Students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) seem to have undergone a sea change in their academics, confidence and leadership qualities, opined experts present in the annual workshop of Save the Children, an international NGO, to showcase the outcomes of its three-year project ‘Empowering Marginalised Girls through Quality Education’ here on Friday.
Students of KGBV, teachers and other staffs were assembled together to cherish their achievements in the programme. Mahadev Hansda, State Manager of the NGO, stressing on the smooth functioning of the schools, said, “There is need to break the glass ceiling to follow your dreams and we are here to help you out of every challenging situations. One must follow the avenue to attain success in their life. Students of KGBV are overcoming their weaknesses and now they are actively participating in co-curricular activities and doing well in their studies. I am proud of these students.”
Talking about gender discrimination, a student remarked that role of men in perpetuating discrimination against women is very high. “Earlier, girls were not allowed to go to school or play like boys and at most of the places, they were not allowed to mix with boys freely. Although girls have a huge potential to energise the economies of countries, many times, gender discrimination frustrates these expectations. But now everything has changed,” she said.
“I am fortunate to be a part of this school, the knowledge I gained in these years will help me tremendously in future, the assignments given by the NGO boosts my confidence and makes me feel much better than before,” she added.
On the occasion AK Singh, Convenor, Jharkhand Right To Education Forum said that there is shortage of teachers in KGBV schools, which will be addressed as soon as possible. He also said that ‘Lalita and Babu’ the life skill module from Save the Children has been doing wonders and girls are actually performing miraculously on national and international platforms.
Panelists discussed about the changes that KGBV has seen in past years and said that suggestion box is installed in school campus, in which one can anonymously drop a message and school magazine ‘Bal Samvaad’ has been introduced, which includes the stories, articles, poems and drawings made by the young girls. Every year they work with various government schools in Jharkhand and till now they are functioning with 21 schools.
Moreover, according to the data shared by the NGO, students of Gumla, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidayalaya have shown improvement in Hindi and Mathematics.
Panelists encouraged students to become able and to gain knowledge & wisdom in their lives.