"We want to be taught properly in our class and we want there to be discipline in our school," says Meena, a student of the only middle school in all of Gaunaha Block, Bihar.
VV-PACS Community Correspondent Tanju Devi reports on the woeful infrastructure of this school that serves the needs of 365 students from the entire block. The student-teacher ratio is skewed and school authorities estimate the need for at least 5 more teachers in order to run the school properly. Given the inadequate staffing, the students fail to receive the quality of education that they are entitled to, and several students can be found loitering around the school when they ought to be within the classrooms.
Moreover, the school's toilets are not in working condition and young girls struggle to find a safe and sanitary alternative outside school premises. Both of these inadequacies are violations under India's Right To Education Act which sets out guidelines for all schools to meet.
CALL TO ACTION: Call Mr. Vijay Kumar Verma, the Education Officer for Gaunaha Block in West Champaran district of Bihar, on +91-9431825822, and demand that the necessary measures be taken to ensure that this school complies with the RTE Act in order for the students to receive a decent standard of education.
About the Partnership: The Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme and Video Volunteers have come together to create the Community Correspondents Network. The videos generated by the network will be able to highlight voices from the margins, providing skills to social communicators to provide advocacy tools to community based organisations.
The Student Teacher Ratio and School Area needs improvement
In this video of UPS Manwan Awoora school, Kupwara, Kashmir, the community correspondent Pir Azhar shows us that there are nine classes for 250 students, and due to lack of space, the lower primary classes are held outside in the open. Also the school has only 7 teachers.