CONTENTMentor, January 2016 Volume 9, Issue 8

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Sultan Speaks...

Early LiteracyChildren develop much of their capacity for learning in the first three years of life…

The Invisible CurriculumChildren learn values by seeing adults around them...

Vertical GroupingI know, I wonder, I predict is my method...

Educating children against all odds Recognition ignites the fire in teachers who are not looked-up by our society today...

IPSC Report Report Galleria...

Hole-in-the-Wall Learning stations and academic performance among rural children in India...

Mentor Conclave Thoughts and Feedback

Addressing developmental stagesPropagating age appropriate learning in children in the pre-school...

On being a good citizenProviding civic education to children in schools...

Cover StoryTeachers are in the unenviable position of being stuck between a rock and a hard space...

Post ScriptumForever indebted to you…

PedagogySchool

LeadershipMentor

ThoughtsSchool

GovernanceInnovation

Publisher and OwnerMr. Syed Sultan Ahmed

Editor-in-ChiefDr. Vidya Shetty

Content TeamMs. Kalpa KartikMs. Vibha Tirumalai

Designed byMr. Harpreet Singh

ProductionMr. Praveen U.M.Mr. Sathish C.Ms. Guna V.

Printed byMr. Manoj

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EDUCATORSIN THE SPOTLIGHT

KiranPai

Premkumar David

RituDangwal

SajeethaBarathi

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Importance of Civic Awareness

Urban planning has long been seen a rescuer of India’s—and indeed the world’s—increasing population problem. Mainstream urban planning however is largely absent, debilitated or goes unnoticed. Having said that, we need urban planners working with active citizens who care about the city they live in.

By virtue of its format, the Civic Project under the Bala Janaagraha program develops in school children a deep sense of awareness and responsibility towards the community. At some levels, the seeds of being a better citizen are sown here. One might argue that at the age of thirteen this might be premature. But there is hope. There is also the rationale that by actively doing a project that concerns their home and city directly, students will grow to be irreplaceable agents

who achieve sustainable development in the future.

“By including participants who belong to Std. VIII, Bala Janaagraha is doing a great job at grassroot level”, notes Principal Vijaya Desai of Somalwar Nikalas High School, Nagpur. She is among a growing number of principals and schools who take pride and enthusiastically motivate their student to take part in a unique civic fest organized by Bal Janaagraha across India.

Learning in the trenches

The Bala Janaagraha program is an interactive child-focused pedagogy with three core components: a structured module of classroom sessions, a hands-on practical civic project and a civic fest which is an exciting platform for students to showcase their civic projects

Part of this is the awareness program: I-Change-My-City. As a curriculum it is poles apart from typical civic lessons taught in schools. The curriculum aims at explaining ‘quality of life’ in the context of local governance, its key aspects and their thoughts and opinions on these. Along with it, the curriculum works in explaining what ‘active citizenship’ means to children with special focus on imbibing ‘civic sense’.

SCHOOL GOVERNANCE

ON BEING A GOOD CITIZENCivics remains an important part of school curriculum in India and yet active citizenship in India is far removed from reality. Urban development, planning and infrastructure maintenance by the public only occurs in scattered parts of the country. Often, being a good citizen in India means having copious amounts of endurance level. It is then that we must look at children to possess civic virtue and foster

in them the desire to do community service. Informed and involved citizenry means children are aware and actively conscious of their local governing environment. In this context, the non-profit Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD) under its Bala Janaagraha program provides civic education to school children. Class VIII students are encouraged to be active citizens by engaging them in a live project that aims at teaching active citizenship and becoming informed citizens, writes Chaitanya Deshpande from EduMedia India Pvt. Ltd. to MENTOR.

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Hence, school children don’t just learn by rote the civic administration structure, they are encouraged to influence it. The theme this year focused on “understanding urban planning and design through our roads”.

Being a hands-on program, the students also learn to identify key actors of local governance and their roles. They learn to relate quality of life to the functioning of these actors and how they can be made more responsive by practicing active citizenship. At its core, however, lies the idea that school students also must understand how to source data to make evidence-based decisions on every day civic issues and how to work together—and with local governance—to solve these. Via the curriculum, the students are instigated to be catalysts of change. As a teaching methodology, the policy of the program is to foster creative thinking, inspire analytical thinking and create a problem-solving approach in the young citizens of India.

In itself, the project is simple: group of children choose one road near their schools or home, carry out a survey, analyze the road and understand its positives and negatives and then find solutions to its problems. This road is given a Quality Score by the students. They measure the road, its width and length, interview the residents, businesses, experts, officials—everyone who uses the road. The concept of giving a Quality Score is fascinating. As citizens, the students while doing the project learn to prescribe

accountability to persistent infrastructural problems on the road selected. Students then present their findings via a written report, a presentation that involves skits, slogan-making, and even singing to showcase and highlight their research in a city-wide competition. Each team also writes to (or meets) local ward members and corporator to get their feedback and response on action being taken. Ultimately, the project is about children being able to measure the quality of life around the street or road. This is something that children can learn at an early age and extend to the town, state and even the country.

Activating Public Participation

The Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD) that runs the Bala Janaagraha program has the objective to improve the quality of life of urban citizens with Urban Governance as the focus. JCCD works with citizens by catalyzing active citizenship in neighborhoods, local administration and governments to institute reforms in city-systems. As a hyper-local social change network, Janaagraha has created a community of citizens keen on solving civic issues in a city.

With Janaagraha, fixing civic issues is simple. All one has to do is post a complaint on the site (www.ichangemycity.com). This complaint is then up-voted based on its seriousness or priority by an active community of 3,16,677 users and is then passed on to the local civic

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administration and elected representatives who ensure that the complaint is resolved. In Bengaluru, this initiative has been a work of inspiration and resulted in successful resolution of some stubborn civic problems in the city of Bengaluru like potholes on busy Bommanahalli Junction, excessive garbage accumulation in Bhadrappa Layout, and even intermittent water supply in Shanthi Nagar area to name a few. To date, the I-Change-My-City initiative has 94,737 complaints posted and 36,627 successfully resolved complaints.

But this initiative is making a greater impact in schools. The innovative ‘I-Change-My-City’ curriculum and the road project encourage children to solve civic problems around them and thus impact society positively. Specially designed textbooks in six Indian languages (Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi) are made available for the program. The impact numbers of the program are large: 25 cities, 531 schools and 40,000 students. As a civic-oriented project, the students understand the value of urban planning and various factors which form the basic focus of city plans.

Change is coming

The program is a success if numbers are to go by. This year, close to 25,000 students from 266 schools across India have participated in the ‘I-Change-My-City’ program. In Bengaluru alone, the number is 9,000 students from a 100 private, public and government schools.

There is more than just numbers. Students have responded to this hands-on method of learning by working on projects tougher than expected. A case in the point is the brilliant example of the ten-member student group from The East-West School in Bengaluru. Early in the year, they wanted to find a solution to the poor state of Susheela Road near their school in Basavanagudi area of South Bengaluru. Here they zeroed in on piezoelectric footpaths: a foot step on the Piezo tile that can generate 0.05 watts of electricity, which can then be used to light up street lamps on the stretch. Subsequently, the team contacted a UK-based company that manufactures the tiles that convert

mechanical energy into electricity. The plan is to lay tiles and generate electricity to light street lamps along the 556-metre long road. The group also received an anonymous donation of Rs. 200,000.

Yet another example is of a group of students who ensured that the local corporator made arrangements for a CCTV system to be fitted near a garbage bin. The idea was to dissuade people from throwing the waste while riding two-wheelers or walking. Another example is of the students of Bhavan’s BVM Srikrishna Nagar (Nagpur) who made a report on the condition of the Central Avenue road in Nagpur and envisioned a system wherein speed breakers could be converted into a source of power generation, triggered by pressure of vehicles passing over it!

These are just but few stories of innovative and excellent citizenship by the students inspired by the Bala Janaagraha program. The Civic Fest enters its zonal stage where city winners will compete at Zonal Finals to qualify for the national finals. Slated to be held in February next year, the finals in Bengaluru will see the top four school teams present their innovative projects for the grand prize.

There is certainly a glimmer of hope where we can see active citizenship become a norm. Amidst dismal institutional failings, this program seems to bring strength to the idea of citizenship. What needs to be kept in mind is that such transformational impact is not a product of spontaneity but constructive planning.

Note: You too can be a part of the civic awareness campaign by downloading the mobile app “I Change My City” Google Play and the App Store of iOS or visiting the site: www.ichangemycity.com

chaitanya@edumedia.in

As a teaching methodology, the policy of the program is to foster creative

thinking, inspire analytical thinking and create a problem-solving approach in

the young citizens of India