Irish students have been to India to help construct schools for local children, writes Louise Holden.

'I realise now that people don't need a new car every two years, the latest fashion and other material goods. We mix up our needs with our wants. I've stopped obsessing about CAO points and I now know the actual value of education. That's what this project has taught me."

Niamh Griffin, a student at John Scottus School in Ranelagh, Dublin, went to Calcutta in transition year to build a school for underprivileged children. This was no holiday: Niamh and her classmates spent three weeks rising at dawn to mix cement and carry bricks in the scorching sun, working with local builders, pupils and aid workers to build a school for a community of children previously living on the streets.

Then, in the evenings, the John Scottus students started their teaching day, giving English lessons to the children who would one day sit in the classrooms they were building.

"The whole experience taught me what education really means," says Niamh. "Before I left I was focused on points. I don't think I ever had a real appreciation of what learning gives in terms of personal growth. I have really grown up."

The project, organised by Sister Cyril, principal of a large and very successful Loreto day school for girls in Sealdah, a district of Calcutta, is in its third year.

Thirty transition-year students are heading off from John Scottus again this year, this time with 15 adults and teachers in tow. The project is growing and more people are looking to take part.

"The first two trips had such a profound and transformative effect on our students that this year's parents requested the same," says John Alexander, the school's transition-year co-ordinator.

"Our contribution in 2003 and 2004 was to raise the funds for and help with the building of two girls' schools in separate impoverished rural areas about 15 miles from the city centre. The John Scottus transition-year class all helped to get the necessary money together by organising numerous out-of-school fund-raising events.

"We went to Calcutta in the last two Februarys, stayed in Loreto Sealdah and travelled out each morning for three weeks to help with the building. It turned out to be the adventure we expected. We finished both jobs and made great links and friendships with the school community and the village people of Thakurpukur and Amgachia."

The students are taught some basic Bengali before they leave home, as they need to communicate with the builders, to learn the skills they'll need on the project. Although most of their work has involved lugging bricks and building materials around the site, the students also learn skills such as laying bricks and mixing cement. Work on the project starts at the beginning of the school year, however, as students raise funds to pay for the building.

"We are now feverishly selling raffle tickets, bag-packing in supermarkets and doing all the fund-raising we can to raise the €45,000 needed to complete this year's work," says Alexander. "In addition, each adult and student travelling has the task of individually raising their own air fare. Because the project is becoming well known in the community people are getting more generous each year. We had a church collection in the local area last weekend and raised €1,500 in Crumlin alone."

The team of 30 students and 15 adults is due to arrive in Calcutta on February 5th. Working closely with the students, teachers and parents of the Rasapunja and the Aikatan schools, the students will build two more classrooms for each institution. In the third week they will travel to Darjeeling, near the foothills of the Himalayas, to help construct a school for the children of tea-plantation workers, a project also sponsored by the Loreto nuns.

"The sale of Darjeeling tea has slumped in recent years, and the local people have fallen on hard times," Alexander explains. "They have never had a proper school in the community, and with unemployment so high it's critical that they start educating their children."

Sister Cyril, despite having a full-time job running Sealdah Day School, in the heart of the sprawling, crumbling city of Calcutta, is reaching out and bringing education to the hearts of underprivileged communities. She relies on the yearly visits of the transition-year students to get projects moving around the country.

"We just give the projects a kick-start, and then the local people can see them through," says Niamh. "In truth, however, I think we get more out of the village education project than we give.

"I learned so much in those three weeks last year. I can build a wall, speak some Bengali and teach English. I have learned the value of education and the meaninglessness of more material possessions. I've also changed career ambition. I set off with a notion of becoming an interior designer, but now I will train to be a teacher."