by anouradha bakshi | Sep 4, 2018 | Anou's Blog
The past few days have not been the best. A series of irritants on the personal level resulted in the mood declining and the blues setting in. Mercifully, though I do not go to the Project Why as often as I did or would like to, I am treated every day to a host of pictures of activities at different centres courtesy a Whatsapp group!
One picture was enough to lift the mood instantly. It was taken on Raksha Bandhan day where sisters celebrate brothers with two of our oldest and dearest students of our very special section: Shalini and Anurag.
The special section has always had the ability to perk me up and give me my instant FeelGood shot and just seeing the picture of these two lovely souls was enough to set off all the happy hormones and to take me on a magic ride down memory lane.
by anouradha bakshi | Sep 4, 2018 | Whats new
Centre for Social Innovation-Ramanujan college and Sri Ram Goburdhun Charitable Trust – Project WHY signed MOU for promoting after-school education support to slum children, empowering women as well as for mutual exchange of information.
by anouradha bakshi | Sep 4, 2018 | Uncategorized, Whats new
Project WHY centres – Delhi and Dehradun – celebrate the Indian festival of Janmashtami today. Children dress up and play act as lord Krishna.
by anouradha bakshi | Aug 28, 2018 | Anou's Blog
“Part of being a person is about helping others” wrote Regis Murayi. We at Project Why believe in this maxim and try and teach compassion to our children at every step. Today, our children are busy garnering funds for the victims of the Kerala floods. For many, losing everything in a calamity is something they or their loved ones have experienced. Many of the families of our children came to Delhi after the devastating floods in Bihar some years back. And recently the families of our Yamuna children lost all their standing crops when the fields got flooded after torrential rains.
It takes a calamity to bring out compassion and it is heartwarming to see that people across the country are reaching out to their brethren in Kerala. I only wish compassion transcended calamities.
In 2004, when southern states were hit by a devastating tsunami, the children of Project WHY raised money to buy one motorised fishing boat for a village in Tamil Nadu. The boat was aptly named Project Why and brought help and support to many families. This time too, we hope to raise funds to bring some succour to the flood victims.
Compassion and gratitude are values that should be taught in homes and schools. Sadly that is not the case. Moral Study was taken off the school curriculum. I wonder why. Moral science should be part of the curriculum. It will help the child become a better person. We forget most of what we are taught in schools, but moral science would remain with us for a lifetime.
by anouradha bakshi | Aug 21, 2018 | Anou's Blog
Way back in the summer of 2000 when we were still wondering what direction Project Why would take, I use to spend long hours in the Giri Nagar slums interacting with children and their parents, and the one request I got from one and all was: teach us English! No wonder then that our first programme was spoken English classes for children and the ladies!
A command of English seems to make all the difference and open many doors. It is as if India is divided in two classes: those that can speak English and those that cannot. The number of English Medium schools that have mushroomed everywhere are ample proof of that.
We have been teaching English to our children from day one, and many of our alumni today speak good English. It has not been an easy task as finding good English teachers has been a challenge. But we soldier on.
I was surprised to stumble upon an article entitled Majority of India’s private English-medium school students can’t read English. A survey covering 20 000 children across many States showed disappointing results: The survey found that an alarming 10.9%, 12.8%, and 10% of students in grades four, five, and six, respectively, fell short of even the lowest level of reading skills, that merely involve retrieving explicitly stated information.
Reading ability is one of the major factor to success in higher studies and careers, and the results of this survey does not augur well for Indian students. Students who performed better were those who read at home for pleasure but this is a habit that is slowly disappearing. Reading for pleasure is a vanishing act.
Learning outcomes are not only determined by school but by a host of socio-economic factors like parents’ educational levels, household incomes etc., cultural contexts, and identities. This is a challenge in a country as diverse as India, a challenge that policy makers need address. Our education system is due for a total overhaul. Band aid and patch work solutions will not suffice.
Our education system is one where rote learning has taken precedence over all else. The class XII results of this year are ample proof of this sad reality. How else could a student obtain a perfect score in subjects like English, History, Sociology etc! Unless we remedy to this urgently it is good all rounder students who will start falling off the net as admission to good colleges is solely based on marks!
There is something terribly wrong in our eduction system. Is anyone listening.
