Indian visit provides students with perspective on education (From Stroud News and Journal)

Indian visit provides students with perspective on education

To say many children take education for granted in this country would be an understatement. Who can deny wishing they did not have to go to school on sunny days or in the freezing depths of winter? But, as one team of award-winning fund-raisers from Stroud High School discovered on a trip to India, education is a highly sought-after privilege in some parts of the world. SAM BOND reports.

IN rural Rajistan the gender divide is a gaping chasm.

All the power is in the hands of the men and an educated woman is a rarity.

But Save the Children is trying to address this imbalance and has set up a girls school in the depths of the desert where five years of lessons are crammed into an intensive six-month course.

In February a team of eight girls from Stroud High School were given the chance to see the work for themselves after winning a national competition with their impressive fund-raising efforts.

The trip was a real eye-opener for the girls and they returned with a new perspective on their own education.

Teacher Angie Zukowski, who accompanied the students, explained how it had come about.

"It was a competition about charity and fund-raising and citizenship run by an organisation called G-Nation," she said.

"We had to explain the charity work the school had done throughout the year."

Stroud High School girls raised over £20,000 charity last year alone.

"Pupils were raising money for the Philippines Trust, that was the main thrust of our fund-raising for the year but other causes were supported too, such as the Cotswold Care Hospice," said Ms Zukowski.

"We had to submit evidence of what we'd been doing and we had six girls who went round and did all the filming and produced the final report.

"There were specific criteria that had to be fulfilled to do with different ways of raising money, working together and the input of the students.

"We won the regional prize and were then invited to Downing Street with the other finalists where we discovered we were the overall winners.

"The big prize was the opportunity to see the funds in action and how they were being used in an overseas project.

The team had a training weekend in London which included learning how to operate the camera, some basic Hindi, team-building activities and a trip around Southall, a predominantly Asian area, to get a taste of Indian life.

But the true adventure was yet to come and the girls from the fairly tranquil Five Valleys flew into New Delhi, one of the world's busiest and crowded cities.

"The amount of people was amazing and the traffic was crazy," said pupil Abby Hunt, 17.

The girls were taken on a white-knuckle ride to their lodgings and were told by local drivers all they needed were good brakes, good horns and good luck.

Fellow student Lizzi Zukowski, 15, added: "We didn't know what to expect and in a sense we were all a bit nervous.

"It was totally different to what I thought it would be like. It took a while to adjust."

After experiencing Delhi and taking in regional wonders such as the incredible Taj Mahal at Agra the girls set off to see the school they were there to visit.

They took the overnight train through Rajistan to the tiny desert village of Mukam where the Save the Children girls school is based.

"It was a lot nicer than Delhi, a lot calmer and more peaceful," said student Hannah Stephen, 15.

"People were looking at us because they were fascinated and pleased to see us.

"In Delhi they'd been staring and made us feel uncomfortable."

The Stroud girls met their Indian counterparts and were amazed to hear how difficult it was for them to get an education and how lucky they felt to have the opportunity to go to school.

"Before we went we had an idea about what to expect but until you are there you can't judge what it will be like at all," said Hannah.

"When you're there seeing it first hand it's so different."

The 91 Rajistani girls came from 28 different villages and, although some of them were just ten years old, a third of them were already married.

The girls heard how they had to persuade their parents or in laws to let them come to school and how there were many barriers and social traditions that had to be overcome before they even enrolled at the school.

They were also surprised to find out how long the Indian students' working day was, both at home and at school.

"They had to work really hard," said Lizzi.

"They were up from 5am and working until 10 or 11pm when their family goes to bed."

The curriculum included not only the everyday lessons we would expect in this country, but also learning vital skills such as how to keep a healthy and sanitary home and how to deal with the authorities if they were victims of rape.

Working with their Indian hosts, they made traditional Rajistani puppets and created a puppet show highlighting the differences between school life and attitudes to education in the two countries.

The girls returned from the 12-day trip with a new insight into the problems faced by their contemporaries in the developing world, and many of them said they would now consider working for aid charities when they finished their studies.

They also said it had changed their attitudes to education and now, more than ever, they realised how lucky they were.