Child-Centred Education for 400 Children in India

Project with Bhasha - A study on 'Denotified and Nomadic Tribes’

Bhasha is a Gujarat based organization, which has been working in language, arts, culture, education and social harmony.

Gramin Shiksha Kendra in cooperation with Bhasha is doing a study to capture the status and life conditions of Denotified Communities across Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. The study is trying to cover the community’s pre-colonial identity, status and occupation and historical transition of the community from ‘community’ to ‘criminal tribe’ to ‘Denotified tribe’. The entire study is aimed to contribute to Recommendations for the future development of these communities. These recommendations would be in the nature of advocacy, sensitization, skill development and resource mobilization. As it’s a long project, we will keep sharing with you the status on the developments in the Project monthly.

Planting trees on school campus:

Summers' gone by. But we obviously need shade to cool down the hot recreation spaces for another year and many more to come.

Our children serve as the primary planters every year which allows them to take ownership of the project and responsibility for the trees and the environment around. This also helps in the aesthetic appearance of the ground and creates outdoor space that can always be used as a teaching tool. In this process of planting, children learn the different species of trees and their value by taking the sense of ownership and responsibility. Though plants stay silent while growing up but they teach us to nurture and stay rooted. Isn't it?

A learning trip of children and teachers:

The path was rugged, narrow and everyone had to watch each step of theirs. With heavy showers in the region from past week, it was late afternoon, and the Uday Paathshala children and teachers went to watch an ongoing affair in the paddy fields. The flooded parcel of arable land was being prepared for the growing season.

While the farmers exhibited their intelligences in logic, aesthetics, and intrapersonal areas, the children would match this real life, meaningful and experience from the field with their subjects.

Fellowship with Jana Sanskriti on Forum Theater

Jana Sanskriti Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed is a Kolkata based largest and longest forum theatre operation that works towards creating a strong community of active and responsible citizens.

Gramin Shiksha Kendra in collaboration with Jana Sanskriti have partnered with a yearlong fellowship. This fellowship is an attempt to take the theatre to the margins.

Our Community leader, Punyaram Gurjar, was selected for this year long fellowship.

Since, Gramin Shiksha Kendra have always worked in close proximity with the community, the learnings and understanding from this fellowship, will help the fellow in looking at reality in an objective manner, in trying to understand and analyze the reasons for every small experience of oppression in one’s life. His experiences from the fellowship shall help in forming agile and active groups in the community and catalyse the scope for introspection and discovery in individuals and society as a whole. As it’s a long year fellowship, we will keep sharing with you the status on the developments monthly.

Publications:

A strong commitment to building healthy and resilient communities.

Dip into on what our Co-founder, Sachin Sachdeva, has to say on supporting community and having a social dialogue with them.

India Development Review: https://idronline.org/rural-education-moving-past-poor-solutions-for-poor-people/?fbclid=IwAR3WSegFeCRaeR6JwmDxrlUjcAkfWfWY3FnKN3QtBxz_HrBpYGfmbqrbeHU

Learning Curve is a publication on Education from Azim Premji University. The approach here is a balance between being an ‘academic’ and ‘practitioner’.

In their recent issue “Textbooks”, the English Programme team of Gramin Shiksha Kendra talks about their experience in making and putting into practice a language teaching programme in the periphery of Ranthambore National Park.

We are thankful to our teachers, the academic facilitators and to the team of Gramin Shiksha Kendra.

Give a read to the article from the below shared link (Page 34 – Page 38).

LearningCurve:https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/pdf/Publications/Learning-Curve/Learning-Curve-Issue-3-2019-low-res.pdf

Computer Education

The computer education program has helped in bridging the digital divide in students and teachers and is directed towards being literate. Both students and teachers are in the process of enabling themselves in using windows paint program, doing typing in Hindi and English, using basic features of applications such as – Microsoft Word and Excel, and making use of the internet facilities. The program is not only helping to explore creativity and imagination but is also helping to understand technology. Recently, 25 children of Uday Community School, Fariya completed a one year of Basic Certification Program in Microsoft Paint offered by the organization “Computer Shiksha”.

A lived experience:

When the floodgates of emotions are open and children learn to express these emotions. An incident shared by our Pre-Primary teacher Sapna.

It was time for the morning assembly. All the children formed a circle in the classroom and started to sing. Because it was summer time, the fans were also turned on. Suddenly, a bird collided with the fan and came near the teacher and fell. When she raised the bird in her hands, all the children came to see the bird. Seeing the bird unconscious, some children ran and brought water in their palm and started pouring water on the bird. On the other hand, some children were staring at the bird from a distance. The children and the teacher together decided to place the bird at a safe place. They kept the bird near a window pane. The bird when came in her senses, flew away and went into its nest. She was still looking at all of us with panic and we were all looking at her in anticipation.

Vistaar (STEAM)

Guiding student’s enquiry, dialogue and Critical Thinking. We are currently working with 18 Government schools to improve the levels of understanding in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Arts.

The difference a functional School Library can make:

Though government schools have libraries, books in many of them have remained under lock and key only. We find that the books are gathering dust behind the dirt-tainted, wood-and-glass almirahs of government school libraries. Recently, with the support of Government School Head Teachers and teachers, we are now trying to reach the books to the hands of the students. Encouraging children to read books will not only inculcate the habit of reading and acquaint them with good literature, but also stimulate their thinking power, which would widen the perspective in the future.

Student Parliament:

Who better than defining the criteria relating to the governance of the school?

It is that time of the year, where the school collectively elects the student body. Such mechanisms allow students to have a say in the running of their school and help them to learn about democratic processes.

In Uday Schools, the student’s body addresses the concerns that students may have, any changes they may want to initiate. This is an exciting space where all topics are discussed, dissension is registered and decisions are made. The children collectively participated in the process fairly and transparently way with complete enthusiasm and confidence.

Teachers Day

Our beloved teachers are our greatest assets as they always dedicate their heart and soul to imparting education and open the doors of knowledge and life. Every teacher contributes to a child’s life in more than one way. Anything said or done in their praise is dwarfed in front of what they have done for the organisation. We celebrated this day with our teachers by having a get-together. We also tried to bring a smile on their face by gifting them a reflection of our gratitude.

The room busted into the celebration!

On a blazing heated afternoon, in the wake of school hours, all the teachers were engaged in planning for their next day. Suddenly the Sports Teacher's mobile chimed. The teacher briskly picked up the phone. Yes. It was not an ordinary phone call, but a joyous message about the success of a child's unbroken strife in life and the realization of a teacher's hope. The call was from the Sports Coach of the Bikaner Sports Academy. The coach shared that one of our students, Ashok Nayak, had been selected for the academy. The room busted into a celebration.

Ashok is a first-generation school learner from the Bhopa community. The primary source of livelihood for Bhopas is the trading of cattle to other towns and cities. Seasonal migration is quite often in Raekheda- a hamlet where nearly 50-60 Bhopas' households are settled. The members of the community are landless and live in makeshift temporary mud houses. The social and economic condition of the community results in child labor and marriages at a very young age. Education was a very absurd notion for the community.

Ashok was an earnest hardworking alumnus from Uday Community School - Fariya. He had always excelled at sports from an early age, particularly in Kho-Kho. He graduated from Uday School in 2017-18 and currently pursuing 10th grade in a nearby government school. While he was studying at Uday School, Ashok has also participated in the State level Kho-Kho competition.

Ashok was expected to be present at the academy on very short notice. He was expected to carry all the essential documents and submit an admission fee of Rs.3000. After the call, the sports teacher along with the school team leader did not waste any time sharing the message with Ashok and his parents. The parents and Ashok heaved a sigh of relief, feeling content. Their beaming faces were witness to the success which was the result of their life struggle. They couldn’t ask for more. “What you have done for us, we shall not forget it for life." – said Ashok’s Mother.

As the teachers mentioned the submission of the admission fee, their celebration was turned into silence. It seemed as if, the teachers had asked away their joy. A worried Ashok’s father asked: "Where shall I arrange such a big amount at such short notice?" Ashok's mother added that even she didn't have any ornaments to sell or pawn for money. Disappointed Ashok replied grimly: "My parents do not have much money and it is impossible for us to arrange such a big amount. If you could help arrange it from somewhere, we will return it as soon as we can.

There seemed to be no way out and even the teachers felt helpless. But with the kind of opportunity in hand, and knowing that Ashok was a hardworking and promising child, no one wanted to miss this opportunity. Finally, the community members and the school team collectively generate the required support and help for Ashok.

Ashok is now in Bikaner enrolled in the Sports Academy and paving way for other children from he Bhopa community to choose Sports as one of the career prospects.

Action Research with NCERT

With a progression from last years’ experience, we are excited to share GSK's participation in the NCERT program titled "Researching English language classroom with the teacher". This program aims at involving the teachers in action research in their classroom on a day-to-day basis, thereby encouraging participation and enhancing learning in a school’s context. Our English Language Team collectively worked on small scale research which was perfect to start small and was a great learning experience. During the research, our teachers found out that by applying simple yet effective techniques such as labeling the classroom objects/spaces and asking the students to respond, a dull classroom can be transformed into a lively space!!

Rethinking Education in the Age of Computers:

The computer education program in Uday Community Schools is helping in bridging the digital divide in students and teachers and is directed towards being computer literate. Both students and teachers are in the process of enabling themselves in using windows paint, doing typing in Hindi and English, using basic features of applications such as - Microsoft Word and Excel, and making use of the internet facilities. The program is not only helping to explore creativity and imagination but is also helping to understand technology.

Links:

• A strong commitment to building healthy and resilient community
• Language programme in the periphery of Ranthambore National Park

It's summer vacation and while our students are running and playing in the heat (we don't know how sometimes! Temperatures are upward of 115 F!), Gramin Shiksha Kendra teachers are at the office after a two week vacation, hard at work preparing for the upcoming school year. During our summer workshops our teachers prepare teaching learning materials for the upcoming year, share their experiences, and, of course, lead and participate in engaging conceptual discussions and activities for improving their own learning.  

The summer workshops truly drive home for us the importance of our teachers at Gramin Shiksha Kendra. Teachers can easily be some of the most important people in a child's life and we are so lucky to have teachers at Gramin Shiksha Kendra who care so deeply about the students and work so hard to see them flourish and grow into critical thinkers. Our teachers are at school six days a week--and stay long after the school day is finished, working to prepare lessons for the next day. They spend time in the communities, getting to know students' families and working closely with parents, engaging the communities to recognize what quality education looks like and drive the demand for it. We are truly lucky to have such a dedicated group of teachers at Gramin Shiksha Kendra. 

In this month's report we thought we'd share a few exciting photos from the summer workshop and a few announcements.

-Shubham Garg, Director 

New Website - Graminshiksha.org.in

We're thrilled to announce that our new website is up--you can view it at graminshiksha.org.in (link also included below). Check it out for more information on what we do and on our impact. The site features some great photos and videos, too! Please let us know what you think--feedback is always welcome! You can send any comments or suggestions to tali.datskovsky@graminshiksha.org.in.

The New School Year Is Approaching Quickly  - Please Consider Supporting Us

Temperatures are soaring but as we enter July and Augus the monsoon will give us some of a break and everyone will be back in the classroom! In the last academic session we were able to raise $6,640 through your generous contributions. To put that in context, that covers the education of 22 children for the whole year. We are so grateful for your support and would like to ask for your continued support as we enter the new academic session. Just $30 a month educates a child for that month and $300 covers the cost of a child's education for the whole year.

We're currently educating 400 children between the ages of 4 and 14 as well as providing academic support to government schools in our vicinity. Any donation, small or large, is a huge help. You can donate at the button below. And thank you so much for being a part of our community, we feel really lucky to have you alongside us on our journey.

Links:

• Gramin Shiksha Kendra Website
• Support Us For the Upcoming School Year