Starter Kit. Idea 437 of 500. Cluster 23
After-school clubs at the schools, paid by the parents, run by teachers who want the income
The mechanism, from the book
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home, and the reasons are practical, not attitude.
The first step
Ask one school principal whether a classroom could stay open for 2 hours after lessons, and ask three teachers whether they would supervise homework and a club for extra income. Then send a note home asking working parents whether they would pay a monthly fee for it. The proof is a room, two teachers and a list of parents who reply yes with a price.
- Who pays first
- Working parents whose school day ends before their shift does, paying monthly because the club lets the mother keep a full-time job.
- What leaves today
- When school ends before the working day, a mother's skills stay at home; after-school care turns that gap into a teacher's income and a mother's wage.
Ask first
- the Divisional Secretariat. Ask whether the education office must approve a paid club held on school premises.
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask whether any permit is needed for a paid club run after lessons.
Check before you spend
Confirm written permission from the principal and the education office, the teachers' freedom to take paid extra work, and insurance for children after hours.
Find out these three numbers
- How many working parents would pay for an after-school place?
- What monthly fee would those parents pay?
- What would a teacher want for two extra hours a day?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka. Chapter One
"Female labour force participation, the share of adult women who are working or looking for work at all, is 32%."
Many mothers stop work over the hours after school. Cover those hours and some will return.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.