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Schools instead of fields
Schools instead of fields - Collaboration with the Naandi Foundation
Every day on her way to school, Chandra Kalar passes the fields in which now only adults work. |  |
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Monitoring in the fields is used to verify implementation of the “no child labor” policy of Bayer CropScience in practice. Yet this can only achieve so much to ensure a long-term solution to the problem.
It is important to change behavior that is often deep-rooted in longstanding tradition. The central messages of Bayer CropScience’s activities in this regard are:
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| | Agriculture can also be cost-effective without the use of children |
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| | Education is the key to a better future for children |
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One project in the “Learning for Life” initiative is the cooperation with India’s Naandi Foundation, which has been in place since April 2005. This non-governmental organization, set up in 1998, works with over 2,000 state-run schools in India. It has good contacts with school authorities and the private sector and places great emphasis on comprehensive involvement by local communities in implementing the education concept.
| The start of collaboration with the Naandi Foundation: From the outside, the Creative Learning Centers appear rather modest - but for the children they are a place that offers them great opportunities. Here they receive preparation to attend a state school. |
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The start of collaboration with Naandi in 2005 was marked by setting up “Creative Learning Centers” (bridge schools) in villages in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where Bayer CropScience produces cotton seeds. The schools provided special courses to help children from rural families who have never attended school or who had to break off their schooling integrate into state-run schools. However, as child labor in cotton seed production areas has fallen heavily in the meantime, no Creative Learning Center is in operation today.
Collaboration with the Naandi Foundation needed to be adapted accordingly. Today, Bayer CropScience supports 23 “Early Child Education Centers” and 23 “Academic Learning Centers” in the 23 project villages.
“Early Child Education Centers” are daycare centers where pre-school age children are supervised. This enables older siblings to attend school whose job would otherwise be to supervise the younger ones.
The “Academic Learning Centers” are housed in state-run schools and offer remedial education outside official school hours. This also enables weaker students to follow classes and further encourages them to attend school.
In the 2010/2011 academic year, following a pilot phase, Bayer CropScience introduced scholarships for students as an additional incentive. These serve not only as recognition of good performance but also send out a signal to other students and their parents: good performance is rewarded. This measure also counteracts school drop-outs. Continuation of the scholarships is tied to defined performance criteria:
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| | Three examinations per school year which have to be completed with defined good marks |
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| | The school lessons attendance rate in the foregoing quarter must be at least 69.5 percent. |
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The elements of the collaboration between Bayer CropScience and Naandi: Various features are combined and ultimately ensure that the concept of “education is the key to a better future” is firmly established in people’s minds. | |
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A key factor in the success of all these projects is involvement of the population in rural communities (community mobilization). This can bring about a change in people’s attitudes toward attending school. The idea that “education is the key to a better future” is communicated, for example, in monthly local meetings, street theater sketches and poster campaigns.
Since the start of the project in April 2005, 1,402 children have been reintegrated into the school system as a result of the collaboration with Naandi.
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