Discovering the World of Pratham

                                                        By Mallika Kishore, Intern

The first day I stepped into a 10x12 ft classroom at a ‘Balwadi’ in Mayur Vihar, Delhi with 16 enthusiastic children between the ages of 6-14 years- my perception of what could be achieved in educating the under-privileged children of India, was changed forever. 

The environment was inspiring, stimulating and superbly impressive!

All around the class, walls had been decorated with lovely creative charts of Alphabets, Numbers, Animals, Body Parts and many more. The floors were covered with clean, colourful woven mats. What an energetic and attractive surrounding!

The teacher: Rekha Maám was clearly a skilled educator, who took a deep interest in each of her pupils. She treated them like her own... often pulling them out of their homes and firmly walking them to class!  

The lessons: I was amazed to see such a wonderful, structured curriculum being followed and so committedly. In fact, it closely resembled the one at the ‘privileged’ school I had attended. Rekha Maám enabled this by engaging the children through a dynamic style of teaching, mixing the concepts with games to keep their interest alive and a very firm hand on discipline.   

The challenge here was to ensure that the children thrived in this environment- so much so that they were drawn to attend day after day, and absorb the learning as well. The ‘balwadi’ was clearly succeeding in it’s mission.

I was witnessing a remarkable, organised education program in action.

Elements I Brought to the Classroom

In this scenario, I was puzzled as to how I could contribute to this ‘replete’ classroom. My assigned role was as a support to the teacher in running the curriculum. This I found to be an easy task and extremely enjoyable. But, I was searching for how I could enhance the learning experience for the children. Over the first few days, I realized that I could add:

• Creativity to enhance understanding of the lessons
• Increased activities to build interest and attendanc
• Introduce a moral compass to build on value systems
• Reward system to motivate

The mission for my class at Pratham was to work to re-introduce the children (who had fallen out of the curriculum due to inconsistent attendance or parental will to send them) back to the mainstream.

I set about to make creative learning modules and an array of activities ranging from “Alphabet Caterpillars”, “Shape Building”, ‘’Number Cube” and many more.  I decided to introduce the children to the simple lessons from the short stories of ’Aesop’s Fables’ which had left such an impact in my childhood.

Mission	Days Assigned	What	Achievements	Method
Moral Lessons	14	Aesop’s Fables	Values:   Lies, Common Sense, Hard Work	Group Discussion- All
			Vocabulary building:   English and Hindi	Summary of the Lesson- Students
Creativity	26	Colours	Consolidate Alphabets, Numbers	Caterpillar of Alphabets, Number Cube
		Shapes	Logic Skills	Drawing/Cutting Shapes & Creating Images
		Drawing	Alphabets, numbers	Illustrate each Alphabet
Maths	26	3 Digit nos.	Addition & Subtraction with carry over	Ice- cream sticks activity
Rewards	26	Stars	Motivation
		Stickers	Learning is fun	Selective Awarding: Quick learners, Top 3, Best effort
		Bands	Reassurance & Caring
		Sweets

I Believe I Left Behind...

The children had a spectrum of traits which were unusual to their respective ages (6-9) and displayed highly developed motor skills and an infectious enthusiasm. They took to the different creativity based exercises with zest! I found that with my creative approach the attendance in the class as well as the joy for learning, multiplied. I first used the system of rewards, to motivate those who were slower to pick up taught concepts and often brought prizes to class to further hone their desire for learning. Then, to accelerate the keenness of the performers. The moral stories re-enforced their feelings towards right and wrong.

I believe I left behind love, fun and a new dimension for the learning in the classroom and for life.

In Conclusion

With this experience I saw how the right education, especially at a primary stage helped children blossom across their many facets.

All the children that I interacted with through Pratham impacted my life as well. They gave me many laughs, warm moments, a huge sense of satisfaction and memories to last a lifetime.

I came away with a grass-root understanding of the education system for the children of India and a true desire to educate those less fortunate, in every opportunity that I can.