jAY jOSHI
Calls have long been raised for comprehensive changes in education in India, and it is indeed changing. Understanding that the core of education lies in encouraging learning, the new activity-based learning system is making a deep impact across the country, and has now made its debut in Goa.
The core value at the heart of activity-based learning is that the children are active learners and can learn better by doing some hands-on activities. Further on, this approach uses child-friendly education-aids to foster self-learning among children. The system was first introduced in India in 2003 by Chennai Corporation with support from the UNICEF. After running successfully as a trail project in 13 primary schools, it was later implemented in all 270 schools across the district. By 2010, Maharashtra also picked up the model, implementing it in 1200 Zilla Parishad primary schools in Pune district.
Now, Mushtifund HS, Cujira has become the first school in Goa to implement the system this June, and it has been yielding good results, informs headmistress Sneha Sardessai. “ABL does not always mean just teaching certain topics through some activities. What we actually do is make a group comprising of students from class I to class IV. Here, the senior students will explain the concept to the juniors. The teacher is only a guide. Students learn by themselves.”
How the system works
Rather than having classes based on standards from I to IV, “labs” dedicated to specific subjects are set up ( Marathi, Mathematics, geography etc). The entire study material is incorporated in specially designed activity-cards, and kids will learn the concepts themselves as they go about doing these activities. The cards are colour-coded according to class. , Each lab has students of all classes from I to IV who will study their own material of that particular subject, but they will sit in groups with each group comprising of different students encompassing all classes.
Thus, senior students help juniors learn. Secondly, thanks to activity-based learning, kids themselves are driven to explore and learn. The teacher will act as facilitator in case the students are stuck.
Pros and cons
Upon learning of this new system of education, a team of teachers and management personnel from Mushtifund visited Pune and decided to implement the system in their school. “Surprisingly, majority of parents backed the move and it was also well-received by the kids,” says Sardessai.
A major issue was the initial confusion caused when the school was putting the system in place, but after overcoming the hurdles, it has been running smoothly, the headmistress asserts.“We have colour-coded the activity-cards according to each class, and kids themselves pick the cards corresponding to their class. So,there is no ‘teaching’ but pure ‘learning’.
In the old way of teaching, the teacher taught so that an average student could understand. That left the above-average and below-average students frustrated. The new method enables each student to learn according to their own capability,” she explains.
As they advance in learning, students shift through various groups, and finally make it to the group slated for evaluation.
The school had to buy two special kits for the programme with each kit costing around Rs 90,000.The investment, however, is paying off, says the headmistress. As part of the new ABL system, the school also emphasizes field trips, and spending more time interacting with nature and environment.”
One issue that we face is that the teachers remain busier than ever. Earlier, there used to be a ‘free period’ but now, teachers are constantly on their toes helping students learn.” Sardessai notes. “The classrooms are noisier, but there is more order because the students too are engaged. Except for a couple of recalcitrant students, the class is generally smooth.” The new system appears to have made education fun, and one can say picture looks promising.
