Sulabh Public School
Education aims to impart knowledge, inculcate values and imbibe the ideal character in children that will help them socialize with the outside world. It aides in developing the latent potentiality of children and prepares them to adjust according to any situation. Education emphasizes on both training and teaching; it enables individuals to develop the societal needs and expectations based on their potentiality. Education is for all life and is a human resource building process. It is vitally related to our way of living and livelihood. That is why education is called a “Life Building Process”.
The Sulabh Public School set up in 1993, is a crucible of human rights, liberalism and social change which it seeks to bring about through education. This a model school for other social agencies and government to emulate. Although there cannot be one-size-fit-for-all educational model, “this is a special school for special class of people who have been cast out of the regular system. These children have no educational or social background to be admitted to other good schools. They are the centre of our concern and of the Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement. This is the dream which I pursue and for which I am ready to carry any burden and walk any distance to make it come true”, says Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak.
The Sulabh Public School (English medium) was set up with the purpose of empowering the children of scavengers by giving them modern English, Science and Mathematics-based education and help them rehabilitate themselves with new jobs and a new life.
All students are offered free mid-day meal or fruits. The teachers impart education and inculcate moral values without favoring any particular societal class or group. Role models include Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar whose thoughts are the guiding spirit for the functioning of the school. Their principles are taught to the children.
While studying in school and socializing with children of different backgrounds, the scavengers’ children shed their inferiority complex and grow together. This arrangement has forged happy relationships with the families of the poor and the rich. The teacher-taught ratio is favorable to ensure a close watch on children. Students study Hindi, Sanskrit and English.
Yet another highlighting feature of the Sulabh Public School is the social mainstreaming of the students from scavenger families.
Children participate in several entertainment Programmes, cultural competitions, Republic day and Independence Day. Besides this, Sports Day and Children’s Day are also celebrated every year. Inter-house competitions including English and Hindi debates, quiz competitions, drawing, painting, singing, dance competitions etc are also held during the academic year. Special classes to enhance spoken English skills of the Sulabh Public School children are conducted in addition to providing the right platform for public speaking and debates. Simultaneously a class for Practical Mathematics is also introduced to develop students’ interest in Mathematics.
The School has a Managing Committee comprising of educational experts, nominees of the Directorate of the Education, Govt. of Delhi, parents / representatives of pupils and staff of Sulabh Public School. Attention is paid to the development and progress of the school as an instrument of social change.
The school is up to 10th Standard, affiliated to the CBSE and is recognized up to the Secondary level by the Delhi Directorate of Education. The school has a well-equipped science laboratory and a library with 4,000 books on different subjects. The school provides computer education to children from Class I onwards which the children enjoy tremendously. Pupils are oriented into personal hygiene and health education as messages of proper hygiene behavior spread from children to parents and community.
Pujas, such as Saraswati Puja, are performed where children of scavengers are encouraged to perform their religious rites, observe rituals and recite mantras in Sanskrit which were initially performed only by those belonging to the upper castes. Children from scavenger families recite mantras in the Sulabh School, a change in the tradition of not permitting Valmikis or their wards to read and write. Sulabh has demolished the social barriers through an extensive institutional network.
