Anchoring Dreams with a Sustainable School Empowering Young India

Going to school remains an unfulfilled dream for many children in rural India. In this article, Surmai Kaushik focuses on the dismal quality of education in rural schools of our country and suggests ways of empowering the young minds towards sustainability.

- Surmai Kaushik

My story is about a school. A school that makes dreams of a young India come to life, a school that is a child’s companion in their journey of accomplishing dreams. I remember that warm tingling feeling I had every night I packed my bag and folded my school uniform for the next day. There would be an innocent glint in my eyes whenever I felt the freshness of crisp paper from new schoolbooks. The long joyous hours of the day spent in the playground and science labs were most fruitful. My school is where I learnt everything I have known and made memories that would last a lifetime.

Sadly, for most students in rural India, going to school remains a far-fetched dream. Many schools in rural India are in a dismal condition with dilapidated walls, gloomy spaces, no play areas, and inaccessibility to necessities such as clean drinking water and electricity.

Today, we are grappling with hazards of plastic pollution, climate change, and a meltdown of glaciers. We need our youth to be able leaders to fight against environmental degradation by equipping them with solutions to envision a greener planet.

The Horror of Education in Rural India

Lacklustre infrastructure, no play areas or fun spaces: Many states are yet to fulfil the norms laid down in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The provision for playgrounds and construction of boundary walls, both of which feature in the Act, exhibits the largest shortfall in India, with 40% schools not having a playground and 43% functioning without a boundary wall. The figures for laboratories for science-related subjects are further dismal.