No textbooks, no homework
2 AMC-run schools have implemented an activity-based teaching method that enables kids to develop basic skills without depending on textbooks
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Two public schools in the city do not ask their std I and II students to bring any textbooks to the classroom or do any homework. What is even more odd is that the schools, located in Amraiwadi and Sabarmati, don’t even conduct exams. Despite such a liberal policy, their students are brighter than some children studying in private schools.
How? The schools have adopted an innovative technique known as activity-based learning, which enables children to gain knowledge and develop basic skills such as reading without depending on books and other conventional educational material.
The method has not only helped the schools, run by AMC, make learning a fun activity, but also drastically bring down the rate of absenteeism in the said classes.
A different approach
“Children are a lot more cheerful now and their concentration levels have improved. They don’t need to cram anything now,” a coordinator of AMC’s urban resource centre, Manoj Patel, said. “When we introduced this method last year, parents expressed doubts over its effectiveness. However, now they are very happy with their kids’ progress.”
Every day, the two schools in Amraiwadi and Sabarmati divide students of classes I and II into six groups. Each group is given educational toys and asked to take up a range of activities, including drawing. Teachers remain present in the classroom, but they do not dictate any lessons or ask children to open textbooks. They only support children’s efforts to learn new things, say a set of numbers or names of different types of birds, on their own.
Interestingly, an informal environment is created in the classroom. There are no benches or desks — students and teachers sit on the floor — and blackboards are rarely used.
As there are no exams, children show more interest in developing skills such reading, writing and performing basic calculations. Periodically, they assess their own performance. “Everything students do in the school, be it making drawings or doing craft work, is collected at the end of the day. All this material is returned to them after they clear class VII,” Patel said.
In Gujarat, 258 schools have implemented activity-based learning in classes I and II. Slowly, the method will be introduced in more classes. This year, AMC-run schools in 43 wards of the city will adopt it. The technique, a part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, was first introduced by Tamil Nadu. Later, seven states, including Gujarat, followed suit.
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Two public schools in the city do not ask their std I and II students to bring any textbooks to the classroom or do any homework. What is even more odd is that the schools, located in Amraiwadi and Sabarmati, don’t even conduct exams. Despite such a liberal policy, their students are brighter than some children studying in private schools.
How? The schools have adopted an innovative technique known as activity-based learning, which enables children to gain knowledge and develop basic skills such as reading without depending on books and other conventional educational material.
The method has not only helped the schools, run by AMC, make learning a fun activity, but also drastically bring down the rate of absenteeism in the said classes.
A different approach
“Children are a lot more cheerful now and their concentration levels have improved. They don’t need to cram anything now,” a coordinator of AMC’s urban resource centre, Manoj Patel, said. “When we introduced this method last year, parents expressed doubts over its effectiveness. However, now they are very happy with their kids’ progress.”
Every day, the two schools in Amraiwadi and Sabarmati divide students of classes I and II into six groups. Each group is given educational toys and asked to take up a range of activities, including drawing. Teachers remain present in the classroom, but they do not dictate any lessons or ask children to open textbooks. They only support children’s efforts to learn new things, say a set of numbers or names of different types of birds, on their own.
Interestingly, an informal environment is created in the classroom. There are no benches or desks — students and teachers sit on the floor — and blackboards are rarely used.
As there are no exams, children show more interest in developing skills such reading, writing and performing basic calculations. Periodically, they assess their own performance. “Everything students do in the school, be it making drawings or doing craft work, is collected at the end of the day. All this material is returned to them after they clear class VII,” Patel said.
In Gujarat, 258 schools have implemented activity-based learning in classes I and II. Slowly, the method will be introduced in more classes. This year, AMC-run schools in 43 wards of the city will adopt it. The technique, a part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, was first introduced by Tamil Nadu. Later, seven states, including Gujarat, followed suit.
