Learning fun,colourful classes in BMC schools……Shreya Bhandary
100 Municipal Institutions Chosen For Unicef-Funded Pilot Project In The City
100 Municipal Institutions Chosen For Unicef-Funded Pilot Project In The City
Imagine a classroom with no benches,books neatly stacked at one end of the room,lessons taught with the help of music and many other such fun activities.Well,the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is currently working on making the classroom a memorable experience.It has forged a partnership with Unicef for the same,coming up with the School Excellence Programme.
On Monday afternoon,Karin Hulshof,country director of Unicef was present at the MCGM headquarters in the city and an MoU was signed between the two entities.
MCGMs school system is one of Indias largest for urban children.It is significant both in its size and complexity.The programme aims at improving the quality of learning of the 4.25 lakh children in MCGM schools in Mumbai, said Ashish Kumar Singh,additional municipal commissioner.
Kaivalya Foundation,Rishi Valley Institute in Bangalore,Naandi Foundation,McKinsey,Teach For India and Akanksha are few of the names attached with the project.
It will be funded by Unicef which will infuse $1.2 million for the purpose.
This programme focuses on building capabilities within the system and the outside entities currently helping us with this project will later leave it to MCGM alone, added another official.
The process started with a group of municipal school teachers and headmasters who were trained at separate centres in a two-week programme.Teachers and headmasters from only Hindi,Marathi and Urdu medium have been chosen for the pilot batch.Next academic year,we will introduce this method in all mediums, added another official.
All the best practices from various school systems around the country were considered for this purpose.
McKinsey is helping MCGM in the overall project design and providing management support.
The method has been developed to enhance the current working system of the municipal schools in the city.
The extensive programme is therefore divided into five major and two other sub-categories (see box).
Starting with the infrastructure,MCGM has now started to recognise those schools with poor facilities and work on it.Over the years,we have talked about various topics related to education but so far,we have not addressed the processes in the classroom, said Singh.
Other things covered under the programme are teacher and headmaster training,identifying a proper activity based methodology (pedagogy),reducing administrations and paperwork for teachers and headmasters as well as systemising the NGO participation at the municipal school level.
The process will be such that NGOs could help MCGM with their expertise and add to the project by enhancing the quality of education.
Seven Steps
* Principals As CEOs
AGENCIES | Kaivalya Education Foundation,Teach for India & Aakansha
Heads of municipal schools will don the role of CEO and adopt professional administrative practices.Staff meetings will be preceded by a detailed agenda and followed by copious minutes.Principals will be trained in on-site development,like speaking to a less motivated teacher or handling conflict situations
AGENCIES | Kaivalya Education Foundation,Teach for India & Aakansha
Heads of municipal schools will don the role of CEO and adopt professional administrative practices.Staff meetings will be preceded by a detailed agenda and followed by copious minutes.Principals will be trained in on-site development,like speaking to a less motivated teacher or handling conflict situations
* New Approach To Teaching
AGENCIES | Naandi Foundation & Rishi Valley
Reciting poetry after your teacher,or reading passages from texts will be a thing of the past.BMC teachers have been taught what to discuss when kids are,for instance,learning how to add and subtract
AGENCIES | Naandi Foundation & Rishi Valley
Reciting poetry after your teacher,or reading passages from texts will be a thing of the past.BMC teachers have been taught what to discuss when kids are,for instance,learning how to add and subtract
* Toolkit On Teaching
AGENCIES | Rishi Valley & Naandi Foundation
A step-by-step guide of the things to do and avoid in a classroom,will ensure teaching is in the best method possible
AGENCIES | Rishi Valley & Naandi Foundation
A step-by-step guide of the things to do and avoid in a classroom,will ensure teaching is in the best method possible
* New Classroom
AGENCY | MCGM
Bright walls with puppets hanging from the ceiling and colourful charts is definitely not an image out of a BMC school.But now,a model classroom and a fund to fix schools that need urgent repairs is likely to change the looks of our public schools
AGENCY | MCGM
Bright walls with puppets hanging from the ceiling and colourful charts is definitely not an image out of a BMC school.But now,a model classroom and a fund to fix schools that need urgent repairs is likely to change the looks of our public schools
* Where We Stand
AGENCY | Educational Initiatives Pvt Ltd
To find how much each kid knows,assess where he/she needs help,about 1.4 lakh students of classes III & VI were given a test.Based on results,solutions will be designed
AGENCY | Educational Initiatives Pvt Ltd
To find how much each kid knows,assess where he/she needs help,about 1.4 lakh students of classes III & VI were given a test.Based on results,solutions will be designed
* Fixed Machinery
AGENCY | MCGM
A system is being introduced to ensure that NGO support and partnership is henceforth conducted in an organised manner
AGENCY | MCGM
A system is being introduced to ensure that NGO support and partnership is henceforth conducted in an organised manner
* Reducing Paperwork
AGENCY | Tata Consultancy Services
Ever wondered whats wrong with a bulky school register It takes up some good number of hours for teachers to write every childs name.Apart from marking the daily attendance,teachers and principals are expected to fill in details of classroom assessment tests,drop out rates,etc.All that will be simplified as an excel sheet will allow authorities to track students on a real-time basis– Earlier,we rarely paid attention to how much a child could grasp a topic.At the training centre we were taught to pay more attention to each child and realised we shouldnt compare them in class
Keshav Kumar Katkade | TEACHER,NEW SION MUNICIPAL HINDI MEDIUM SCHOOL
AGENCY | Tata Consultancy Services
Ever wondered whats wrong with a bulky school register It takes up some good number of hours for teachers to write every childs name.Apart from marking the daily attendance,teachers and principals are expected to fill in details of classroom assessment tests,drop out rates,etc.All that will be simplified as an excel sheet will allow authorities to track students on a real-time basis– Earlier,we rarely paid attention to how much a child could grasp a topic.At the training centre we were taught to pay more attention to each child and realised we shouldnt compare them in class
Keshav Kumar Katkade | TEACHER,NEW SION MUNICIPAL HINDI MEDIUM SCHOOL
– I didnt believe it till we attended the first session.This is very interesting and we are sure it is possible to implement
Meena Agarwal | TEACHER,VINOBA BHAVE NAGAR MUNICIPAL HINDI SCHOOL
Meena Agarwal | TEACHER,VINOBA BHAVE NAGAR MUNICIPAL HINDI SCHOOL
– As headmasters we were concerned only with working of the school.Now we realise our jobs carry more responsibility
Subhash Godke | HEADMASTER,JANABAI ROKDEMUNICIPAL SCHOOL
Subhash Godke | HEADMASTER,JANABAI ROKDEMUNICIPAL SCHOOL
– Our job doesnt just stop with teaching kids,but checking out how much they understood a topic.Explaining a subject is easier as the new method is based on a lot of activities
Mushtaque Zuber | TEACHER,MALWANI MHB URDU SCHOOL
Mushtaque Zuber | TEACHER,MALWANI MHB URDU SCHOOL