Vishal Talreja, CEO and Co-founder of Dream a Dream met Mahesh at the local community centre where he would regularly come to spend time with his friends and have food. That was perhaps, the only silver lining in his life. Vishal recalls, “He had dropped out of school because his teacher would beat him up. He would be traumatised at the word ‘school’ — such was the effect. We tried putting him in at least four non-formal schools but he would always run away. And then one day, he gathered the courage to steal a bicycle.”

The neighbourhood complained to the local police station who arrested Mahesh and sent him into a children’s observation centre for a week, until, the community centre managed to get him released. But, things changed in that week. The once resourceful and creative Mahesh who even managed to sell discarded custard apple shells to feed his family had turned into an aggressive and depressed child. He started foreseeing a livelihood as a thief. The community centre and Dream a Dream were working with this young child day in and out. They were hopeful. Yet, fate had something else in store. This time around, Mahesh stole a scooter and not knowing how to ride; he met with an accident and passed away.

The need for life-skills

What could have saved Mahesh? Vishal responds, “Life-skills, which should have been imparted at a developmental age.” According to UNICEF, ‘life-skills’ are defined as “psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.” Since 1999, Dream a Dream has been empowering young people from vulnerable backgrounds with the skills required to engage with the world, make healthy choices and flourish. Through a combination of after-school sessions utilizing the medium of sports and arts, career awareness workshops and teacher development programs in schools across Karnataka, the organization’s approach is successfully working with every stakeholder who has a direct impact on a child. Today, their programs are positively impacting the lives of over 100,000 children, each year.

Since 1999, Dream a Dream has been empowering young people from vulnerable backgrounds with the skills required to engage with the world, make healthy choices and flourish.

With a bold vision of impacting 250,000 young people by end of 2016, Vishal senses an urgency to introduce life-skills as a crucial component in India’s education system and Mahesh’s story is a testimony to that. He says, “If we look at Mahesh’s story, it was a double whammy. On one hand, he lacked the skills (such as managing conflict, creative and critical thinking, decision making) which would have helped him to cope and adapt to his situation. On the other hand, he came from a background of adversity. The feeling of neglect, lack of love and nutrition and exposure to violence left a deep negative impact which affected his natural developmental milestones and that also resulted in his inability to thrive.”

The impact of adversity on children

According to a research by University of California (a first-of-its-kind) which studied 756 adults, childhood abuse and lack of parental affection can affect emotional and physical health, for an entire lifetime. Such children are also prone to multi-system health risks such as blood pressure, heart rate, stress hormone, cholesterol, waist circumference, inflammation, and blood sugar regulation among others. The HUNGaMa report by the Government of India affirms that 59 per cent of our nation’s under-five children face moderate to severe stunting.

“Stunted growth isn’t just a result of lack of nutrition but also lack of emotional care.” Thus, if children are left uncared for, there are high chances that they may be the next Mahesh.” — Vishal Talreja

Where do we begin?

It has been well established by now that to thrive in this complex, unpredictable world, life-skills are critical at every level. Every human needs the required skills to unlearn, re-learn and re-adapt to the world. But where do we begin?

As Vishal Talreja rightly points out, the answer is the Government of India. “It is the largest missionary in the country. Unfortunately, they conduct themselves as five-year political terms.” In other words, as a nation, we don’t have a long-term vision for education which is impacting over 400 million children who are our future.

With the new government, this is a chance to overhaul the entire education system by making it more holistic and equal. Countries such as Finland, Singapore and Korea to name a few are remarkable examples. For instance, Finland’s education system is an exemplary model for the rest of the world. Entirely publicly-funded and based on Nordic welfare, it recruits only the top 10 per cent of teachers and places deep emphasis on research-based education, continually adapting to the changing world. Furthermore, individual focus with no competition or standardized tests, a participatory approach which ensures less classroom and more interaction time, every school has high curriculum autonomy. In a nutshell, the system is built on “equal opportunity for all” and this reflects in the fact that Finland’s education system has consistently been in the top 5 in the world.

To sum it up, as Vishal rightly says, “Finland’s emphasis isn’t a trillion-dollar economy but a good quality of life and the kind of nation they have built is very telling of that. The right education and life-skills invested in their children ensured that when they became adults and secured positions of power, they could make effective decisions. And on the other hand, the entire Finnish population aptly abides by government decision for they know, it’s in their welfare.”

While the Indian government has enough successful examples to begin with, perhaps, what it needs is a vision to Re-Imagine Learning for the 21st century for our children.

*Name changed to ensure privacy. All photos are courtesy Dream a Dream.

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But what changed in that one incident? As Vishal Talreja, Founder of Bengaluru-based Dream a Dream rightly points out, “The tone of empathy, safety and assurance that the question wasn’t a trick. The student felt she was finally seen, understood but most importantly, not judged.”

He goes on to say, “Children are keen observers — they continually observe how parents and teachers who are their biggest influencers react to people and situations. They shape up to be similar individuals and that the reason why it’s critical to unlock empathy at the right age.”

Since 1999, Dream A Dream has been empowering young people from vulnerable backgrounds with the skills required to engage with the world, make healthy choices and flourish. Through a combination of after-school sessions utilizing the medium of sports and arts, career awareness workshops, their programs are positively impacting the lives of over 100,000 children, each year.

However, over the last decade, Vishal and his team felt that given the magnitude of India’s youth, there is a dire need to enable adults to empower young people and thus was born, ‘Dream Teacher Development Program’ which works towards training teachers and community workers to impart life skills among young children in their regions for a long period of time, not disturbing the link of continued impact.

How does the Dream Teacher Development Program work?

Spread over a period of 6–8 months, the ‘Dream Teacher Development Program’ has a series of 4 life skills facilitation programs, each lasting 2 days. The first level focuses on recognizing and celebrating oneself, which results in increased self-awareness, confidence and ability to continually develop one’s own skills while developing others as well.The second level focuses on understanding the child and developing empathy towards the child. As Vishal says, “In a classroom there are diverse children — violent, aggressive, quiet, tired, low-attention span etc. It’s essential to understand the root cause of individual behaviour before even attempting to tackle their issues. The second level puts the teachers through a process of understanding child behaviour and building teachers’ abilities to be empathetic. The outcome of level 2 is an increased understanding of early childhood development and effective, meaningful engagement with the youth. In the third level, teachers are taught to understand and build safe spaces for learning and interaction. According to Vishal, “This is the most important level as once a teacher has understood and accepted a certain behaviour without judgement, how do they change it? This level focuses on strength-based behaviour wherein the teachers creatively channelize individual students’ unique strengths.” The final level while brings together all the learnings; it is essentially focused on celebrating the role of a caring and compassionate adult in every child’s life.

Between each level, teachers are encouraged to go back to their classrooms and practice their learnings. Dream A Dream backs up with 24×7 access to trainers and mentors as well as by having support visits wherein the facilitators observe the classes and give feedback to the teachers.

Impact and Way Forward

Until now, Dream A Dream has trained over 1, 500 teachers across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. But impact isn’t just a number; it is the little successes that are happening across India’s classrooms every single day that encourage the team to dream more audaciously. For instance, Mr. Manjunath Bahusaheb Yalamalli, a teacher at the JA Education Institution, Belagum would earlier dissuade his student from participating in sports as he was weak in academics and needed more focus there. However, after attending the program, he looked at the boy differently and decided to encourage him to participate, much against the wishes of his staff. The student won. Mr. Yalamalli says, what truly encompasses the entire program, “that moment was only a reinforcement of how much my belief in the child is tied into his belief of his own abilities. I continue to really see each child as unique with unique strengths.”

In another instance, R R Pathan, teacher at the same institution confronted himself with the inferiority complex he had been battling with which didn’t allow him to express his views/concerns freely for the fear that he may be judged. But after undergoing the program, he emerged a more confident person who started putting together his understanding of self and how he should behave with his children. He says, “The questioning brought a huge change in me as I have started to build this curiosity in my classroom as well.”

The change seen in Mr. Yalammali and Mr. Pathan which has trickled into the classrooms and will eventually have an impact on the entire school and community is a testimony to what a positively empowered adult is capable of achieving.

As Dream A Dream is striving towards impacting at least 30, 000 teachers by 2030 by partnering with government schools, affordable private schools and charity-based schools in Karnataka, it is a matter of immense pride and recognition when Mr. Yalamalli writes to them saying, “My vision of my dream classroom that I created in the last workshop has stayed with me. I am driving towards my vision, knowing that it is possible.”

*Manasvi — Name changed to ensure privacy.

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Currently, we are in the process of finalising the content of Happiness Books from nursery to the eighth grade, while piloting the new Happiness Curriculum in 42 Department of Education schools. The second Training of Trainers (ToT) took place in the month of March with the Happiness Team. One of our highlights has been at Delhi Government School in New Kondli where the teachers, being highly impressed and impacted by happiness classes, decided to incorporate collective mindfulness in their morning assembly.

Experts estimate that the mind thinks between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. Sometimes in our busy lives, we forget to have a moment for ourselves. Here’s a mindfulness activity for you to try, which is part of the Happiness Class.

The post DREAM A DREAM ANCHORING THE HAPPINESS CURRICULUM appeared first on Dream a Dream.

Following our partnership with the Karnataka Government, Dream a Dream conducted the first Life Skills Facilitation workshop (LSF 1), as part of the Teachers Development Programme, for the first batch of government teachers in Tumkuru. Through this workshop, the teachers gained a deeper understanding of themselves, explored their creativity and helped build a supportive community. The workshop enabled the teachers to explore and expand creative potential, gain an understanding of life skills and learn basic foundational tools on effective child engagement and building safe learning environments for children.

The teachers felt that the workshop helped them gain a deeper understanding of themselves, and who they are, while helping them explore their hidden creativity. Dream a Dream’s Teacher Development Programme will impact 1500 teachers, by creating a mindset shift and in turn, benefit 45000 children unlock their true potential, in Tumkuru!

Testimonials

Sannathimmaiah GT – I understood my strengths and more importantly, how to make myself a role model in front of my students and set a good example to the community around me as a teacher. I learnt how to be myself in front of everyone and how to enjoy the activities.

Shrilatha – The training is an activity-based training and we were looking for this kind of training for a long time. We received a chance to understanding in a better way and the lead trainers were involved completely with the group. I started doing these activities in my classroom which the students are really enjoying. We received equal opportunities to share our opinions and work together as a team. This helped us participate and invest ourselves in the workshop, fully. I am looking forward to the same structure of the training in the other LSFs.

DREAM A DREAM WITH AGA KHAN FOUNDATION IN KENYA

In May 2018, Dream a Dream began its collaboration with the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in their mission to introduce the concept of ‘pluralism’ in the African continent. We were identified as an organisation who would partner with them through our life skill development sessions. We began our partnership conducting life skills sessions with the AKF staff and conducting outdoor experiential camps for the youth in the conflict-hit zones

In April 2019, we are thrilled to be taking the next important step in our partnership with AKF to deliver our Arc of Transformation framework to Kenya. In a span of three weeks, we will train over 170 teachers, head teachers from 10 government schools and AKF staff on our approach of holding space for young people to thrive. The fervent hope is that it will lead to an amplification of a shift in mindset towards education everywhere.

The post WORKING WITH STATE SYSTEMS IN TUMKURU AND KENYA appeared first on Dream a Dream.

Interviewer: Eyal Shani

Photographer: Tomer Appelbaum

Date: 15th March 2019

Vishal Talreja, cofounder of an organization for empowering children from disadvantaged sectors in India, says he was stunned by a visit to Finland and why there is no connection between success in school and success in life.

This is a dramatic transition – you were an investment banker and you decided to dedicate your life to working with children and youth at risk. Tell me how it happened.

I was born and raised in Bangalore, under very modest conditions. In fact, in poverty. We lived in a bad neighbourhood, but our family was exceptional. My father, who lost his father at the age of 13, managed to get an education and was a lawyer. My mother, who also came from a large family, was the only one in her family to graduate from college. She is a doctor. My parents taught themselves the importance of education, so even though there was no money in the house for luxury or toys, and my mother worked four jobs at the same time, they invested everything they had in our education. My sisters and I studied at the best schools in Bangalore. My parents taught us from morning to night that education is our key to getting out of poverty. It worked for them. I was an outstanding student. I managed to get to university, I could choose what to study and I chose economics. I started working as an investment banker. Then, as part of an exchange of students, I went to Finland and my life changed radically.

Why?

I had never left India before. I did not even know where Finland was on the map, but when I got there, I saw a whole different world than I had seen before. I realised that I, and any other child who wanted to advance in India, were under tremendous pressure from the first grade. If you want to go to high school or to college, you must be at the top of the class, but there is no place for mistakes but in Finland I saw students who continued their studies until their thirties, when they went to developing countries to volunteer and contribute. You look at education in a completely different way, as a goal rather than a means.

Education, for them, was a way to explore themselves, to experience and understand what they wanted to do in life. Suddenly I realized that this was a better and more correct way than the endless race for achievements. The second thing I saw in Finland, which shook my world, was the way they treat work. I made friends there with a hotel guard, and he invited me to dinner at his house. He lives in a beautiful apartment, in a good neighbourhood. I was in total shock. I just could not figure out how a hotel guard might have such a beautiful house. In India, someone who works as a hotel keeper can probably not afford to buy a nice apartment and live comfortably. He explained to me that in Finland the world of work is different and that the possibilities are open to all.

Once I was walking with a Norwegian guy who told me that there were no poor people in Norway. I knew that Norway was a rich country – but the idea that there was no poverty problem shocked me. For those who grew up in Israel, certainly for those who grew up in India, it seems completely disconnected – a safety net of the state and equal opportunity.

In India your honour is measured not only in economic status but also in religion and caste. The separation is so clear that even we, who lived in a bad neighbourhood, knew nothing about the woman who would clean our house. We had no contact with her class. In Finland there was no separation. They all had access to education and health services. Everyone lived with everyone. I remember writing in my diary: I want to go back to India and change the way we think about education and dignity. We must work with children to be like Finland.

An ambitious target. India is developing, but 30% of the world’s poorest children live in it. And you have no training in education.

An ambitious goal, but that was the beginning. I returned to India, gathered a few friends, talked to them about what I saw and understood, and established the DREAM A DREAM association. None of us had experience in education or in the establishment of associations. We found a mentor who guided us. We told her we wanted to work with poor children, and she gave us the best advice we could give. She said – do not try to solve the problem, just live it and understand it deeply. That’s what we did. We worked with orphans, HIV-positive children and cancer patients in shelters and poor communities. We just spent time with them. We took them for walks and movies. We flew kites. We talked.

And what do you understand about the situation you did not know before?

The depth of prejudice and fear. HIV-infected children were completely assigned to the shelter home. We tried, for example, to do an art workshop for them, and when the gallery owner discovered that they were sick children, he would not rent us the space. To our amazement, we discovered that the same prejudice exists for children with cancer. Whose parents hide them from their neighbours, because they fear that the community will expel them and force them to leave the building. We tried to make a summer camp for children – to connect middle-class children with distressed families – and the parents of middle-class, enlightened and educated people told me, “We are not ready for our children to spend time with street children.” We understood that the right way to act was to explain, to dispel the ignorance and to try to bring these children closer to the community.

You know, there is a lot of research literature on the failures of associations. About how the authentic desire to help does not fit the reality on the ground and sometimes even hurts people. You chose to go the other way. The so-called grassroots movement.

Anyone who wants to change must understand what he stands for. We must not think we know better than the people we want to help or judge their choices. At the beginning of the organization, we worked with young children who were drug addicts. During one of the workshops, we gave them a question that guides one of the children, “Why are you actually using drugs?” And he replied, “You do not really want to know the answer.” The facilitator insisted, “Look, I live in the street, I eat from cans, rotten and disgusting food that other people have thrown in. The only way I can eat the food is when I’m drugged, and I do not smell it and it does not disgust me. In the night, all kinds of boys come up to me from gangs or other homeless people and abuse me, policemen beat me with clubs in the middle of the night to get up and walk away from where I sleep, the only way I can get through the night is when I’m drugged and when I wake up in the morning I do not remember what happened to me at night”. This is the life that this 14-year-old must live. So, who am I going to judge his choice to take drugs? What right do I have to decide right/wrong? I must respect his choice, out of a deep and intimate acquaintance with the circumstances of his life. Only then, perhaps, can I try to drive change. It’s a long process. We have existed for 19 years, and we are far from understanding the full context. We still peel more and more layers of the problem.

Your model seems interesting – you strive to influence not only the individual child, but also the environment, the ecosystem and society.

We want to provide children with a better life, so naturally, the child is at the center. In the first ten years, we worked directly with children through two main programs. For children – post-school frameworks, specializing in art or sports, through which we also taught them skills such as problem-solving, teamwork, etc. For youth ages 15 to 18, we built a program designed to prepare them for a functioning adult life. The children and adolescents in our program grew up in distress and deprivation, without a responsible adult who would satisfy their emotional needs and enable them to develop and acquire life skills. They do not know, for example, to deal with conflicts. When they encounter something that did not work for them, they simply leave it, often in anger and aggressiveness. We taught them to contain conflicts. to cope. Clarify their position. negotiate. In both programs, we managed to reach 10,000 children a year. In a country like India, it is a drop in the ocean. But we decided not to try to increase the number of children,

Which, as noted, is the environment.

Ultimately, the child’s quality of life is determined by his environment. By parents and teachers. We decided to start working with teachers. We understood that the reason children persist in our frameworks is that we respect them and care for them, not because we distribute football shirts. We tried to understand how we can make teachers create such an atmosphere in class. Childhood is a period of insecurity and fluctuation. The presence of a stable adult who provides emotional confidence to the child, who does not judge him, teaches him to be creative – can make all the difference. So, we built a program designed for teachers. To teach teachers to be the attentive and empathetic adult in the classroom. This is a program that 8,000 teachers in India have already learned. But even that, of course, is not enough for a problem like poor children. We moved to the next level – an ecosystem. And there, of course, the main player is the government. We approached government agencies and suggested that we help them promote children to the 21st century. That is how we created the so-called “Happiness hour”

What is?

Most children, especially those who come from weaker families, do not like going to school. They are afraid of teachers. These are children who do not feel loved and desirable in their homes and not in their community. We decided that school could be their safe place. All the children in the program, from the age of kindergarten to the age of 14, start the day with a Happiness Class which is dedicated to practising Mindfulness, stories, emotional play, creativity. More than a million children in Delhi alone begin their day like this.

You have succeeded in making a change in the ecosystem as well.

Yes. We are already working in five states within India. This is the third level.

And that brings us to the fourth level. The mindset.

Yes. This level has not yet been broken, I admit.

It is possible?

I believe so. I think that a change in policy does not change the consciousness. If you want to create a society that is based on respect and on the perception that every job respects its employee, it is necessary to change consciousness. This will happen when parents realize that their children do not go to school to learn multiplication and division, but to be better people.

This already corresponds to another insight – we understand that the education system has finished its traditional role. The children no longer need the school to give them knowledge. The education system must focus on other directions – values. Social skills. Flexible thinking. Human values. Interpersonal interaction. These things are more important than ever. If you take a surgeon from a hospital in the 19th century and place him in an operating room in a hospital today, he will not know what to do. But if you take a teacher from the 19th century and land him in the classroom today – he’ll work out.

It seems obvious to us all that a child should go to school. This is a social norm. A hundred years ago it did not exist at all. It is time to rethink how we perceive education. What education do we ask our children? What is the purpose of the school’s education? For me, the goal is for the child to grow up to be a good person. To lead a meaningful life. Be productive and contribute within his community. But people do not see it that way. People are educated as knowledge – children think so, parents think so, teachers think so and governments think so. Under these conditions, it is impossible to create change. We need to think of education as something transformative.

It is difficult to prepare the children for the future and the labour market, where many of the professions in which they have not even been invented.

India already has a surplus of talented and educated people who simply do not have jobs for them. Since we do not know what reality our children will function in, we need to focus on their life skills. Adapting to a changing and deceptive reality. No one can tell his child today – you will learn, you will achieve and become an engineer. There are not enough jobs for engineers today, and no one knows if this profession will exist at all in 20 years.

What else did you learn in your laboratory?

Young people growing in the 21st century is already different from us – they are more suited to life in this age. We somehow think we understand better than them, but that’s just not true. I see the change in our laboratory, in front of my eyes. It really is a different generation. In my generation and in my parents’ generation we were focused on what we wanted and in the different ways to achieve it. The young people I see today do not think only of themselves. They want to make a change in their communities. Change in the world. Many of the children who grew up and changed in our organization come back to give back to society.

There is, for example, a girl who came to us when she was 14. A girl who was severely abused at home by her father. She joined our football program and was very successful. It helped her build an identity. She had changed from an insecure and anxious girl to a determined young woman. At the age of 18, she returned to us and asked to be a facilitator. We hired her, and she worked at the school where she was a student. Since she knew the neighbourhood in depth, she knew that one of the problems there was that the children did not have a playground. She decided to change it. She met with politicians and community leaders, she built an entire campaign and managed to harness more and more people to her struggle. In the end, one of the community’s wealthy agreed to give her free space. She has got additional donations from various philanthropists. I cannot even imagine how I felt when she invited me to the beautiful big playground that was born inside her head. She had no money. She had no connections. But she managed to change people’s lives. If we succeed in harnessing young people to change in their community, we can all move forward.

You talk about communities, but most people no longer live in a communal society.

This is a very individualistic society. There is no doubt. That is why we need cooperation between education leaders from around the world. Let them talk to each other. To conduct studies together. Each of whom will contribute his experience and coping methods so that we can all join hands in this important front – shaping education in the 21st century.

You know, I often interview social activists. I always try to understand how a person who encounters a problem of this magnitude decides that he, the little one, will try to solve it. Is it a matter of personality? Of the need for meaning?

The need for meaning is certainly one of the things that drive me. In addition, in the past 20 years, I have seen so many young people changing the world, and I perceive my role not as a person who makes a change, but as a person who supports those who make a difference. Look, the road was not easy. It is not easy yet. There were crises. There were moments of doubt in myself, in what I chose to do. The erosion is tremendous. I needed psychological treatment because I had difficulty carrying this emotional burden and was depressed. I do not know exactly the answer to your question. I think about it while I’m talking, but I think I’m afraid to despair. Despair frightens me. The thought of hopelessness frightens me. As long as I’m so afraid of it, I can keep going.

You came here to lecture at the GELP International Education Conference. What can we learn from your experience in Israel?

When I travel around the world, the initial insight that follows me – no matter where I am and in which culture – is that where there is poverty and deprivation there is also distress and failure in development. Children who come to school and behave violently, or do not cooperate, or exclude themselves, have apparently experienced some distress during their development and are the ones that prevent them from thriving. You must understand that there is not really a child who just does not want to learn. When they understand this, it will be possible to try to formulate a response.

There is an over-diagnosis of ADHD today.

It’s dangerous. This is the system’s way of dealing with someone who is not suited to it. I do not think so many children really have attention deficit disorder. I do not think the problem is with them. The problem is in a system that finds no way to interest them or challenges them and turns to the easy way of diagnoses and medications.

What would you advise the government? For decision makers?

I have been advising governments for several years now. Anyone who is looking for change should engage with the government. Governments have the means. I think a government, no matter what country, should listen to the associations that work in the field. NPOs have insights and maybe even solutions, but they do not have the ability to make a big-scale change. We, in India, have reached a million children thanks to the government. In the same way it will be possible to reach tens and hundreds of millions of children in all countries. Each country has other difficulties, but many of the obstacles are universal. If we all join hands, we can reach the common goal – that children thrive and can drive change in the world.

These are big words. Inspirational but great. Many parents who read this, I suppose, will identify deeply, but tomorrow their child will go to the regular school, as every day.

Parents must understand that a successful child in school is not a successful child. They must ask themselves what life they want for their children and if the school leads them there. If the parents begin to create a supportive emotional environment for their children, if they understand that the school’s role is to instil values and a worldview, if they decide not to send their children to school until there is a change, the system will have to change and adjust. Do not ask for school achievement or good place in the national rankings. Ask him to teach the children about empathy. About the ability to deal with challenges and difficulties. Ask him to help you make your child be a better person. Do you know what my biggest dream is?

Tell me.

Close the organization. Not that we failed – but that we succeeded. Because we solved the problem. Because we succeeded in bringing about social and conscious change.

The post AN INTERVIEW WITH VISHAL TALREJA BY THE HAARETZ appeared first on Dream a Dream.

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಮೂಲದ ಸರ್ಕಾರೇತರ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯಾಗಿರುವ ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ ಎ ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌’, “ಕೋವಿಡ್‌-19 ನಂತರದ ಜಗತ್ತಿಗೆ (ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ) ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಸಿದ್ಧವಾಗಿವೆಯೇ?” ಎಂಬ ವಿಷಯದ ಕುರಿತು ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯೊಂದನ್ನು ಕೈಗೊಂಡಿತ್ತು. ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ಇದರ ವರದಿಯನ್ನು ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕರ ಮುಂದಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದು, ಶಾಲೆಯ ಸನ್ನದ್ಧತೆಯ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯು ಶಾಲೆಗಳನ್ನು ಪುನಃ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಲು ಇನ್ನೂ ಸಿದ್ಧವಾಗಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂದು ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ವರದಿ ಸೂಚಿಸಿದೆ.

ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯು ನಡೆಸಿದ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಶೇ.95 ರಷ್ಟು ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಈ ವರ್ಷದ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮುಂದೂಡಲು ಇಚ್ಚೆ ಪಡುತ್ತವೆ. ವಾಸ್ತವಿಕವಾಗಿ ಬಹುತೇಕ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಪಠ್ಯಕ್ರಮಗಳನ್ನು ಪೂರ್ಣಗೊಳಿಸುವ ಅಥವಾ ಬೋರ್ಡ್‌ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಮಾದರಿಗಳನ್ನು ಸಿದ್ಧಪಡಿಸುವ ಕಾರ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ತೊಡಗಿರುವುದರಿಂದ ಶಾಲೆಯ ಮಕ್ಕಳು ಬೋರ್ಡ್‌ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಗಳನ್ನು ಪೂರ್ಣಗಳಿಸುವಲ್ಲಿ ಸಮರ್ಥರಾಗಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂದು ಭಯಪಡುತ್ತಿವೆ.

ಕಡಿಮೆ ವೆಚ್ಚದಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುವ ಖಾಸಗಿ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು, ಸರ್ಕಾರಿ ಅನುದಾನಿತ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಸರ್ಕಾರಿ ಶಾಲೆಗಳ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಕೊರೊನಾ ದಿಂದ ಆದ ಪರಿಣಾಮವನ್ನು ಅರ್ಥಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ 28 ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ 853 ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳ ಪ್ರಾಂಶುಪಾಲರು ಮತ್ತು ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳ ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥರೊಂದಿಗೆ ಶಾಲಾ ಸಿದ್ಧತೆ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯನ್ನು ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ ಎ ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ ನಡೆಸಿದೆ. ಅದರ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಅಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ‘ವಿಕ’ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಸಿದೆ.

ರಾಜ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ 7ನೇ ತರಗತಿ ವರೆಗೂ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್‌ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ರದ್ದು?

ಲಾಕ್‌ಡೌನ್‌ ಕಾರಣದಿಂದಾಗಿ ನಿಗದಿತ ಶೈಕ್ಷಣಿಕ ಸಮಯವು ಕಡಿಮೆಯಾಗಿರುವುದರಿಂದ ಶೇ.92 ರಷ್ಟು ಮುಖ್ಯೋಪಾಧ್ಯಾಯರು ಹೊಸ ಶೈಕ್ಷಣಿಕ ವರ್ಷಕ್ಕೆ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಪಠ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ನಿಗದಿ ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ಕೋರಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯಿಂದ ಶೇ.97 ರಷ್ಟು ಶಾಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್‌ ತರಗತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಬೆಂಬಲಿಸಲು ಬೇಕಾಗುವುದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಪ್ರಮಾಣದ ಡಿಜಿಟಲ್ ಮೂಲ ಸೌಕರ್ಯಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿವೆ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿದು ಬಂದಿದೆ. ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರು ಕಳೆದ 2 ತಿಂಗಳಿಂದ ವೇತನವನ್ನು ಪಡೆಯದೆ ಇರುವ ದುಃಖಕರ ಸ್ಥಿತಿಯು ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯಿಂದ ಹೊರಬಂದಿದೆ. ಶೇ.96 ರಷ್ಟು ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳ ಯೋಗಕ್ಷೇಮ ಮತ್ತು ಮಾನಸಿಕ ಆರೋಗ್ಯದ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳನ್ನು ಪರಿಹರಿಸಲು ಬೆಂಬಲವನ್ನು ಬಯಸುತ್ತವೆ ಎಂಬುದು ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯಿಂದ ತಿಳಿದುಬಂದಿದೆ.

ಈ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ಕುರಿತು ಮಾತನಾಡಿರುವ ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ ಎ ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ನ ಸಿಇಒ ಆದ ಶ್ರೀಮತಿ. ಸುಚೇತ ಭಟ್ ರವರು ” ಶಾಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್‌ ತರಗತಿಗಳನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುವುದನ್ನು ಒತ್ತಾಯಿಸುವುದೊಂದೆ ಈ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗೆ ಪರಿಹಾರವಲ್ಲ. ಈ ರೋಗವು ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಆಘಾತಕಾರಿಯಾಗಿದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಒತ್ತಡದಿಂದಾಗಿ ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತದಲ್ಲಿ ಡಿಜಿಟಲ್ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯು ಇದೆಯಾದರೂ, ಅದನ್ನು ದುರ್ಬಲ ಹಿನ್ನಲೆಯುಳ್ಳ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಶಾಲೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಬಿಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳ ಯೋಗಕ್ಷೇಮವನ್ನು ರಕ್ಷಿಸುವಲ್ಲಿ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಯಾವಾಗಲೂ ಮಹತ್ವದ ಪಾತ್ರವಹಿಸುತ್ತವೆ. ಹಾಗೂ ಈ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್‌ ತರಗತಿಗಳ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಒತ್ತಡವನ್ನು ನೀಡುವುದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕೋನಗಳಿಂದಲೂ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಭಾವನಾತ್ಮಕ ಬೆಂಬಲ ಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ,” ಎಂದಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರ ವರ್ಗಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊಸ ನಿಯಮಾವಳಿಗಳು; ಆಕ್ಷೇಪಣೆಗೆ 15 ದಿನ ಅವಕಾಶ

ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ಒಳನೋಟವನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಂಡ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯ ಸಂಶೋಧನಾ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರಾದ ಶ್ರೀ.ಶ್ರೀಹರಿ ರವೀಂದ್ರನಾಥ್ ಮಾತನಾಡಿ, “ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್‌ ಬೋಧನಾ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯನ್ನು ನಿರ್ವಹಿಸುವಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವುದೇ ಅನುಭವವನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದು ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯಿಂದ ಕಂಡುಬಂದಿದೆ. ವಾಸ್ತವವಾಗಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಶಾಲೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಮುಂದಿನ ದಾರಿಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟತೆ ಇಲ್ಲ ಹಾಗೂ ಡಿಜಿಟಲ್ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್‌ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ನಡೆಸುವ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಬೆಂಬಲ ಬೇಕಾಗಿದೆ,” ಎಂದಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

The post ಕೊರೊನಾ ನಂತರದ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಸನ್ನದ್ಧವಾಗಿವೆಯೇ?, ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯೊಂದರ ವರದಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ.. appeared first on Dream a Dream.

The United Nations has described the global scale of education disruption from COVID-19 as “unparalleled”. According to UNESCO monitoring, national and local closures have impacted about 99.9 percent of the world’s student population. While students across the board have been impacted, it is important to understand the impact on children from marginalized communities in many developing countries, including India, which at 260 Million children, has the largest school going population in the world.

 As we reached out to students from marginalized communities, stark and growing inequities emerged, which include: 

1) Loss of income and livelihood due to the extended lockdown.

2) Migration- The emotional toll of this on children will be manifold. Moreover, post the lockdown, many of the migrants may decide to stay back in the villages which could lead to children dropping out of formal education.

3) Forced to become adults like taking care of their younger siblings, managing household chores, organizing food and taking decisions on behalf of the family.

4) Misinformation spread through fake news and rumours.

5) Heightened Violence and Abuse – The Childline India helpline received more than 92,000 SOS calls asking for protection from abuse and violence in 11 days, a sombre indication that the lockdown has turned into captivity, not just for women, but also for children trapped with their abusers at home.

6) Gendered Impact – Girls would be expected to take on more adult roles in their families, their education will be deprioritised compared to boys, and they are more likely to face domestic violence and abuse at home.

7) Loss of academic learning – As marginalized populations do not have access to digital resources and tools, there is also the loss of academic learning, furthering the learning gap.

8) Impact of Trauma resulting in Failure to Thrive – All the above outlined challenges faced by children/young people can and will cause tremendous trauma — mental, emotional and psychological.

We know that sustained trauma in early-years (0–10 years) results in stunting and failure to thrive the effects to which can be felt for life. Children are going to carry this trauma into schools, and it is going to hinder their ability to access content, engage in learning and build healthy relationships. As the impact of the pandemic unfolds, it is becoming abundantly clear that traditional learning models have ill-equipped our children to respond to the current crisis.

 Some of the structural and systemic challenges in our education systems that have come to the forefront include,

1. THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE!The oft-repeated assumption that children would have to face an uncertain job market and a fast-changing world a few years from now is already amidst us, and this uncertain future is changing as we speak.
2. ECONOMIC GROWTH VS PRIORITIZING WELL-BEINGToday we are rightly being forced to prioritize well-being over economic growth, for ourselves and the planet. Could this be the turning point that decides the new purpose of education, in the face of this new reality?
3. ENTRENCHED SYSTEMIC INEQUITIESWhen an eighth grade student who shares one Smartphone between a family of 4, makes a tough choice to buy an internet-pack versus groceries and is then not allowed into her online class for being 5 minutes late, are we not perpetuating the same systemic biases we held offline to the online world? What could be the role of education in changing this reality?
   
   Before we rush towards reactionary solutions, there is a need to pause and reflect on these structural and systemic challenges within our current education system. While it would be easy to replicate old offline models and repurpose them towards the online mode, we must pause to ask the tough question — is this what is needed right now?

THE WAY FORWARD: THE NEED FOR A PAUSE

Schools cannot go back to ‘business as usual’ at the end of this crisis. They cannot double down their efforts to catch-up to lost time by stuffing syllabus down student’s throats. There is a definite need to re-imagine the role of schools and teachers in the life of children coming from marginalized communities, with the entire ecosystem becoming trauma responsive.

For example, what if education ecosystems decide to:

Spend the first 3 months when children come back to school only on re-integrating them into the post COVID-19 world, while deprioritizing academic subjects

Have no examinations across the board for 1 year?

Invest in targeted trauma-healing of teachers, resulting in schools becoming more trauma responsive.

Support school leaders to re-imagine the school calendar to integrate life-skills and SEL as core components to prepare children for future uncertainty.

Change the metric of success of our education systems from academic and economic outcomes to well-being and thriving of all students, communities and the planet.

Considering how our school and societal systems are currently designed, this is not going to be easy. Yet this is the most important calling of the moment.

Suchetha Bhat is CEO of Dream a Dream, an organization working towards empowering young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and flourish in a fast-changing world using a creative life skills approach.

Vishal Talreja is cofounder of Dream a Dream.

Original story : https://timestech.in/kindnessis-the-new-normal-a-call-to-re-imagine-the-purpose-of-education-in-the-post-covid-19-world/

The post KINDNESS IS THE NEW NORMAL: A CALL TO RE-IMAGINE THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION IN THE POST-COVID-19 WORLD appeared first on Dream a Dream.

Image for representational purpose only(Pic: Prajanma Das)

You may call Vishal Talreja a dreamer but he was definitely not the only one. The John Lennon references aside, when Vishal decided to work towards helping at-risk kids 20 years back it was an inspired idea from the time he spent with children in institutional care systems as a volunteer. Now he runs a non-profit organisation — Dream a Dream Foundation — with his wife Suchetha Bhat, which helps millions of children from vulnerable backgrounds develop life skills using art as a medium. Their latest campaign — #WhatIf — to rethink education, has also gained global popularity.

The Bengaluru-based organisation started in 1999 and a decade into the process, they realised that the kids need a mentor, an adult to look up to. “One key element that creates a transformative experience in a child’s life and acts as a stable influence is the presence of a caring empathetic adults. These kids had no one. We, thus decide to get teachers, community workers and volunteers involved and started a programme called the teacher development programme which has got 10,000 teachers involved across India now. From 2016, we also started working with state governments to integrate life skill approaches and teacher training in the public education system. This has helped us reach three million children in seven states across India,” said Vishal whose motive to work harder comes from those of his students or trainee who pass out and build a good life for themselves and even come back to help.

Dream a Dream has four flagship projects — the After School Life Skills Programme, Career Connect, Teacher Development and Volunteer Engagement. While the After School programme uses sports and arts as a medium to develop life skills in kids, Career Connect helps children from the age of 14 years to 19 make the most of adulthood with training in communication skills, money management, career guidance and provide access to internships, scholarships, vocational training and jobs. The foundation has also been the anchor non-profit for the Delhi Government’s Happiness Curriculum launched a couple of years ago. “It was the first time that the school calendar was changed to incorporate a life skill-based education inside the regular school day of a child. Around 18,000 teachers were involved and we trained the entire cadre of happiness coordinators in Delhi,” said Suchetha, the CEO of the foundation. Suchetha joined the organisation in 2010 after living the corporate life for nine years. “I was volunteering when I started mentoring a girl in her 10th grade and we built a connection for over a year. Then she failed her boards and dropped out. She started working as a parking attendant at a mall and then eventually ran away from home. I still don’t know where she is. This made me realise how misplaced our notions of success were,” she added.

The COVID-19 had taken every one of us by surprise and lives came to a standstill — all at once. But the Dream a Dream team bounced back soon and came up with the #WhatIf campaign. “We saw, in between the relief work and reacting to the crisis that content was going online at a speed like never before and everything was about quick fixes. The crisis was not just health and finance but everything around us — from anxiety over COVID-19, misinformation and gender impact along with the learning loss. The idea behind the #WhatIf campaign was to use the crisis as an opportunity to take a pause and use this time to truly reimagine the system so that we are not giving knee-jerk responses to our children but truly operating compassionately and reimagining the future of education in general and in particular for those from the marginalised communities,” said Suchetha. The call to reimagine the response and offer a more equitable way forward for children has gone global with 20 organisation from Turkey and Latin American countries joining in.

Full Article: https://www.edexlive.com/happening/2020/aug/10/this-bluru-ngo-is-helping-millions-of-at-risk-kids-dream-a-dream-heres-how-13772.html

The post THIS B’LURU NGO IS HELPING MILLIONS OF AT-RISK KIDS DREAM A DREAM. HERE’S HOW appeared first on Dream a Dream.

“ಶಿಕ್ಷಣವು ಸಮಾನತೆಯನ್ನು ಉನ್ನತೀಕರಿಸುವ ಒಂದು ಅಂಶ, ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ಮತ್ತು ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಚಲನಶೀಲತೆ, ಸಮಗ್ರತೆ (ಸೇರ್ಪಡೆ), ಹಾಗೂ ಸಮಾನತೆಯನ್ನು ಸಾಧಿಸುವ ಒಂದು ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮ ಸಾಧನವಾಗಿದೆ” ಎಂದು 2020 ರ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ನೀತಿ ಕುರಿತು ಡ್ರೀಮ್ ಎ ಡ್ರೀಮ್ ನ ಸಿಇಒ ಸುಚೇತಾ ಭಟ್ ರವರು ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

‘ಪ್ರವೇಶ, ಸಮಾನತೆ, ಗುಣಮಟ್ಟ, ಕೈಗೆಟುಕುವಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೊಣೆಗಾರಿಕೆ” ಎಂಬ ಬುನಾದಿಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಇದನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಮಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಇದರ ಉದ್ದೇಶವು ಸರಿಯಾದ ಗಮನ ಮತ್ತು ನಿರ್ದೇಶನವನ್ನು ಎನ್‌ಇಪಿ ಹೊಂದಿದೆ ಎಂದು ಸುಚೇತಾ ಭಟ್‌ ಅನಿಸಿಕೆ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ’.

“ಎನ್‌ಇಪಿ ಉದ್ದೇಶವು ಭಾರತೀಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯನ್ನು ಆಧುನೀಕರಿಸುವುದು ಮತ್ತು ಅದನ್ನು ಜಾಗತಿಕ ಮಟ್ಟಕ್ಕೆ ಉನ್ನತೀಕರಿಸುವುದು ಹಾಗೂ ‘ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಚಲನಶೀಲತೆ, ಸೇರ್ಪಡೆ ಮತ್ತು ಸಮಾನತೆಯನ್ನು ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ಸಹ ಸಾಧಿಸುವ ನಿಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ನೀತಿಯು ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯನ್ನು ರೂಪಿಸುವ ಒಂದು ಉತ್ತಮ ಆರಂಭಿಕ ಹಂತವಾಗಿ ಕಾರ್ಯನಿರ್ವಹಿಸಲು ಸಹಾಯ ಮಾಡುತ್ತದೆ”.

ಕೊರೊನಾ ನಂತರದ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಸನ್ನದ್ಧವಾಗಿವೆಯೇ?, ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯೊಂದರ ವರದಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ..

ಆರಂಭಿಕ ಬಾಲ್ಯದ ಆರೈಕೆಯ ಸಾರ್ವತ್ರೀಕರಣದಂತಹ ಬಹುನಿರೀಕ್ಷಿತ ರಚನಾತ್ಮಕ ಸುಧಾರಣಾ ಅಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸುವುದರಿಂದ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಸಂಕೇತ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಪ್ರಮಾಣೀಕರಣಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಸ್ಮಾರ್ಟ್‌ ತರಗತಿ ಕೊಠಡಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಪಠ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ರಚನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಬಹು ಪ್ರವೇಶ ಮತ್ತು ನಿರ್ಗಮನ ಅಂಶಗಳೊಂದಿಗೆ ಅಧ್ಯಯನ ಮಾಡಲು ವಿಭಾಗಗಳ ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ ಸಂಯೋಜನೆಯನ್ನು ಪೂರ್ತಿಗೊಳಿಸಿ ಅದನ್ನು ಪರಿವರ್ತಿಸಲು ಅನುವು ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುತ್ತದೆ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ನೀತಿ’ ಎಂದಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಸುಚೇತಾ ಭಟ್.

‘ಗುಣಮಟ್ಟದ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣವನ್ನು ಒದಗಿಸುವ ಗುರಿಯನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿರುವ ಹಿನ್ನೆಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ, ಯಾವ ರೀತಿ ನೀತಿಯನ್ನು ಅನುಷ್ಠಾನಗೊಳಿಸಲಾಗುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು ಉಲ್ಲೇಖವಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದಾಗ್ಯೂ ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ, ಭಾವನಾತ್ಮಕ ಕೌಶಲ್ಯಗಳನ್ನು ಈ ನೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾಪಿಸಿರುವುದು ಪ್ರಾಯಶಃ ಇದೇ ಮೊದಲ ಬಾರಿಗೆ. ಹಾಗೂ ಬಾಲ್ಯದ ಪ್ರತಿಕೂಲ ಅನುಭವವನ್ನು ಪರಿಹರಿಸುವುದು ಇದು ಭಾರತದ ಸುಮಾರು 160 ದಶಲಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಬಡ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಉತ್ತಮ ಪ್ರವೇಶದ ಹಂತವಾಗಿದೆ. ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಮತ್ತು ಭಾವನಾತ್ಮಕ ಕಲಿಕೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಕೇಂದ್ರೀಕೃತವಾದ ಉದ್ದೇಶ ಹೊಂದಿದ ಶೈಕ್ಷಣಿಕ ಸುಧಾರಣೆಯ ಒಂದು ಸೂಚನೆ ಈ ನೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿದೆ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಡ್ರೀಮ ಎ ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ ನ ಸಿಇಒ.

ಸಿಬಿಎಸ್‌ಸಿ ಪೂರಕ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ ನಿರ್ಧಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಸುಪ್ರೀಂ ಕೋರ್ಟ್‌ ಮೊರೆ ಹೋದ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು

“ಮಕ್ಕಳು ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿ ಹೊಂದುವುದನ್ನು ಖಾತ್ರಿ ಪಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಶೈಕ್ಷಣಿಕ ಪರಿಸರ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಮಿಸುವ ಅಗತ್ಯವಿರುವುದರಿಂದ ಈ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ನೀತಿಯ ದೂರದೃಷ್ಟಿ ದಾಖಲೆಯು ಯಶಸ್ಸಿನ ಸಾಂಪ್ರದಾಯಿಕ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮೀರಿ ಮುಂದುವರೆಯಲು 2020 ನ್ಯಾಷನಲ್ ಎಜುಕೇಷನ್‌ ಪಾಲಿಸಿ ಸಹಾಯಕವಾಗಲಿದೆ ಎಂದು ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ಪಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ನೀತಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿಗೆ ಹೇಗೆಲ್ಲಾ ಸಹಾಯವಾಗಬಹುದು ಎಂಬ ಕುರಿತು ಸುದೀರ್ಘವಾಗಿ ತಿಳಿಸಿರುವ ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ ಎ ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯ ಸುಚೇತಾ ಭಟ್, ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಆಯಾಮಗಳಿಂದಲೂ ಬಹುತೇಕವಾಗಿ ಸಕಾರಾತ್ಮಕ ಅಂಶಗಳನ್ನೇ ಎನ್‌ಇಪಿ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಕಾಲೇಜು ಆರಂಭಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾತರ; ಯುಜಿಸಿ ಆದೇಶದಂತೆ ಶಾಲಾ, ಕಾಲೇಜುಗಳ ರೀಓಪನ್

ಡ್ರೀಮ್‌ ಎ ಡ್ರೀಮ್ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯು ದುರ್ಬಲ ಹಿನ್ನಲೆಯಿಂದ ಬಂದ ಯುವಜನರ ಪ್ರತಿಕೂಲ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿಯನ್ನು ನಿವಾರಿಸಲು ಮತ್ತು ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ ಜೀವನ ಕೌಶಲ್ಯ ವಿಧಾನವನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಮೂಲಕ ವೇಗವಾಗಿ ಬದಲಾಗುತ್ತಿರುವ ಜಗತ್ತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿ ಹೊಂದಲು ಅವರನ್ನು ಸಬಲೀಕರಣಗೊಳಿಸುವ ನಿಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾರ್ಯನಿರ್ವಹಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ.

Full Article: https://vijaykarnataka.com/education/board-exams/news/can-national-education-policy-help-childrens-development-read-dream-a-dream-ceo-opinion/articleshow/77505471.cms

The post ಮಕ್ಕಳು ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿಯನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಲು ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ನೀತಿ ಸಹಾಯವಾಗಬಲ್ಲದೇ? appeared first on Dream a Dream.

A brilliant rainbow of carefully picked experiential workshops; the dynamic young duo of Mamata and Rakesh, the anchors of the conference; the beautiful setting at The Ancient School of Wisdom, the friendly team of staff and volunteers from Dream a Dream and enthusiastic delegates contributed to the energy of the conference.

In setting the context for the conference, Vishal Talreja, Co-Founder and CEO of Dream a Dream screened Still Face experiment. This quickly got us to focus on the importance of listening with empathy and validating the feelings of a child. He drew attention to the positive reinforcements that are most often deprived to children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds. To offset this disadvantage and make learning possible, building life skills was presented as an enabler.

Karen Morrison, Co-Author, Making Thinking Visible was the key note speaker on ‘Co-creating the future we dream about’. She interspersed her presentation with wonderful antecedes and quotes that stressed on the importance to understand the child and encourage the inquisitiveness in the child. Some memorable quotes from my notes are:

‘If you do what you’ve always done, you get what you’ve always got’

‘Don’t accept me as I am’

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”

Brilliant panel discussions with four young people moderated by Arjun Durr from Ashoka brought out the challenges in traditional classrooms. As part of their shared vision for learning, Arpit from Muni International School explained how creating a bully free classroom encourages learning. Soumitra, student of class 9 from Dream a Dream programme clarified that ‘being weak and intelligent are the perception of the teacher and not students’. Against the backdrop of the recent floods in Chennai, Akshaya from TVS Academy expressed that education should teach them solve problems. Pallavi, Dream a Dream graduate shared her experience where managing a business enterprise as part of her school curriculum not only helped her to enjoy school but also do well academically. These made us ponder the fundamental premise of ‘Why do we keep children inside four walls to educate?’

An amazing journey of personal exploration by Brinda Jacob, The Studio for Movement, Arts & Therapies with Belinda, Smruthi, Monica and Sudha was an extremely invigorating. The sessions explored the potential of ‘stay in the here & now and tap into what is to discover new insights’. The delegates were left with little option but to dislodge themselves from their comfort zones. We participated in a variety of carefully synchronized and frenzied physical movements, music, photography and arts. This was also a perfect antidote to drive away any post lunch blues of conferences. The session also demonstrated that learning happens in a safe physical, emotional and intellectual spaces.

‘It is no longer about reading out of a textbook and asking children to memorize it, but creating a space for learning through play’ summarizes the innovative approaches and understanding of Reimagining Learning #Play2Learn presented by Zelda Yanovich, Lego Foundation.

A series of parallel breakout sessions deliberated on a range topics that included Visible Thinking, developed at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, ‘Growth and Fixed Mindset’ that affect education of first generation learners from low-income families, creative ways to channelize the interest of the child and children taking on shared responsibility over learning.

The next set of breakout session included making use of school buildings as a learning aid, listening as a tool for learning, the feel, imagine, do and share (FIDS) model of engaging children in solving social issues and ‘co-create workshop’ facilitated by a group of delegates perfectly demonstrated the spirit of the conference. The sessions reinforced the fact that learning does not end in classrooms but happens when one constantly engages with learning.

The conference was a celebration of diversity that left us wanting to know more. I truly believe that we are going back reassured that we are not alone in our journeys of creating joyful experiences for children in reimagine learning.

#ChangeTheScipt is a movement, a though process to create a world where each individual is appreciated for who they are, to change schools so that students may learn new types of knowledge and skills required in an unpredictably changing world. It is a collective committed to providing the right abilities, social and emotional skills for children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds overcome adversity and flourish.

Mahesh Chandrasekar, Director – Research & Advocacy, Dream A Dream

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