Education

A playschool is meant for kids under the age of 5 and is primarily aimed at providing quality education for kindergarten kids. So if you love kids then starting a playschool may be a good idea. The staff have to be well trained to take care of children.File pic: Padmalatha Ravi So what is the advantage of starting a play school? You get a high degree of satisfaction working with kids and contributing to their growth and development. You help nurture a positive environment for kids where their physical and mental growth takes place seamlessly. As Anjana Sen, Director of…

Warriors civic club of St Marks Public School, JP Nagar, took out an anti-litter walk near their school, early morning on 23rd December. Early morning walkers and joggers frequent the road for their daily shopping of fresh vegetables. Most of them do not carry their own bags, preferring to take home the veggies in thin flimsy plastic packets. WARRIORS CIVIC CLUB of St Marks Public School, JP Nagar, took out an anti–litter walk near their school. Pic: Ravikala P Baliga 52 members of the club, part of Childrens' Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA), made informative placards and charts and walked…

In government parlance, ‘merging schools' is the fancy term for shutting them down. The schools are said to be closed down temporarily, and students and teachers are said to be shifted to other schools nearby. But for many children from the closed down schools, education ends just as their school closes. Mariyamma Temple school is being renovated by the temple committee for its own use, even though the school is still with the government. Pic: Navya P K Sathish Dharmaiah, a former 3rd standard student of Mariyamma Temple LP (Lower Primary) school in Tilak Nagar, now works in a mutton…

"India is a land of villages" - is an oft repeated statement. But how many of us living in cities can claim to know about our village life and its culture. It was to address this issue that Sri Kumaran Children's Home organised a Gramothsava at their Mallasandra Campus on November 12th to celebrate Children's day in a unique manner. Images from Gramothsava at Sri Kumaran Childrens Home. Pic: Sridhar.C.R The entire campus looked like a big village fair with visitors treated to various facets of the tradition and culture of village life that is still prevalent in Karnataka. Visitors…

When we come across a unique not for profit organisation, social campaign or initiative, we may be interested in knowing more about its regular activities and achievements. But do we try to find out why and how it started? Irrespective of their size and successes, many civil society organisations (CSO's) or non-governmental organisations (NGO's) have a distinct personal story behind them. Some organisations like Sangama (helps sexual minorities) or the Association of People with Disabilities (APD - supports disabled persons) were started to highlight and counter the challenges or discrimination that an individual or a community experiences and assist them.…

When G S Narayanan, now 80, retired as a DGM from NABARD in 1992, he had already made his retirement plans. His avid interest in listening to lectures on different subjects led to him forming an informal group of people, mostly his neighbours, to come together to listen to an expert talk on a subject. G S Narayanan, at his home in Jayanagar. Pic: Yogaraj S Mudalgi "I shifted to Jayanagar from Basavanagudi in 1979 and I regularly attended programmes of India Institute of World Culture where there would be talks on varied topics. Jayanagar had nothing of that sort…

Everyday when we read the newspaper we see the names of overachievers in our society. Even when you read a regular teen novel you hear how amazing high school is. Well guess what? It is called 'fiction' for a reason. Simply because it is unreal! High school can be the most difficult period of a student's life. It is when most boys and girls go through adolescence, their hormones start acting up and they simply start acting mean. This is something I have always failed to understand. How do girls become so mean? No, not mean - cruel, cunning and…

Shikshana, a non-profit organisation based out of Bangalore, is working towards improving the quality of education in government primary schools by participatory intervention. The representatives talk to the school administration, teachers and students about their opinion on how to make the learning effective. In some schools students are encouraged to perform through incentives. File pic: Padmalatha Ravi This approach is completely alien in a setting where schemes are made at the power centers and the benefits trickle down. ‘I've been working for twenty two years, and this is the first time someone has come asking for what I think', remarks…

Stonehill International School in Jalahobli, Bangalore North, has been ranked the best international school in Bangalore with a score of 4.30 out of 5, in a survey conducted by ThinkVidya.com, an online community of parents, students and schools. The International School Bangalore (4.09), Sarjapur Road was ranked second, Trio World School (4.07), Sahakarnagar and Jain International Residential School, off Kanakapura Road, were jointly ranked third. Twenty-six International schools were shortlisted for ‘International Schools in Bangalore’, the first time such an independent survey was being conducted in the city. Nearly 200 individuals filed responses to the survey.  The report noted that…

The Winds of Change Civic Club, VET school, J P Nagar, Bangalore, celebrated Pourakarmika day on September 5th, 2011. The children collected money by selling newspapers, and used that funds bought some snacks to distribute to the pourakarmikas. Students interacting with pourakarmikas. Pic Courtesy: CMCA Students took permission from the ward office, and gathered near the ward office at the time when the pourakarmikas gather after their morning shift. The children greeted them with a 'card' (poster made on chart paper), said thanks for their services, and distributed the snack-packets. The pourakarmikas thanked the children, and expressed their difficulties in…