How Facebook is Being Used to Improve the Education of India’s “Flowers in the Desert”

By Suraj Kumar, LEARN Program Officer, White Lotus Charitable Trust and Haryana State Representative, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)

Best use of technology is being practiced by Directorate of Elementary Education and Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojana Parishad (the agency managing Education for All) by posting pictures on Facebook every day. This can be a big help as it is difficult to communicate with schools in remote villages and sometimes the teachers are not able to express their feelings through a letter. A photograph tells many things, a message, a visual of the event and the expression of the subjects in the picture is clearly visible. Pictures of schools with beautiful gardens and well-maintained buildings, School Management Committee (SMC) trainings, sports events, and summer camps are some examples.

This is highly innovative to use Facebook for communication and it is showing its positive results. The best practices which were going unnoticed earlier are now being appreciated by authorities as well as the teachers in other schools. The honest teachers (majority of teachers are honest) are able to express their views and get commended by honest officials at Directorate.

The Block Resource Coordinators (BRCs) and Block Education Officers (BEOs) are posting pictures of School Management Committee (SMC) trainings from all over the state and pictures of girls showing their talents in summer camps organized in June are being appreciated every day. This is a very effective learning tool for all the schools, teachers and children as well.

I have been working in Mewat for the last five years and never heard about a summer camp in those five years but this year I was invited to participate in the closing ceremony of the summer camp at Shikarpur village in Tauru block in Mewat. The camp was organized for 15 days under the guidance of two teachers including one female teacher for 50 girls and the participants were trained on different subjects like:

1. Operating bank accounts (lessons were given by officials of a local bank).
2. Road safety measures (taught by the local Police Officials).
3. First Aid tips were given by the officials from local health centre.
4. Respecting our parents, human values and importance of girl’s education was discussed in a non-formal manner among teachers and students.
5. The parents also participated in the camp by giving tips to their children in making many beautiful household items which were displayed by the students very enthusiastically during the closing ceremony.
6. Many girls sang patriotic songs during the closing ceremony. It was heartening to see highly emotional feelings towards the motherland and the National Flag.

Another notable benefit of the Facebook communication is that teachers and authorities are discussing serious matters through posting comments and getting answers from the horse’s mouth. I saw a very interesting discussion between a teacher and Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojana Parishad about construction work in schools. The teacher was finally convinced with the arguments given by the government.

You can go to http://www.facebook.com/ssarteharyana and https://www.facebook.com/HSSPP to find informative pictures and information about the schemes and programs being implemented in schools which can be seen by every school and get the correct and first hand information which is better than reading some information in the newspaper and interpreting it in a confusing manner.

It is true that the Internet and Facebook are not easily accessible in rural India but something is better than nothing. The teachers in towns now have computers at home and are using them daily and it is hoped that the computers shall reach villages very soon following the mobile phones. The head teacher of Shikarpur school does not have a Facebook account but he asked me to post the photos of the summer camp and I did it through my account. The pictures were appreciated by one government official that told me, “flowers can blossom even in deserts.” So it is possible to reach people even if one is not on Facebook. It is also hoped that very soon many parents will also join Facebook to make the communication more effective.

I have also made many new friends working in schools in other districts of Haryana on Facebook and now some of them want to talk to me on phone to discuss the problems in schools. I am looking forward to make many more teachers as friends and want to start a campaign to improve schools through Facebook.

This initiative has given me a hope that one day people from Mewat also will be able to communicate their views with the policymakers via Facebook, such as the fact that children in Hathin block are still waiting for the better quality and regular supply of mid-day meals from an outside agency even though it is already being supplied in other nearby areas of Palwal district. School Management Committees of Mewat shall also be made aware of their roles in ensuring the rights of children being realized through proper intervention, such as ensuring teachers are actually teaching rather than focusing on school construction and cooking lunches. The entitlements being supplied to children shall be displayed on walls of every school.

I appreciate the Directorate of Elementary Education and Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojana Parishad for this revolutionary initiative and salute their courage to invite the schools, parents and every concerned person to express their views in a public forum. I think this is the only state in the country talking to the stakeholders so directly and openly.

The LEARN program utilizes community mobilization, legal advocacy and public interest litigation to expand access to quality public education for thousands of marginalized children in rural Haryana, India.  To learn more, please visit http://lotusoutreach.org/learn/.

Comments

[Mike Joe]

The actions taken by Directorate of elementary Education and Hariyana school shiksha Pariyojana to promote the educations and value of eduction in the remote village is really great. They deserves appreciations. It is the best technique to post pictures and ideas , concepts in Facebook through which they are spreading the value of education in the remote village.

[Mike Joe]

Technology is getting more and more important through that a school doing great in their educational field. The actions taken by Directorate of elementary Education and Hariyana school shiksha Pariyojana to promote the educations and value of eduction in the remote village is really great.