Schools

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship When Shobha Suryanarayan, a volunteer with Acharyas for a Better Community (ABC), first approached Vijayanagar Lower Primary School in Whitefield, the students could barely string together a sentence in English. The school had over 50 children from classes 1 to 5, but there was only one teacher and a headmistress (HM) to teach all of them. Children in classes 1, 2 and 3 would sit together; they were taught by the HM once she finished her official work. Children in classes 4 and 5 would sit together, and were taught…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship “My children go to a private school Madam, it is close to home, they learn English and mathematics”, says Selvi with a big smile on her face. Selvi, a Marathahalli-based domestic worker, like many others from low income households in Bangalore, finds private schools a better choice for her child. Research has often pointed out that there is not much difference in the learning outcomes of children in government schools and in private schools. Yet in Bengaluru, like many urban centres in the country, children across income groups are flocking…

One of the most pressing challenges faced by the Indian education system is to bridge the gap between the infrastructure and quality of education in a private school and that of a government school. While the government rethinks its model for public schools across the country, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and citizen groups have taken it upon themselves to bring about change. The Avasar Foundation, a Bengaluru-based NGO recently inaugurated a pre-primary school at the Seegehalli Government Higher Primary School located in Kadugodi, near Whitefield in Bengaluru. This pre-primary school has been built on the kindergarten model that is seen in…

In April 2018, a teenage student from a reputed girls’ school in Gopalapuram Chennai typed out a long answer to a question on ‘the first crush you’ve had’ on a social media site. Just that in this case, her first crush happened to be a girl classmate. Soon, a couple of other girls from her class had taken a screenshot and started circulating it. The girls were teased, ridiculed, and labelled. Worse, several teachers of the school got to know about the post and allegedly censured and verbally abused the girl, even calling her a prostitute. The situation was aggravated…

Karnataka, one of the only five remaining states in the country where Congress rule still prevails, is gearing up to host a major electoral battle that will not just decide the next Assembly but is also expected to create a reflective impact on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2019 election campaign. Two months prior to the state elections, the anxiety of the people is palpable in the ‘Karnataka Voters' Survey 2018’  released by the Chief Election Commissioner, Om Prakash Rawat, at IIM Bangalore on March 9. The state’s capital with a population of 12.34 million is home to 28 of the…

Art projects, Kannada and English letters, bookshelves and colour-coded graphs cover the walls of a ground floor classroom. A rainbow of paper lanterns hangs from the ceiling. And there are so many children who sit in groups on the floor reading, writing, drawing or just quietly conversing, even as two women hover around supervising, periodically hunching down to work with them. This is a scene from a classroom of Makkala Jagriti, a non-government organisation, from a primary government model school in Mathikere, North Bengaluru. Makkala Jagriti is committed to making learning attractive and education possible for children from Bengaluru’s most…

Why do sharp, witty lines from Dale Carnegie’s books cut the misty, morning breezes in Mitra Jyothi, a school for the visually challenged in Bengaluru? How did the author become a dramatis personae here, you wonder. Ratna, a volunteer, walks out from one of the audio rooms. She proudly says that textbooks, magazines, competitive exams, novels, fiction and biographies in Kannada, Hindi and English are converted into CDs, so that they can be documented and made accessible to visually challenged students. The technological details are rather complex but interesting. “With Daisy Resources, we are transcribing a number of books into…

Three years ago when Sampath Ramanujam, Founder of Anvaya Foundation travelled to Kaiwara, along with his family, he met two girls who were playing happily with a fully damaged cycle with no bell, no brake and not even a seat. It was then that he realised that around 30 to 40 cycles were lying unused in each block of his apartment. That incident inspired Anvaya Foundation team to come up with the concept of “Freedom Pedals”.  He along with others started an initiative to make use of these cycles. For the past three years, they have been collecting unused cycles…

Where did that banana peel go? Where does it go when it leaves my home? Where does it go when it leaves my street? Where does it go when it leaves my city? We throw away so much. But where does it all go? Bengaluru city generates approximately 4,000 tonnes of waste everyday but where does this all go? Nobody cares where it goes, we only want it to leave our houses, our streets, our neighborhoods and our city. While there are policies like the ‘2 Bin 1 Bag’, which has been directed by the  Karnataka High Court to Bengalureans…

I've been visiting a few schools lately, and I am rather disturbed by some of the things I see on the campuses. One school has no playground at all. Pointing to a tiny handkerchief of space, the  person talking to me says, "That is enough for our children." Another campus of the same school has a few small ornamental trees near the entrance gate. The entire campus is covered in concrete and the green of the trees are those which are in the neighbouring apartment buildiings. One school has very professional loops of  barbed wire on its compound wall.  …