The all-girls school in Champaran runs entirely on crowd-sourcing
The Kasturba Kanya Ucch Madhyamik Vidyalaya Champaran, Bihar is undoubtedly a light house of girls education. The school accommodates 400 girl students and receives no financial support from government. The basic and foremost source of education in the nation is schools and even though there are many schools but not every one of them is filled with at least an appropriate number of students. In a 17-kilometer radius around a school, girls in the West Champaran area of Bihar have no other options for receiving an education.
However, despite being a light of education and liberty for females in the area, the all-girls school runs entirely on crowd-sourcing and receives no money or support from the government.
Kasturba Kanya Ucch Madhyamik Vidyalaya first opened its doors in 1986
In Bhitiharwa village, Gaunaha block, Kasturba Kanya Ucch Madhyamik Vidyalaya first opened its doors in 1986. People were unwilling to send their daughters to school, which led to the school’s rapid closure, according to Pankaj, a 40-year veteran in the Champaran land rights activities.
To save the school, a group of independent campaigners banded together. Currently, it employs 30 persons who do not receive pay to educate. The state’s lowest female literacy rate is found in this area, at 18.07% vs 29.05% for males.
According to reports even after a lot of appeals by certain Lok Sabha members who wrote letters to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar urging him to acknowledge the institute as a government institution.
According to the principal, Deependra Bajpayee, the state government has disregarded every request for funding made by the institution. He said that all of the furnishings were purchased with donated money.
The main problem is the lack of interest of the public in the region to send their girlchild to the school for acquiring education hence the school was an empty building during the 90s.
Politicians frequently stop by the school
Even though the school is not recognized as a government institution, Bihar Board nevertheless recognizes it as such. Every time they visit the Bhitiharwa Gandhi Ashram, politicians frequently stop by the school. During the 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, Congressman Rahul Gandhi visited the school and even attended a lesson there, claimed the principal.
A record 400 students are enrolled in the institute. When the school reopened in 2016, there were just seven girl students, according to Bajpayee. The teachers are from Bettiah, Gaya, Jehanabad, and Chapra, as well as the metropolis of Patna.
In a cabin on the ashram grounds, Kasturba taught female students and emphasized the value of education.
The school bears Kasturba Gandhi’s name. She was an Indian freedom fighter who resided in an ashram while Mahatma Gandhi visited Champaran. In a cabin on the ashram grounds, Kasturba taught female students and emphasized the value of education.
In Gaunaha’s communities, child marriage is common and young brides are no longer permitted to attend school. The teacher activists mobilize the moms of the girls, emphasizing the value of education to them.
Even students participate in campaigns and demonstrations to ban child marriages in the villages of Pakdi Bisauli, Srirampur, and Bhitiharwa.
You can read more about Kasturba Kanya Education and Welfare Trust here
According to the students, the school provides better and proper facilities to the students and they have different teachers appointed for different subjects whereas many government schools lack such basic facilities.
The school works to give the girls options, they were chosen for district-level Kabaddi championships. Additionally, the kids study the well-known Madhubani painting style of Bihar, and they occasionally display their artwork at Kasturba Gandhi Ashram.
In one way or another, the school needs a backbone for its recognition and functioning and this should be done as soon as possible.
Such initiatives are an example of how the education model in school should work but at the same time being an organization it cannot guarantee a long-term functioning without the help and funding from the government.
And importantly helping in making the people aware of the importance of education for the girl child, Kasturba Kanya Ucch Madhyamik Vidyalaya no doubt has been surviving on crowdfunding and with help of the activists but it in a way or other he school needs backbone for its recognition and functioning and this should be done as soon as possible.