Assam School lets students pay for lessons with plastic waste
Every day, the students of Akshar School in Assam’s Pamohi village are seen going to school holding a bag of plastic waste, in exchange for which they will get their day’s lessons.
The school, founded by Mazin Mukhtar, and his wife Parmita Sarma, has turned its pupils into eco-warriors by waiving school fees and attempting to stop the locals from burning used plastic.
The village’s toxic bonfires were causing such an environmental hazard, that the children were coughing and wheezing in their classrooms.
The school was founded to provide an education for children in the area, most of whom were working in the local stone quarries, earning about Rs.200 a day. Few of the parents were keen to send an earning member of the family to study.
The founder Mukhtar said “When we asked the parents to send their household plastic with their children on the school bus, almost none of them complied. They preferred to burn their plastic at home. So my wife told them we would start charging fees. Fees which they could pay in cash, or in plastic waste from their homes,”.
The alternative school fees policy quickly resulted in 100% compliance from parents who also signed a pledge to stop burning plastic.
Assam School lets students pay for lessons with plastic waste
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