By Deepal Desai | Communications associate
The Kids Sustainable School Challenge
The Kids Sustainable School Challenge is the first government-school kids’ sustainable enterprise challenge. This was exclusively designed to give kids in Grade 9 Government Schools in Bihar a chance to research, write, think-through, design and finally action sustainable-enterprises ideas in their schools.
This Kids Sustainable School Challenge began in 2016, powered by a kids’ radio show that got the word out, introduced in our teacher training, with flyers in newspapers - it was open to all. We directly ran the challenge through the 1,500 Government Secondary Schools that Going to School works in. Every kid that wanted to be a part of it received an eight step Kids B plan notebook to complete. The notebook takes kids through the steps of building a business plan and a prototype, to testing and finally going to market. When kids were finished with their plans they sent them in the business reply envelope to our P.O.Box in New Delhi.
What happened next?
- 10,000 kids across Government Secondary Schools in Bihar, responded, sending us their completed School-Enterprise-Plan Notebooks by post to our P.O.Box. in New Delhi.
- 25 people at Going to School read every kid’s plan.
- 101 kids’ plans were selected according to whether the kids’ ideas were well-researched, sustainable, green, inclusive, used clean energy & solved a big problem that would change their school for everyone.
- 101 kids practiced to pitch their business idea at the Pitch It event held on 23rd April, 2017 in Nalanda, Bihar.
Some brilliant pitches by the star kids were as follows:
‘I’ll make a safe playground for girls, we’ll begin with an egg and spoon race’
‘We need to recycle all of our trash’
‘My plan is to use solar light to light everything’
‘We’ve got to make the way to school safe for girls’
‘We’ve got to make the way to school safe for girls’
‘I’ve designed an entire drainage system to make sure we have clean water at school’
PITCH IT. 23rd April, 2017. Nalanda, Bihar
For the first time in rural India, kids presented their ideas for how they’ll change their schools [Think mini-TEDx]
The pitches were judged by a jury of kids who travelled all the way from Mumbai
50 schools won grants to action kids plans.
40 star teachers were celebrated from across Bihar who through the past year taught kids in Grade 9, 21st Century Skills through stories, games and skills projects.
The RICC Auditorium accommodated around 1,300 people on the day of the event.
Total 11 buses traveled from eight districts in Bihar a day before with 103 kids, 102 Parents and 100 teachers to Nalanda.
On the eve of the event the Moonlight market was organized in the premises of RICC hall where kids showcased their beautiful, sustainable projects that they had created at school.
Coverage:
•We live-streamed the entire event on Facebook.
•Over 700,000 viewers watched the event unfolding live from 10am to 6pm on Facebook.
•Other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram were also used to give timely updates.
•It was an all-day, red-carpet event. Nine cameras. Spotlights in the Sky.
•Children’s Scrappy News Teams of Kid Reporters covered the event, interviewed kids before they went on stage. The Children’s Scrappy Newsroom was also built out front in the parking lot [like India’s Got Talent].
•Apart from social media impressions, many local and national newspapers covered the event.
Links:
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