Kids at play at BD Memorial Institute, Pratapgarh. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

In a room where pigs, chickens and rabbits gaze down from the walls with beady eyes, a group of lusty voices chant the nursery rhyme ‘Old McDonald had a farm’. Pointing to a man on the wall, driving a tractor, the teacher asks the students, “Who is he?”. Little Aditi Mitra of the pre-primary section of BD Memorial Institute, Pratapgarh, pipes up, ‘farmer’. At The Heritage School, pre-primary students learn how to make dough for baking bread, while the Gingerbread Man looks down from the walls.

The traditional setting of a classroom with the teacher writing or drawing on a blackboard is passe. Schools now use pictures, audio-visual aids, toys and replicas of scenes of everyday life.

Themed classrooms are a big draw. At BD Memorial, the pre-primary classrooms are designed around themes like market, transport, birthday party, forest and farm.

“Instead of having rooms for show that children will rarely visit, we conduct regular classes here so that they can learn by identifying them with real- life scenes,” said Usha Mehta, the director of BD Memorial. Today’s mantra for education is to teach concepts, rather than force-feed information. “It is easier for them to remember through images rather than words,” says Mehta.

Creating a child-friendly ambience is a priority. At these schools, you will not find hapless children sitting cheek-by-jowl as they go through time-worn chapters. Posters of The Panchatantra tales and characters like Gulliver, Red Riding Hood, and Pinocchio adorn the walls of BD Memorial.

Remembering the short attention span of young minds, the themes vary through the year at Ankuran, the building meant exclusively for the pre primary section of The Heritage. ‘Spoonful’ is about the uses of a variety of spoons and ladles. To illustrate ‘out of the oven’, students are shown various breads like brown breads, croissants, naan, and pizza base.

In DPS New Town, story-telling sessions are conducted through an interactive audio-visual screen. The kids are also taken on a round of the campus where they identify and talk to the gardener and security guards. No more spending hours glued to the desk and looking at the blackboard. At pre-school Kangaroo Kids, the theme sessions are supplemented with songs. “The doors, windows, tables and desks are also labelled so the child can identify the word with the object,” says Malika Varma, the owner and administrator.

At Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, students have brought pets for show and tell. On Daddy’s Day, fathers join their toddlers in class. With the new modes of teaching, the kids barely like to give school a miss.

Jhinuk Mazumdar

Attitude is all at awards

Simon Wilson, the British deputy high commissioner, gives away the medals. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

All their hard work after school paid off as 213 students from the East Zone received gold, silver and bronze medals from Simon Wilson, the British deputy high commissioner in Calcutta. And what’s more, this was no competition, just a recognition of their self-development. The event was the International Award for Young People (IAYP) — formerly known as the Duke of Edinburgh Award — held at Gyan Manch on November 20.

The award, dating back to 1962, is a platform for students to discover their skills through self-development. It recognises students between 14 and 24 years of age. It has four sections: physical recreation, skill, social service and adventure. Participants have to devote an hour after school for each of the activities. The programme covered 35 schools in the East Zone, of which 11 were for the underprivileged.

Passing through progressive levels of specialisation, they graduate from being bronze to silver to gold certificate holders. The students submit periodic reports of their activities, on the basis of which they are assessed. This year the winners are from Modern High School, Birla High School for Boys, Apeejay School, Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys Academy, Sacred Heart Convent School, Jamshedpur, and Birla High School for Girls.

“Four years ago, I did not value anything. But my attitude towards life changed as I went on expeditions to places where life is tough and food scarce,” said Zaid Shakeel, a Class XII student of La Martiniere for Boys and an award winner.

JM

SHOUT OUT LOUD

What’s on your mind this week

Breaking our hearts

Our terror-ravaged country has turned us all into nervous wrecks. I wonder what future lies in store for us. Our politicians don’t care and the effectiveness of our security system is questionable. Political wrangling has often come in the way of laws that, if implemented, could have ensured a safer nation. How can scores of terrorists enter the country, loaded with arms and ammunition? Is there nobody to stop them? How many more cities have to be attacked before the government realises that this is not a “small incident” after all? Why wasn’t the Coast Guard taken seriously when it warned, on November 18, about infiltration through the sea? Weren’t we supposed to fight enemies on the borders?

With the financial capital of India shaken by repeated terror attacks, would any foreign investor feel safe in India again?

We, the youth, don’t want to run a devastated nation in future. A proper security mechanism should be in place to avert tragedies.

We want our politicians to be more accountable.

Ishita Shah
Class XI, Mahadevi Birla Girls’ H.S. School