On World Environment Day, this story of a unique school started by an Assamese couple is doing a great job for the environment and nature.
A couple from Assam has started a school that accepts plastic waste as fees. In June 2016, the school was founded by Mazin Mukhtar and Parmita Sharma with an aim to ensure free education to the children in a healthy and green environment.
As per the reports, after Manzin came to India from New York for a school project in 2013 and met Parmita, the planning for the school began. Parmita was a social work student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
She was dedicated to working in the education sector and she helped Manzin in getting used to the challenges of education in India. After working hard for three long years, the two of them established the school “Akshar” in 2016.
Manzin told a news portal “The greatest challenge was to convince the villagers to send their kids to school. Because most of them were the earning member of the families.”
“The little kids worked as laborers in the nearby stone quarries under harsh conditions. So, we thought of designing a curriculum that would fit their financial needs while getting the right education for them,” he added.
The duo told that they were shocked to see the families using plastic to create bonfire during winters. It was then the couple decided to educate the community about the health hazards of burning plastic.
Both of them taught the villagers to recycle plastic waste by creating construction materials and the children were asked to carry plastic wastes to the school.
Now after three years of the school was founded, each child brings about 25 items of plastic waste every week. In 2016, the school was started with just 20 kids and now the school has more than 100 kids studying.
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