Local communities can play an important role in strengthening the education system as the responsibility of running schools have now been devolved to the local authorities. Given the daunting needs, many municipalities are struggling to meet the challenge of efficiently supporting local schools - from ensuring a timely and efficient flow of financial resources to supervision and performance evaluation. Forging partnerships and seeking the involvement of local communities are essential if the local authorities want to raise the bar, elevating the educational standards of many public schools, often the only choice for families living in the rural and remote areas. While the Parents Teachers Associations and the School Management Committees are the pillar of this localised, community-run educational system, there is also a case to look at the role of informal education in the overall promotion of an effective values-based learning process. Community Learning Centres (CLCs) are one of the best practices that have emerged in the last decade, creating a strong sense of ownership among the local communities about the importance of education beyond the traditional classrooms. The CLCs are not only sustainable hubs in promoting adult literacy education among adults but also a platform to support the children’s learning process as well, often in strong association with local schools. In addition to that, they are vehicles to promote civic engagement and community development. According to Udaya Manandhar, an education and development expert, such centres have also become instrumental in reaching out to children now excluded from the educational system. “One of the prime objectives of the CLC classes is to bring back out-of-school children to the schools and ensure there is a smooth transition from the CLCs to the schools. CLCs have done an incredible job in offering flexible learning opportunities targeting children who are out of schools, most of whom are working as child labour,” says Manandhar. Moreover, according to Manandhar, “in addition to learning/recovering literacy, children and adolescents are also getting life skills at the centres”. Some local NGOs have been focussing on grassroots learning education and developing CLCs. These grassroots organisations are instrumental in empowering local communities not only by providing learning opportunities but also acting as platforms for social economic transformation. These CLCs are also beacons for inclusion with a high level of participation by women, minority groups like Dalits and others and local youths. The fact that women and youths and other less represented groups are the driving agents behind the CLCs is also significant because these centres become vehicles for inclusive grassroots democracy promotion. Moreover these local institutions can also act as an “advocate for social change”, lobbying and advocating with the local authorities for the overall development of local communities, playing the role of partners and watchdogs simultaneously. Working with local schools, CLCs can help bring a unified voice representing local interests and needs, creating a common platform that can raise issues and propose new ideas to elected officials. The School Sector Development Programme (SSDP) 2016-2023, the national education strategy, fully recognises the role that CLCs can play in uplifting the education sector. According to Manandhar, “Given the role of CLCs at the local level, the SSDP has included them as one of their areas of focus, and CLCs can be the local platform to bring up issues and concerns they face and come up with a plan to manage them by mobilising local resources. The structure has an increased role in the federal structure of the government now.” The challenge remains in shifting from words to deeds, and CLCs, even though there are sustainable by nature, need capacity building and overall support for them to perform to the best of their potential. Stronger partnerships are essential to enable the CLCs to continue to harness local learning opportunities, not only with professional NGOs but also with local youth clubs, cooperatives and, of course, local schools. Raising the educational standards in a federal set up will be achievable only if the federal government and the provincial ones set in place the conditions for citizens’ ingenuity and spirit of initiative. Reinvigorating the CLCs and strengthening their partnerships with the local schools should not just be a job left for NGOs and other non-state actors acting alone but a responsibility that the government at all its levels must assume. Galimberti is the co-founder of ENGAGE, an NGO partnering with youths living with disabilities simone_engage@yahoo.com