ICT helping underprivileged school-goers to be heard
In a developing country like Bangladesh, there are still a lot of regions within our borders where school going children are not getting all the resources needed for a healthy and hygienic educational environment. But how does ICT play a role here? Well, you are about to find out!
The school we visited was the Doshaid AK School and College where they had formed an 11 member National Children's Task Force (NCTF) like many other schools have as part of this initiative. The NCTF is made of 11 students, usually senior grade students who work together in assessing their water, sanitation and hygiene facilities at school and report it accordingly. The WASH report is passed on through a application called NCTFVOICE which is used via a tablet computer.
What makes this initiative amazing is that, the NCTF is not only completely handled by the senior students of the school, but these students have a say regarding the budget allocated to WASH facilities and are being empowered. Also, once these students graduated, they will be training the future seniors so that this process lives on. By accessing the site: www.myschoolvoice.org one can see the current stats of the complaints. This site also shows what sort of problems the students in the schools are encountering.
It also shows the resolution time of the complains. So everyone can get an overview and accountability is ensured.
Before the implementation of this initiative, the students were either embarrassed or too scared to address the issue with their teachers, but with the help of this app, the students are not only more open with their authorities but are also actively taking part in the budget.
The NCTF for the Doshaid AK School and College is led by its President, Suraiya Akter Papiya along with the Vice President, Abdul Malik, who are both studying in grade 10. When asked about the changes before and after the implementation of proper WASH facilities, the bright students acknowledged that before the facilities were implemented, the students did not even know that they had the right to speak up on the lack of these facilities. It is unilaterally accepted by both the students and authorities, that since they've been working together along with this initiative, they've had improvements in terms of WASH facilities with painted up wells and more taps for better access to clean water.
One of the members of the National Children's Task Force, Mashiha Jahan Arifa explained how the process of reporting the situation of the facilities works through the tab. She explained that every month, the task force would go around the campus asking other students for their feedback and whether or not they had anything that needs to be replaced, added or fixed within the sanitation facilities.
She further added an interesting piece of information, where this initiative that was created to improve the school's WASH situation turned into empowered children. They are now child rights activists; they had been taking action to protect children from being forced into labour within the communities that they live in. It is fascinating how the solution to one problem grew to become a solution to another greater problem.
Speaking about all the improvements once the students started voicing their opinions to the school authorities led to proper budget allocations to provide a better educational environment. Task force member, Tanvir Ahmed Shuvo added,"We now have more toilets and taps. Previously there was 2 male WASH facilities and 4 female WASH facilities which is now 11 and 6 respectively. More girls have been attending school, and as students are an integral part of this initiative, they feel more responsible to maintain the cleanliness of their facilities. They've also added in a suggestion box on campus where anyone can put in suggestions of what needs to improved that is reviewed every month by the appropriate authorities."
What's so special about what Save the Children has done here? After speaking to the students and school authorities, we've learned that this WASH project that began in July of 2014 started as a means to fix WASH facilities but ended up creating student leaders; fighting for children's rights in their community. These very children who were previously unheard, were able to incorporate ICT to use an app to address their problems and work together to find solutions to current and relevant problems.
This initiative which took off in Savar with a vision to help 26,000 children across 30 schools in the area is now being implemented in other parts of Bangladesh including in Khulna.
In partnership with VERC (Village Education Resource Centre), CSID (Centre for Services and Information on Disability), MMC (Mass Line Media Centre), mPower Social Enterprise (Creators of the NCTFVOICE app) and the NCTF, Save the Children is planning to roll out this programme across the country. The aim is simple and straightforward: better hygiene through provisions of soaps, dustbins, newly appointed cleaner, erection of new toilets, provided menstrual kits and running water systems in schools.
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