By Sohini Chakrabarti | Fellow
Gramin Shiksha Kendra has had an eventful and busy last few months- with a continued focus on innovative academic practices, early childhood care, strengthening the agency of our 'Umang' Programme cohort of adolescent girls, enhancing the capacity of our teachers, and engaging with de-notified tribal and nomadic communities. I am happy to share that despite the prevalence of the pandemic, we continue to work with the children and our parents' communities to ensure their access to quality education in a safe environment.
The community learning centres set up across villages in the catchment area of our three Uday Schools to compensate for schools being closed, are being diligently maintained- with the teachers providing a space for students to learn, play and socialize every morning. GSK's promotion of self-exploration, creative expression and critical thinking are rooted in its commitment to quality child-centric education. It is, therefore, that along with classroom learning, students engage in an array of fun activities, ranging from creative work for the bi-monthly magazine to understanding concepts through experiential projects such as maintaining kitchen gardens at their homes, running community libraries, planning their own restaurant ventures, personalizing their identity cards, conducting census surveys in their communities, etc. Notably, we have conducted two Facebook Live assemblies. At the Uday Community Schools, the assemblies are a part of the learning process and an important aspect of the day. We believe that such a gathering is a powerful means to encourage children and teachers, and build a sense of community within them. The objectives are to create a blissful environment, provide opportunities for expression and interaction, share knowledge, inspire confidence in the students and lay the foundations for a democratic learning space. No child in our schools wants to miss their assembly! We were delighted to have had hundreds of viewers tune in to the lives and get a taste of what a typical morning at Uday looks like; you can do the same by checking out our Facebook page.
For children aged 0-5 years, teachers are continuing interactions with parents, especially mothers, to engage the young ones in activities that aid their motor and cognitive skills, and psycho-social development, through easy-to-comprehend assignments to carry out at home. Special emphasis is on their physical growth; monthly growth monitoring exercise is conducted and parents of those children indicating any degree of malnutrition are made aware of ways to enhance their wards' nutritional levels.
Regular meetings of School Management Committees (SMCs) of government schools is crucial for holding authorities accountable to promised learning levels of children, performance of teachers and overall functioning of the school infrastructure. We work with the parents' community, which comprise these SMCs, to build their awareness and confidence for raising pertinent issues about their wards' education and demand solutions.
GSK is committed to its Umang cohort of 30 adolescent girls in Shyampura, in an attempt to enhance their agency through academic support, digital literacy and and life skills development. Efforts to scale the programme and reach more young girls across villages in the catchment area of the organisation are underway. Recently, an excursion was organised for them- a day of some travel, fun with friends and a whole lot of learning! Beginning at the revered Kala Gora Temple, getting to know about this enduring remnant of Tantric traditional and its rich history of over 1500 years, the field trip ended with an exploration of GSK's STEM laboratory at Bodal. Here the girls acquired varied thematic knowledge, and even conducted several experiments and tests themselves. Additionally, soon after the excursion, a showcasing event was organised at Shyampura where the girls did experiments, and shared their knowledge about scientific and mathematical concepts- their learnings in class as well as from the laboratory visit. This was primarily to promote learning through activities, as well as to encourage these timid young girls to speak with confidence!
The Baori Basti in Sawai Madhopur is occupied by socio-economically disadvantaged denotified tribes. Here, the persisting issues include water scarcity, constant tiffs with officials while acquiring ration, unsanitary conditions- exacerbated when the rains cause water-logging and overflowing sewage, unsteady income, lack of access to education and healthcare, helplessness during medical emergencies, malnutrition and alcoholism. Despite being considered a crucial vote-bank by political aspirants, and the community's needs being regularly articulated to the authorities, the necessary work is yet to be done. Apart from having distributed ration of food worth lakhs during the lock-down and providing support in cases of medical emergencies, GSK is seeking to provide the children at the slum a structured learning environment through daily study sessions- in an attempt to ease them into eventual enrolment to the teaching, playing and socialising set-ups at nearby government schools. Apart from supporting these first-generation learners, using its usual child-centric and multi-grade/multi-level approach, the team is also helping the Baori community get Aadhaar, Pension and Voter ID cards made, constructively communicate with local leadership and access welfare schemes. Research is being undertaken to understand the value of the supply chains they are a part of, to develop suitable livelihood-oriented interventions.
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