Building Foundations

On 5th October 2018, the new building of the Kalaunjar Middle School was inaugurated. The ground was full and when the ribbon was cut by the chief guest, the sound of the claps was deafening. In the crowd were people who had raised their voices against the construction of the building. They were now beaming with pride.

For a remote village affected by floods every year, good infrastructure is rare and hence revered. Infrastructure is more than just brick and mortar and has the power to transform the experience of a place simply because of the tangible value it brings.

“शिक्षा से हीं विकास होगा, और शिक्षा के लिए सुविद्या बहुत ज़रूरी है।”

- सुनीता प्रसाद

Boundary battles

If there is one change that is unanimously spoken about by children and adults alike, it is the construction of the boundary wall. For those who were a part of the construction process, that time was difficult to say the least. The situation almost escalated to a life threatening one.

Quest Alliance decided to get the boundary wall constructed from a local contractor and the chaos that followed landed them right in the middle of local politics. The opinion in the community at the time was divided with some people happy with the construction and others pointing fingers at the corruption it led to. But now a year hence, everyone agrees that it was a changing point in the school transformation process. It was the first time since 2015 where change suddenly became tangible and real and the buy-in that that brought from the community was huge.

Back to basics

Drinking water, clean toilets are things we take for granted. While they might not directly impact classroom learning, they have a huge role to play in the overall experience of the school. Lack of these facilities had once deterred parents from sending their children, especially girls to school. With these facilities now available, parents were more than happy to send their children to school.

Providing plates for everyone to eat, a shaded corridor for the mid-day meal were also huge bonuses for the parents and students.

Kids know best

The activation of the Bal Sansad and Meena Manch in the school and visible improvements in the school brought out a sense of ownerships from the students too. They felt responsible and capable to lead change projects to make it their school.

Installing dustbins, eating the MDM in an organised manner, installing a lock at the school gate were some of the many initiatives that were led and funded by students themselves.

Community contribution

The community also started feeling a sense of ownership towards the school. Contributions for the library, fans, a stage for the morning assembly started coming in and the community started becoming attached to the school.

New foundations

The boundary wall taught many a lesson and the team was prepared to climb the new mountain - the construction of the new building. Yet the construction brought with itself a new round of challenges - no one was willing to take the responsibility for breaking the existing building.

Once that hurdle was crossed, the rest of the process was pretty smooth. The contractor was selected based on merit and the SMC played a huge role in monitoring the construction work at the school. The building stands tall, waiting to be brought to life by the next art workshop.

Looking back

Infrastructure is a tricky domain to venture into, especially in a public school. And while the involvement can lead to messy politics, the perceived value of infrastructure is the most. Infrastructure and the physicality of it makes it easy for people to measure progress and judge it for themselves.

"जो गरीब आदमी है वह पढ़ कर नहीं समझ सकता, पर देख कर तो समझ सकता है ना!"

- प्रतिभा ठाकुर, शिक्षिका

The lack of leadership at the school coupled with changing headmasters caused the pace of change to suffer the most. 12 lakhs given by the Bihar government for the construction of the building was returned unused because no one was willing to take responsibility for breaking the existing building.

Quest’s inexperience in the construction space didn’t help either. With the community knowing more about construction than the QA team, it became hard to decipher who is speaking the truth.