brinjals with no fruits. So we came up with the idea of providing a balanced diet.���
He adds: ���We utilised the school ground for sowing vegetables and fruits. That way, there would not only be variety in meals, but children would learn the concepts of area, profit and loss, geometry, germination, agricultural practice, and so on.��� The model is running successfully in various schools of Gujarat, claims Kashyapi Awasthi, a lecturer from M S University of Baroda, Gujarat.
Community participation, too, can improve quality of education, says Patel, adding, ���We have a concept called
���Bandhan��� wherein we pair some affluent schools with less privileged ones and train the teachers through motivation, lending effective models, teaching-aids and so on.���
Awasthi adds, ���A rural school in Surat owns an LCD projector, which children can use for teaching-learning processes.��� Further, she adds, ���Sisodiya Prathmic Shala, a government school in Gujarat, involves students in activity-based learning like planting seeds, encouraging concept learning and so on. It turned out to be such a
successful venture that four private schools in the vicinity had to close down because students moved to this government school.���