Keeping in mind Divya Chaya Trust's focus on children and women, in 1999 a new centre was opened in Nizamuddin Basti. The primary objective was to provide non-formal pre-primary education to children of economically underprivileged residents of the Basti. About 40 pre-school children in the age group of two and a half to five years attend school in the morning and are exposed through story telling, rhymes and educational toys to the basics of Hindi, English and Maths. The emphasis is on all round development and good values through Play-Way teaching methods. Young volunteers come to us through Youthreach, who then workshop and interact with the children to widen their horizon.
The early morning and the evenings are used to provide coaching classes for poor children of all grades. Students of Class X, Class XI and XII are given specialised help in subjects where they cannot get assistance from their mostly illiterate parents and which often holds them back from clearing their final exams. Younger children are given help in coping with their homework and syllabus. We are feeling the pressure of accommodating more and more children in a limited space as many more parents in the locality aspire to send their children to the Shiksha Kendra.
Divya Chaya Shiksha Kendra
Karam Bhoomi, Rajarhat
Divya Chaya Trust has instituted a new project – Divya Chaya Shiksha Kendra at Karam Bhoomi Rajarhat on November 2006. The Shiksha Kendra started with 30 pre-school (3 to 5 years) students and now expanded to 50 students. It is a stepping-stone for the first generation learners and objective of this school is:
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To impart awareness of education
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To mainstream them in regular formal school
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To combat dropouts in school
The students are divided into two/three groups according to their age.
Activities of the children at Shiksha Kendra:
Students of this Shiksha Kendra learn through play way method. Coloring, rhymes with action, music, material work and small conversation are the basic activities of this school.
Writing introduced for the elder children (4 ˝ yrs 5 years). Rhymes & music with action help the students to develop their hearing capacity and sense of rhythm & beats. Rhymes with action help them to be free at school. Different kinds of educational toys (materials) are displayed on the table during school hours as the children can watch and choose their favorite ones. It helps the teachers to Asses the child. To touch the materials they also learn to differentiate the rough & smooth, big & small; light & heavy and hard & soft things. Through the chart they learn to identify vegetables, counting numbers, identifying color, family relations, festivals, flowers, birds etc. They play with the materials in-group.
Children of 4 ˝ yrs & above are selected to learn writing. They write the following lines first. When they feel free to write the following lines teacher guide them to write the alphabets and numerals.
Health check up organizes on each quarter to identify their health problems. After identifying the problems an interactive session carried out with the parents.
We organize few events such as educative sports, celebrating local festivals, New Years Eve party and School Foundation Day. Objective to celebrate these programs is to give the students an exposure to the outside people, to help them have funs together, to aware them about festivals etc. It also helps them to work together. The claps they receive from the audience boost their energy and inspire them from within.
The project is funded by “South Suprayas” – a philanthropic organization founded in the year 1989, by the ex-students of Narendrapur Ramkrishna Mission (Madhyamik 1979 & HS 1981) along with some like-minded individuals.
