An engineering graduate of Rohilkhand University with a postgrad diploma from the blue-chip IIM-Calcutta, Awanish Kumar Singh (31) was all set for a high-flying corporate career when the sudden death of his father in 2000 pushed him into taking charge of the newly promoted Subhash Chandra Bose PG College (estb. 1999) in Gausganj, Hardoi district, 110 km from Lucknow. The college with a student body of 5,000 offers undergrad programmes in arts and science and postgraduate courses in sociology and education.
“The challenge in rural education is not to attract students, but how to attract teachable students. The quality of primary and secondary education in rural UP is so poor that school leavers lack the most basic skill-sets. In the two-three years they are with us, we cannot make up for ten wasted years,” laments Singh. Therefore he has set about fixing the feeder school education system. In June 2006, following a survey of 100 schools in the district, Singh shortlisted ten for a complete makeover. This involved strengthening the syllabus, provision of study material, setting exam papers and intensive teacher training.
But with several schools dropping out of the partnership, Singh hit upon the idea of promoting a school on the college campus. Two years on, the classes I-V Sishu Shiksha Samaj Kendra has 150 children from extremely disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, regularly and enthusiastically attending classes. “We charge a nominal fee of Rs.300 per year which is mainly levied to enable parents to feel they are contributing to their child-ren’s education and future. The rest is the school’s responsibility,” says Singh.
To prepare children for collegiate education, utili-sing his IIM-C education, Singh has pulled out all the stops to import best school education practices from metropolitan India into the Sishu Samaj school. The teacher-pupil ratio has been capped at 1:25 (cf. the government schools average 1:64); the syllabus has been updated and pedagogy innovations by carefully selected teachers are encouraged. Moreover students enroled in the postgrad education programme at the contiguous Subash Chandra PG College help out by assessing teacher innovations in the school and also conduct classes.
Singh is well aware that he has taken on a huge task. “I’m not satisfied with making marginal changes in the school education system. We are working towards a complete revamp. The task isn’t easy but I’m confident it can be done. And once we demonstrate that school education can be overhauled, many other schools will replicate our model. That’s my dream,” says Singh.
Way to go, brother!
Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)