In its efforts to strengthen schools' ability to meet the needs of children, CWC has developed a curriculum based on Montessori methods. These methods are used throughout the extension school network. CWC is successfully encouraging government schools to implement the same teaching methods, and to incorporate its empowerment material into their curricula.
Most important are the instances when the official education system recognizes extension school graduates as equal to their peers from formal schools. For the first time in India, an education department in Karnataka has allolwed children trained in extension schools to take official exams for any grade.
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Teachers help students (left and below) in a government school near Kundapur where CWC has helped officials incorporate Montessri methods.
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Primary education in India today covers roughly one quarter of the country's total child population. The remaining children fall outside of the formal system due to cast and gender discrimination, geographical limitations, poverty and other forms of marginalization.
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Students (right) learn in an "extension" school they helped create in Uppunda, a fishing village near Kundapur.
Children's governments, or panchayats, have demanded these schools from local officials. In some cases, the village panchayat, or even individuals, have donated a small plot of land, labor and materials to help children build these schools.
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Education
To combat what Damu and others call an "elitist" system, CWC members have established vehicles for creating "extension"