What is so special about these yellow Signals Schools buses?
Highlights:
- What is the initiative?
- Who started the initiative?
- When Education is approachable!
Signals School: Here is one school bus in Gujarat that no child wants to miss! What is so special about it?
From Monday to Saturday, a yellow school bus parks at different signals every morning in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
What makes this yellow bus unique is that it provides education to children who beg at traffic signals?
What is the initiative?
“Signals Schools”: A project to convert public buses into mobile schools for out-of-school children at traffic signals across the city.
It started with the mantra of ‘Bhiksha Nahi Shiksha’ for children who have never been to school in the state for various reasons- for children who are wasting their time in the open at railway stations, bus stands, or other public places, and children begging at traffic signals.
Who started the initiative?
It was started with the joint collaboration of the Gujarat government, Gujarat State Legal Services Authority, and the Municipal School Board of Ahmedabad municipal corporation.
Ahmedabad municipal commissioner Lochan Sehra said that this scheme has been designed keeping this fact in mind.
“To identify such children, a series of meetings were held with their parents.” Now, with this gap-filling scheme, these children will be admitted into the nearby municipal schools after six months or a year, depending on their learning levels. Sehra says, “This will be followed by another set of children who are out of the formal education system.”
Today’s positive Post of the day.#SignalSchool in #Ahmedabad is a great initiative to give basic education to homeless nd underprivileged kids,they pick the kids from signals nd it’s frm 9 to 12 nd provide midday meals also to the kids.
Hope this starts in other cities as well. pic.twitter.com/HkuWEBFdga— Lotus (@LotusBharat) July 15, 2022
In an attempt to persuade parents to keep sending their children, Sehra said, “We have covered the families of these children too.” To uplift them, they will be given the benefits of all government schemes and will try to make them stop begging. Social security does not cover them. Therefore, if we do not focus on parents, they will not send their children to school.”
The Wheel of Education features-
All kinds of facilities have been provided in Signals Schools.
The signal school bus has a blackboard, a table, a chair for the teacher, an LCD TV, Wi-Fi, CCTV, drinking water, and a mini fan.
Other facilities-
As part of the school health program, children will receive other facilities provided in municipal schools, lunch, and health check-ups.
After one year, these children will be brought into the mainstream at a nearby school.
When Education is approachable!
“I want my children to study, but we keep moving here and there.” But suppose if the school is in other parts of the city. In that case, I will continue sending them here, “said Mintudevi Vaghari, waiting outside the bus for her two children, aged 6 & 7.
This new approach by the government of Gujarat ensures that the poor and deprived sections of the society also get an education.
The signals schools project could become a model for the rest of the Indian states to follow.
According to Municipal School Board Administrative Officer L D Desai, the scheme will be replicated with more buses depending on demand. According to Dr. Sujoy Mehta, the School Board Chairman, “instead of appointing regular senior teachers, 20 young, dynamic teachers have been recruited on a contractual basis for these buses”.
