Pupil power: school parliament gets results

Pupils in 10 schools in Cairo are forming their own school parliaments and making themselves heard as part of a programme to improve educational facilities.

Fatma’s school in the Marg neighbourhood of Cairo already had a school parliament in place, but without support and training for the pupils it was ineffective and had no clear goals or responsibilities. Plan, as part of the Schools Improvement Programme, helped form a better parliament with two members elected from each class. Fatma decided to take part, and was elected as chairperson.

Along with the other members, she received training from Plan on children’s rights, participation, communication, and problem-solving. The training was done in coordination with the Educational Directorate and the school. Afterwards, the children were better able to detect and address issues with a detrimental effect on their education.

The next step was for the members of the parliament to meet the District Head, and district officials, to speak about their concerns and to try to make some changes.

Fatma told the District Head that there was a tunnel that the children had to use on their way to school and back home. This tunnel was always dark which made it dangerous for pupils, particularly girls during the afternoon shift (many schools in Egypt work two shifts, morning and afternoon, due to school over-crowding). She asked him, "If it were your daughter, would you want her to go through this dark tunnel?"

Fady, another member of the school parliament, asked to have the sewer system near the school fixed because it was always flooding the playground, preventing its use and creating a hazard for the pupils.

Hadeer met with the director of the Educational Directorate to ask for janitors to clean the school and for more social workers to be made available as there was currently only one at their school. 

Following Fatma's request, the district Head sent the district workers to light the tunnel, and Fady will get his playground as the sewerage network is currently being renovated. The director of the Educational Director assigned more social workers to Hadeer's school and janitors to ensure a clean school for her and her fellow pupils.

Heba says, “Participation in the school parliament provided me with a chance to express myself and to discuss important issues with officials,” while Mostafa said that, the school parliament, “enabled me to overcome shyness and become more sociable.”

Having their views heard and acted upon was a real boost for the confidence of the children involved, and has encouraged them to continue to work to improve facilities for their schools.