Community Engagement through PTMs in Partner Government Schools, Haryana

Mr. Trilochan Singh, the Principal of Bharti Foundation’s Partner Government Schools GSSS Pundrak, Haryana, recognized that the involvement of parents and community members at the School level has been on the lower side. “Participation of parents in PTM has always been a challenge for us even though we had been pushing to improve the outcome”, said Mr. Trilochan Singh.

In order to ensure an increased engagement with the parents of the children studying in the School, the School management, in collaboration with Bharti Foundation and support from the Sarpanch, engaged student representatives to take the pivotal lead on increasing the PTM turn out.

The Art Club in-charge and leader Neha Singh, along with her group, created invitation cards for the parents, and Sapna of Proud India Club took the initiative of ensuring that the parents of all house captains attend the PTM. She also worked with the Sarpanch to request for Muniyadi in the village.

The School witnessed an increased participation from the community member; the parents felt very good coming to the School and discussing about their child/children’s interests, participations and achievements.

One of parents Ms. Arti Kumari said, “After seeing my child’s painting which has bagged him the 2^nd prize in painting competition, I feel that he can be an artist, too!”

The event was a display of co-scholastic activities and achievements as well; the parents felt ecstatic to see their child/children’s skills and accomplishments apart from their academic performance. The initiatives were appreciated by all the community members.

The Principal mentioned that engaging students and community in the process helped the participation percentage of the PTM rise from 78% to (2018-19) to 90% in 2019-20, and has shown a progression in SMC attendance from 55% to 74%.