SCHOOL REPORTS | NAGARJUNA VIDYANIKETAN

13. 07. 2010

Nagarjuna Vidyaniketan School, Yelahanka, is a regular CBSE public school where the bulk of the student population comes from middle class families. It’s a large school where even the 2 years of kindergarten are split into 3 sections with 20-24 students in each class. I happened to visit during the kindergarten and pre-school’s Colour Week so there was a variety of activities taking place.

“Since these kids are so young, the class teacher’s stay with them the whole day so that they become comfortable in class. Often we take up themes and incorporate different types of learning through that theme. Last week it was Jungle Safari, this week the theme is Colours. Everything is planned well in advance and all the class teachers coordinate while doing activities.”

“We try and use visual teaching tools like flash cards and charts to teach math concepts like comparison, shapes, etc. Because of their backgrounds, most of these kids don’t know a word of English when they start school, so communication is a major problem. We teach them a lot of rhymes and songs with actions so they get used to the language and it also helps build their vocabulary. We also try and incorporate a lot of physical activities to help improve their motor skills.“

Gougush | Kindergarten Coordinator & Class Teacher of LKG-B.

“For their lunch parents have been strictly told to not send junk food or Maggi. We even taught the kids why Maggi is not healthy for them to make then understand why their parents have been asked not to give it for lunch. I think they’ve both understood as I see healthy lunch boxes now days.”

“I feel we are catering to a very difficult class of society. A lot of the parents don’t want to participate in their child’s education and expect the school to teach everything. I wonder how many of them play with their kids after they come back from school, or ask what they did during the day. Some of them don’t even sign their child’s daily diaries or come for PTA meetings. Since most people in cities live in nuclear families children don’t even have grandparents at home to interact with them and teach them things outside of school, which is very important at this age.

I know these kids have a lot of potential, they just need the right exposure and we really try and give them that in school. That’s why I sometimes feel they should stay in school for longer as they learn and experience a lot more here.”

Insights

• Though there was a language barrier between me and most of the children they were curious and friendly once they got used to me sitting in class with them. Familiarity helps these children open up and interact.

• These children have difficulty talking to each other because of their different mother tongues, but they still get along which makes them open-minded.