Pratham Education Foundation

Saturday, February 23, 2013

ASH at Pratham

Pratham 10:28:00 AM

The American School of The Hague visits Pratham

By Pia Brar

An ASH student drawing a crocodile for the students.

A group of ten international class eleven students from the American School of The Hague (ASH) arrived in Delhi last week to work with Pratham’s Urban Learning Center in Usmanpur, Old Delhi. ASH annually collaborates with Pratham to send a group of students to work in an Urban Learning Center in India.

The high schoolers worked with Pratham from February 18^th to the 21^st, during a four-day program where they taught the children singing, dancing and art to which they responded extremely enthusiastically. The halls and colourful classrooms echoed with the sound of children learning the words to ‘The Wheels on The Bus’ or the stomping of their feel as they practiced the ‘Shake Shake Dance.’

Ligia, an ASH student, helping students present drawings.

On the fourth day, the students gathered together to present what they had learned. The first group, ‘Art’, presented pictures of policemen, doctors, and lawyers that they had drawn in answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” For this assignment, the ASH students emphasized the lesson that with constant hard work and dedication, a child can become whatever he/she wants to be.

The singing group then sang ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ on the top of their lungs to show that they had learned the English words for each body part.

When the dance group came on, they impressed the audience by opening with their impressive breakdancing moves. They then pumped up the energy in the room by showing how skilfully they could twist and shake their bodies to the music.

ASH and Pratham students dancing.

Though the interaction between the two groups of students was for a limited amount of time, they became extremely attached and no body wanted to say goodbye. The Pratham students begged the high schoolers to stay by reasoning, “If you stay for one month we’ll become fluent in English!” Then when the time came for the ASH students to finally leave, tears streamed down each of their faces as thank you cards and hugs were exchanged. Little hands and Colourful sleeves stuck out of every window to wave them goodbye as they walked to their bus.

The ASH students then travelled to the Delhi Headquarters to meet Pratham’s CEO and Co-Founder, Dr. Madhav Chavan, and reflected on their experience while in India. They shared with him how privileged they now felt after have seen this 'other world' where education is not taken for granted and how being involved in Pratham’s work had been a life-changing experience.

The ten ASH students with a group of Pratham students.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Voices of Pratham

Dallupura

Pratham 4:05:00 PM

A Visit to Dallupura Village

By Pia Brar

Children playing in the village street

Step out of the New Ashok Nagar Metro Station in East Delhi, onto the crowded streets lined with food stands ready to feed the mass as they travel to and from work or school. Jump in a tuktuk (3-wheeler) for the drive to Dallupura, so that you are sure to fit through the narrow streets once in the village. The ground below you transfers from gravel to dirt. The honking horns are traded in for barking dogs and laughing children. Bright pink and yellow saris drying off village rooftops replace boring street signs. You are only fifteen minutes out of one of the most populated cities in the world, yet you are now surrounded by merely peace and simple pleasures.

Vaibhav photographing the class 6 students.

While in Dallupura, the Pratham team first visited Vasundhara Public School where we joined a group of standard six students. The photographer, Vaibhav Bharadwaj, documented the student’s classroom learning experience of using the WebBox videos, which are part of Pratham’s ‘Learn, Out of the Box’ Program in partnership with Vodafone Foundation India. The goal of this program is to enhance teaching and learning in low-income schools through the introduction of technology as a teaching tool.

Intern, Pia, with the pre-schoolers.

After photographing the students as they interacted with both the math and science WebBox videos, we made our way to Pratham’s Urban Learning Center (ULC) five minutes away. The Balwadi (preschool) was still in session when we arrived and the room was filled with two to five year olds who smiled at us with their large dark eyes. Their colourful backpacks and sweaters matched the walls of the classroom decorated by the teachers themselves.

Abdulla, a five-year-old boy, handed us his favourite book, Butterfly that sat on a Rainbow, from the hanging bookcase on the wall and began reciting the words in a little whisper under his breath. Pratham Books provided this book, and many others like it, in both Hindi and English for the children of the village who attend the Urban Learning Centre. Pratham Books was set up in 2004, as part of the Read India movement, a nation-wide campaign to promote reading among children.

Once the little ones were picked up, the older children began rolling in after their day at school. Our team then joined a class of sixth and seventh graders to document how they responded to both the classes and the WebBox videos in both maths and science.

Vaibhav in action at the ULC.

“I really like the videos because the cartoons make it fun to learn,” said Sonum, an eleven-year-old sixth grader.

Fourteen-year-old Chirag also shared his view of the Urban Learning Centre by adding, “In my life, I want to learn everything, that’s why I like coming to the learning centre. The teachers teach well and give us lots of attention, much more than in school.”

What the team took away from this field visit was that the children are extremely happy to attend Pratham’s ULC not only for the interactive WebBox videos, the interesting activities and resources provided, but also for the village volunteers who dedicate their time make each student’s learning possible.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Voices of Pratham

Pratham in Mukundpur

Pratham 3:09:00 PM

Pratham in Mukundpur Village

By Pia Brar

“Water is a changing form. It can transform from solid, to liquid, to gas,” chanted the room of twenty class-seven students at J. C. Gaur Public School in Mukundpur, Delhi.

All forty eyes stared up at the flat screen TV positioned on the stained, dull-grey wall as it played an interactive science video from the WebBox. This is part of the “digital classroom” initiative implemented by Pratham and funded by Vodafone Foundation. These videos are used for both teacher training and content development within the classroom. They are currently available in English, but are soon to be accessible also in Hindi.

With the start of the video, the room transformed from a dull, dusty, concrete space to a cartoon world filled with ice-cubes, flowing rivers and misty landscapes. The children no longer repeated sentences in a monotone manner but instead eagerly asked questions about what was being shown on the screen. The video encouraged them to ask the important when’s, where’s, why’s, and how’s to get a thorough understanding of each topic.