The head of one of Christian Aid’s partner organisations in India offered his help to Welsh school pupils last month as they joined millions of people around the world in a bid to hold the world’s biggest lesson.
PV Satheesh of the Deccan Development Society (DDS) discussed the education system in India with pupils from Ysgol Rhyd y Grug, near Merthyr, as part of the 'send my friend to school' day organised by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE).
Around 7.5 million people from 120 countries – including students throughout Wales – participated in the global lesson on 23 April. The GCE wants governments to act immediately to ensure that the UN millennium goal of securing primary education for every child by 2015 is reached – with 7 years to go, 72 million children still miss out on their schooling.
Satheesh explained to the pupils at Ysgol Rhyd y Grug some of the reasons why girls especially, in other parts of the world, don’t go to school. These include the necessity of household chores, working in order to support the family and getting married at a very young age.
That's why education is a key part of DDS's work, he said. It is an important element in the struggle to empower women and the poor in India.
Tackling the issue
DDS’s extensive education programme encompasses a range of activities, from simple child care centres, known as 'balwadies', which combine creative learning with meeting the basic nutritional requirements of children, to 'pacha saale', the green school, which offers formal learning and life skills to children aged between 10 and 16, especially girls, who have missed out on school through having to work.
‘We also hold intensive workshops for adult women and there are 30 village-based night schools for working children,’ Satheesh said.
About 1,000 children attend the night schools, and approximately 50% of them are girls. The teachers are mostly men and women from the local dalit community, who have had some education and training.
Child-centred learning is encouraged, and the education covers a wide range of issues from literacy to life skills. Children from the night schools graduate to summer schools before moving on to regular schools.
The National Assembly
The following day, Satheesh visited The National Assembly of Wales for another GEC event. Oxfam had put together a photographic exhibition highlighting the many reasons why children miss out on an education, and more than 20 assembly members signed the chalkboard in support of the campaign.
Satheesh accompanied Eirian Samuel (Christian Aid), Rhod Griffiths (Oxfam Cymru), and Jane Hutt, minister for education, life-long learning and skills, around the exhibition.
The minister also met the heads of Christian Aid Wales and Oxfam Cymru to discuss the teaching of education for sustainable development and global citizenship in Welsh schools.