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Schools Instead of Fields


Every day on her way to school, Chandra Kalar passes the fields in which now only adults work.


“Creative Learning Centers” – this is the name given to the small schools designed to prepare children from rural families for enrollment in state-run schools. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, Bayer CropScience has joined with the Indian-based Naandi Foundation to establish 19 such learning centers. The goal of this joint program under the umbrella of the more comprehensive “Learning for Life” initiative in India is to offer children who have not previously attended school an alternative to working in the fields. In this way, the program aims to enable the children to enter the regular Indian school and education system. Also among the projects financed by Bayer CropScience are training measures for teachers and meals for the children.


A school thatched with straw: From the outside, the Creative Learning Centers appear very modest - but for the children they are a place which offers them great opportunities. Here they receive preparation to attend a state school.
So far more than 1,300 children have been enrolled in the learning centers, of whom about 1,000 have since progressed to the regular Indian school system.

In addition to this scholastic program for children of a typical school age, Bayer has set up a vocational school in which young people – and particularly those with past experience as child laborers – can acquire sound knowledge about working in the agricultural industry.

[ last update: Monday, December 8, 2008 ]