By Theertha Ravindran | Fellow
With a New Year comes new possibilities and challenges. The beginning of the year has been full of memorable moments and celebrations.
Continue reading to know more about the exciting New Year at Gramin Shiksha Knedra.
Republic Day!
On the anniversary of the day India became a republic, the day the constitution came into effect, the country celebrates with parades, school functions, marches by children of all ages. In the tiny schools of Uday Samudayik Patshalas the day was conducted with expressive programmes, a tinge of patriotism, collective participation and a lot of enjoyment which was shared with the community.
The school ensured that each student was given the stage for a performance. With small but confident strides the children approached the stage in turns to give the audience the best performance of their life. They shed their fears, inhibitions and their hesitation as they took the stage.
Joyous and excited performances of the students also led to active participation and support of the parents. A sense of pride and joy filled the eyes of every parent after they saw their child’s performance. They encouraged the students and contributed to the school and for the students. The day ended by distributing ladoos to all the students, parents and teachers.
As the day came to an end it was clear that the day of celebration had left the children and the parent’s content. The cheerful faces of the teachers also expressed the satisfaction and the success of the programme. The clubs, co scholastic activities, creative writing, reciting poems and stories and the activities in the assemblies had assisted in many ways to create beautiful performances on Republic Day.
Forum Theatre: The theatre of the oppressed.
Awareness is the greatest agent for change.
The Forum Theatre is a group of passionate young boys who would like to reach out to their own communities and societies to increase their awareness on various issues including quality of education, gender biases and other education related topics etc. After many months of training, rehearsals and discussions the group decided to start of their first performance at one of the Uday Samudayik Patshalas.
On Republic Day they travelled to the Uday Samudayik Pathshala at Girirajpura to perform their play “ ”, (change in education) a play that shows the reality of cultural practices including child marriage and gender inequality. It is a story of a young girl, “Kanchan” who dreams of studying and playing with her friends and the challenges she faces in preventing her own marriage.
They reached the school and were welcomed with curious and excited eyes of community members and the children of the school. After a few colourful performances from the students the theatre group took the stage and began their play with a Baal Geet (Poems) namely “ “(Go on and on and on). This was followed by the play.
Everybody’s eyes were fixed on Kanchan and her story. The expressions on their faces showed their familiarity to the challenges that Kanchan faced. Some empathized with Kanchan where as some empathized with Kanchan’s father. As the play progressed the team members created and interactive session by asking for opinions and solutions from the audience, where men, women, children and young girls also expressed their opinions. It opened the conversation on an otherwise hidden issue of the communities.
This is the story of Kanchan which is the story of many young girls and boys and we hope to reach as many of them as possible with the help of the Forum Theatre. This performance was only the beginning of many conversations that the team looks forward to having with the community.
Planning for Kilol
‘Kilol’ is an annual festival of creative expression and dialogue and dialogue for Uday Patshalas, state schools and local children. Uday Samudayik Pathshala Fariya has been facing various issues including attendance and lack of community participation at the school. To address the issue the organization decided to conduct a Kilol at the school. The preparation started immediately after the Republic day with teachers personally inviting families, schools and government school teachers and officials. The students participated in preparing the school for the Kilol. By painting the walls of the school, cleaning and making TLM’s by themselves, training for the tournament etc. The constant discussions with the parents resulted in the parents deciding to contribute for the food on the day of the Kilol.
Kilol (5th February)
The Kilol was conducted on the 5th of February. The morning began with the teachers and the students running around to set everything in place. From pinning up TLM’s in the room to placing science models in the science corner, from cleaning the rooms to setting up the projector, from practicing for the tournament to preparing the sports ground etc. The teachers pinned up poems and stories that the students wrote with their pictures printed.
The Kilol was a joint event of the village community and the Center for Rural Education in which innovative educational and state of the art educational activities supported by the STREAM program were presented by the children. Other works such as mathematics, clay work, woodwork, painting, origami, library, creative writing were performed and experimental work was done.
Around 400 children and 300 parents were present at the school for the festival and participated in various activities including musical chair (women), Tug of war (men) etc.
The festival was for all the children, teachers and parents to share awareness of education to ensure active participation from everyone in providing a better educational environment and system for the children.
Science Exhibition:
After discussions with the government school teachers and headmasters the Vistaar teachers decided to conduct science exhibitions in some of the Vistaar government schools to showcase the work and progress. All teachers and students from 6th, 7th and 8th grade sat together and made models, charts and videos to represent the work.
Parent, community members and officials were invited to the exhibition to observe the work their children had done. Each school had a diverse set of experiments, explanation, models and games prepared. As the exhibition began they visited the school and were happy to see their children while explaining various experiments and charts to them with excitement. It was for the first time, they were provided with the opportunity to showcase their work and progress to their families, communities and other subject teachers.
Children participated with complete dedication and excitement. The teachers mentioned that most of these students were not able to read but were explaining the models with no difficulty. The teachers also observed that there was a higher percentage of attendance during the preparation of exhibition.
The Vistaar teachers have had an eventful month and they mentioned that it is important encourage such programmes at schools and making up their mind.
Science and Sports Fair at Girirajpura
The teachers and the students at Girirajpura have had an eventful month full of preparation. The Science teacher and the other subject teachers decided to have a fair at the school for the students and the community of Girirajpura and Amli. On the 28th of February after a long preparation the fair was conducted. It was a celebration for the children, teachers and the community.
Around 40 running science and math related models were made, which was explained and demonstrated to the students and teachers of government and private schools and parents. The fair contained Sanskrit , art and language corners as well.
A tournament of Kabbadi and Handball was conducted between the Uday Community Schools of Jaganpura and Girirajpura and the Government school of Amli. Both matches were won by Girirajpura. (2nd time that the school has competed in a tournament)
Throw all the paint you can on the canvas:
Art is not just a special lesson that is disconnected with other forms of learning and doing. Art is a form of expression that comes easily to students and even peeks their interest in daily routine. Recently, children at Uday Community School at Girirajpura had a learning session through artistic activity where they were involved in drawing and painting the walls of their school. In Gramin Shiksha Kendra artistic activity is not a mere entertainment but an integral part of learning, exploring and communicating.
With the assistance of the pottery and sports teacher Mr. Murari Lal and the students painted the walls everyday during club hours. Children from 5th 6th and 7th took turns throughout the week. Once it was completed the students and the teachers labeled the various activities, elements and positions in the painting to create a Print Rich Environment through the walls of the school. The students continue to write down their experience, describe the painting and phrase sentences in English using the painting.
Peep through the colourful strokes by the children and you will see that decoration is one element of visual representation but also a tool for expression.
Annual Project initiation: Environment (Fariya)
With the beginning of a New Year the teachers worked on a theme based project in their annual planning. The teacher of Uday School Fariya Chose Environment as the annual project.
The project has been initiated with introduction of the topic through different subjects and at age appropriate levels. As a part of the project the students were introduced to vermi-compost. The students were given a theoretical understanding of vermi-compost and its advantages. To ensure that the students are given a holistic approach the teachers decided to take it another level. The teachers and the students came together to create a compost pit and have started collecting vegetable waste, , dry waste, cow dung and other wet waste that can be used to produce compost.
The students and teachers excitedly wait for the result of their little compost pit.
Health and Nutrition
With regular documentation of the health condition of the students the teachers understand the nutritional status of every student. The teachers also report the nutritional status of the students to their parents and suggest the parents to meet a doctor. The teachers have been regularly observing the health status of the students. The Uday School teachers at Fariya observed that the students were always tired after running, playing and exercising in the morning.
Many students come to school without eating breakfast and those who do eat do not have a nutritious breakfast which is the most important meal of the day. Therefore the teachers decided to create an intervention. With collections from teachers and students for the cooking club the teachers buy ingredients such as channa. They explain the nutritious value of the ingredient and distribute to all the students after morning exercise.
Tarun Sharma the teacher in charge of the cooking club also uses the platform to introduce various different nutritional recipes. This month the students and Tarun Sharma Ji, made Murrabba with Gooseberry (Amla).
To improve the nutritional status of children it is important for everyone to chip in, the parents, schools and the students.
With every year that passes we strive for improving the quality of education, increase the opportunities and to grow as a community. We are confident that 2020 will also bring new challenges and hurdles and we plan to cross each one of these.With a New Year we would like to thank you for all your support and encouragement. We look forward to the change we can bring together.
Education that celebrates children
Team
Gramin Shiksha Kendra
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