Going to School, a creative not-for-profit education trust based in New Delhi, has designed a programme Be an Entrepreneur to help school children to learn creativity and problem-solving skills, nurturing entrepreneurial talent in rural areas. With a grant of $2.7 million over 2.5 years from The IKEA Foundation, Going to School will reach 200,000 children in 500 schools in Bihar, giving them the skills they need to run their own businesses or get better jobs, and right now, the skills they need to stay in school and transform their lives.
This design intervention in education is powered by stories. Each story teaches children a key entrepreneurial skill — how to identify a problem, take initiative, make a budget and a plan. What sets the stories apart is colour, art and design. Every Saturday, children are given a story, they play a skills game and then over the weekend, children complete skills challenge projects —they make children’s newspapers about entrepreneurs they meet and much more. In the same schools, the new ‘kids’ sustainable school challenge’ gives children and their schools a chance to re-design what they learn, to make their schools places they want to be. Winning schools will receive awards to set up school enterprise clubs and action their plans.
For the first time, children will be given a chance to build their own newsrooms out of junk and once-loved-things.