However, after gaining a thorough understanding of the determinants of child labour, it appears that a different approach is necessary. Thus, we propose a self sustainable school system, targeting families who depend on their children as a source of income. “L.I.F.E. Education System” consists of two components: 1) Education: The fundamental principle for curriculum design in L.I.F.E. school is to provide practical life skills that will benefit the children throughout the course of their lives. Materials taught present the bare minimum knowledge that children need to proceed to higher education. These include appropriate levels of literacy (English), Math, and more importantly, useful skills that are critical to improve their quality of living (eg. hygiene awareness and daily useful skills). Upon reaching higher class levels, children can specialize in fields requiring more advanced courses, such as Science. 2) Work: A business will be established within the school, where the type of industry will depend on the needs of the current economy in the specific area. Children will have a period per day to work in this field where income will be distributed. In addition, after graduation, a year of work training program is available to introduce interested students to the working field. This may involve them to take on teaching positions for younger classes and other work positions available through affiliations to other companies in the region. The main advantages of “L.I.F.E. Education System” are: - Increase education involvement: School business provides subsidy for student’s family to motivate the parents to send their children to school - Decrease incident of child labour: Business provides more reasonable income for less hazardous labor work - Self sustainability: Business led by students generates revenue to support school maintenance, thus, no external funding is needed after the initial launching period of the project - Provide a positive atmosphere: Education provided to children is fundamental for changing their current living conditions and impacts greatly the development of their future.

Describe the current stage of your initiative and your implementation plan over the next three years

Current Stage: We have conducted research on the social, economic and cultural conditions in rural India, as well as the empirical analysis of the determinants of primary education. We also assessed various case studies of improving primary education systems and their corresponding solutions. At our present stage, we are strategizing ways to receive initial financial funding and seek support from the government of India. At the same time, we are looking for sponsorship from NGOs for implementing our project.
Stage 1: The school infrastructure will be set up and a thorough school curriculum and work activities will be set within the first year. Our initial step is to hire and train teachers from local areas, at the very start of the project, to enable them to employ active teaching methods, where the students can be engaged in an interactive learning environment, both in the classroom and on the field. The main goal is, after the completion of primary education, the students will have sufficient skills and knowledge to either enter the work field or continue to higher education.
Stage 2: For the second year, the senior years will be open for enrolment. The learning environment, lifestyle of students, general attendance, field experience will be monitored thoroughly and continuously. Starting in the third year, fully trained graduate students will be working full-time on the field and possibly assisting the currently enrolled students. This will be an opportunity for the students to share experiences, exchange advices and create bonds; if enough participation is observed; a possible mentorship program can be set up. As well, flaws and concerns addressed from the previous years will be improved on a continual basis.
Stage 3: At the start of the implementation stage, continuous funding will be invested in training the teachers, assessing the curriculum, and constructing the school facilities. However, it is expected that by the third year, once our funding resources begin to diminish, the school will have become underwent enough adjustments and iterations to have a stable source of income, generating revenue on its own through the school industry; therefore transforming into a self-sustainable educational system, with minimum needs for external funding.

Describe how your strategy meets the entry criteria ("What We're Looking For")

Our strategy meets the challenge entry criteria because we are proposing an innovative design dealing with two major humanitarian issues in India today: education and child labour. Our improved school system implements an economic portion into current existing school systems to jump start a virtuous economic cycle. As more children participate in “L.I.F.E. Education System” in the future, child labour incidence will drop. As a result, living standards of students’ family improves, leading the entire community out of poverty. Moreover, the solution can be replicated to other developing regions, with slight modifications made to the type of education courses and school industry. Course subjects and type of business needs to be determined by conducting a study on the necessary knowledge and economic activities desired by the community in which the solution will be implemented. After analyzing the results of our study, in order to ensure feasibility of our implementation, we will use existing facilities: merging our idea with already established educational and industrial infrastructure. Finally, once the solution is put in place, the quality of the school system can be assessed and verified using various monitoring processes to track attendance and performance.

Describe the qualifications and experience of you and/or your team and your ability to execute your implementation plan

All members of our team are enrolled in University of Toronto, under the Division of Engineering Science. This program is one of U of T’s flagship programs and is ranked among the top engineering programs in the world. One of the courses in our program, namely Praxis, combines theory and application. It exercises the ability of students to produce feasible engineering design solutions. Through the course, we have developed this solution for solving child labour and educational problems in rural India. After carefully analyzing these problems, proposing solutions and validating the solutions using professional engineering design models, we strongly believe that this L.I.F.E education system will benefit the children in developing areas. Regarding professional experiences, we have developed and proposed solutions for improving the Toronto Transit System and gained significant attention from its Board of Directors. They have expressed immense interest in our proposal, and will be discussing the possible implementation of it in the near future. Furthermore, we are heavily involved in the U of T Volunteer Consulting Group and many other volunteering organizations, through which we have expanded our knowledge of building and assessing successful solution design models. Due to the fact that we are limited in our abilities to implement this project entirely by ourselves, we are willing to share this idea with other organizations and collaborate with NGOs, such as UNICEF and EWB, as well as other local organizations dedicated to improving educational conditions in rural India. Finally, our faculty fully supports our idea, and will provide continual assistance throughout the implementation of this plan.