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PARVARISH - THE MUSEUM SCHOOL wins UNESCO ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION INNOVATION AWARD 2016
THE MUSEUM SCHOOL among 100 GLOBAL INSPIRING INNOVATIONS that are changing the face of K12 education today
THE MUSEUM SCHOOL among 100 GLOBAL INSPIRING INNOVATIONS that are changing the face of K12 education today
Providing Quality Education to Underprivileged Children through Museums
There is one word in English that has always raised eyebrows, opened mouths, and has sparked off debates among both the educated and the un-educated class in the country. The word is “EDUCATION”. Whether people understand the true meaning of the word or not, they have always had their own viewpoints about its implementation in the country. An utterance of the word itself makes people start reflecting on the past and dreaming the future, both at the same time.Today’s education system has become a rote-learning manufactory designed for grinding out uniform results without any understanding and popping out degrees and certificates like popcorn. A mouthful does not get you anything, a handful is not sufficient. To top it all, it is the exorbitant costs that make higher education unaffordable for the vulnerable poor.
Education is considered the foundation of the country and every individual has a fundamental right to quality education. Yet there is a huge disparity in the quality of education, between a rich child and a poor child in India. In the same city, a rich child gets the best infrastructure as School, the best Teaching Aids, and many Teachers for 1 class, whereas a poor child gets max 5 rooms as infrastructure, No Teaching aids, and 1 Teacher for many classes. If there is a disparity in the foundation itself, how can we dare to dream of equality in our country?
Having realised this, Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security (OASiS) - A Social Innovations Lab in Madhya Pradesh, embarked upon a mission to remove this disparity in quality of education in urban areas. While our search began by identifying existing innovative approaches and studying them, we soon realised that the solution existed in not replicating, but converging them.We found that cities that have good number of out-of-school slum children, also have number of Museums. Each Museum is subject focussed. for e.g: for Science there is a Science Museum, for History there is an Archaeology Museum, for Environmental Science there is a Natural History Museum, and so on. Each Museum has exhibits for all ages, from a 5 year old to a 70 year old. If one explains the exhibits, their functioning and concept properly, even a child who does not know how to read or write, can understand them conceptually.
We thus collaborated with the Museums to make them the school, and mapped the exhibits with the curriculum of different classes. The next challenge was to get the right Teachers. We found that B.Ed courses (that produced Teachers), had a mandatory component of Practice Teaching hours, to be completed in a working school. But since schools have a tight time-table, B.Ed students are considered more of a disturbance, and most Practice Teaching is done on papers and becomes a mere formality. Considering this as an opportunity, we collaborated with B.Ed Colleges, and offered our platform for Practice Teaching.
We thus had a model THE MUSEUM SCHOOL, that addressed all components of quality education: Infrastructure, Teaching Aids, Qualified and trained teachers. The Museum School provided the best infrastructure no school can create (the Museums), the best teaching aids no school can ever make (the Museum Exhibits) and the best teachers (B.Ed students giving their best performance to secure high grades in practice teaching), all at no cost.
The model follows a curriculum designed to provide wholistic education starting from behavioural changes to literacy, to academics, physical and adolescence education, and finally ending with vocational skills and entrepreneurship development. While the children are mainstreamed through Regular Schools and the National Open School for examination and certification, the objective is to make them self-employable, confident, responsible and independent in society.
The Museum School (also called PARVARISH), takes a fixed number of non-school-going children from slums every year, and grooms them so that they can join a mainstream school. After joining the school, Parvarish acts as their after-school support, teaching them all that they cannot get in their school or afford to buy. Since 2005, Parvarish has groomed over 2500 children, some of whom are now pursuing Engineering, Science and Commerce undergraduate courses in Universities, some are pursuing performing arts education like Bharat Natyam and Acting, some have started their own small livelihoods, and some are exploring various areas of their choice. The transformation of children from unkept, untidy, illiterate, bad mouthed vagabonds, to polished, decent, confident, educated children, has been like a dream come true. Some passing out children are joining back the school as regular Teachers.
Parvarish - The Museum School has also recruited educated girls from slums as part-time literacy teachers and collaborated with other NGOs to train them on literacy teaching. Since these teachers come from the same community as the children, the community feels comfortable and secure to send their children with them. These girls also feel empowered and elated as a Teacher in their community.
Started as a small experiment by few people, supported by Dorabji Tata Trust, The Museum School has grown into a People’s Project. Concerned citizens now come forward to sponsor a child each, thus helping the children groom themselves on all aspects. Some philanthropic groups take responsibility of some expenditure areas, so that the school can be sustained easily.
The Museum School has been running successfully in Bhopal, MP, India since September 2005 in collaboration with 5 Museums: Regional Science Centre, National Museum of Mankind, Regional Museum of Natural History, State Archaeology Museum and State Tribal Museum. 3 Museums in Mumbai: Prince of Wales Museum, Nehru Science Centre and Maharashtra Nature Park; 5 Museums in Delhi: National Science Centre, National Museum of Natural History, National Crafts Museum, National Rail Museum and Shankar’s International Doll Museum; 3 Museums in Chennai: Birla Planetarium, Government Museum Egmore and Dakshinachitra; and 1 Museum in Bangalore: Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum have already expressed their interest and support for the project.
Through this model we are trying to show the Government, that the urban poor can also be given the same quality of education as that for the urban rich, by just making optimum and effective utilisation of its existing infrastructure (The Museums and B.Ed colleges), at practically the same or maybe lesser cost, that the Government today incurs on urban education.
Let us bring Quality in 'Education for All', by giving the Museums their true place in it.
OASiS is looking for suitable partners who would like to replicate ‘The Museum School’ in their cities, for poor urban slum children.
Education is considered the foundation of the country and every individual has a fundamental right to quality education. Yet there is a huge disparity in the quality of education, between a rich child and a poor child in India. In the same city, a rich child gets the best infrastructure as School, the best Teaching Aids, and many Teachers for 1 class, whereas a poor child gets max 5 rooms as infrastructure, No Teaching aids, and 1 Teacher for many classes. If there is a disparity in the foundation itself, how can we dare to dream of equality in our country?
Having realised this, Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security (OASiS) - A Social Innovations Lab in Madhya Pradesh, embarked upon a mission to remove this disparity in quality of education in urban areas. While our search began by identifying existing innovative approaches and studying them, we soon realised that the solution existed in not replicating, but converging them.We found that cities that have good number of out-of-school slum children, also have number of Museums. Each Museum is subject focussed. for e.g: for Science there is a Science Museum, for History there is an Archaeology Museum, for Environmental Science there is a Natural History Museum, and so on. Each Museum has exhibits for all ages, from a 5 year old to a 70 year old. If one explains the exhibits, their functioning and concept properly, even a child who does not know how to read or write, can understand them conceptually.
We thus collaborated with the Museums to make them the school, and mapped the exhibits with the curriculum of different classes. The next challenge was to get the right Teachers. We found that B.Ed courses (that produced Teachers), had a mandatory component of Practice Teaching hours, to be completed in a working school. But since schools have a tight time-table, B.Ed students are considered more of a disturbance, and most Practice Teaching is done on papers and becomes a mere formality. Considering this as an opportunity, we collaborated with B.Ed Colleges, and offered our platform for Practice Teaching.
We thus had a model THE MUSEUM SCHOOL, that addressed all components of quality education: Infrastructure, Teaching Aids, Qualified and trained teachers. The Museum School provided the best infrastructure no school can create (the Museums), the best teaching aids no school can ever make (the Museum Exhibits) and the best teachers (B.Ed students giving their best performance to secure high grades in practice teaching), all at no cost.
The model follows a curriculum designed to provide wholistic education starting from behavioural changes to literacy, to academics, physical and adolescence education, and finally ending with vocational skills and entrepreneurship development. While the children are mainstreamed through Regular Schools and the National Open School for examination and certification, the objective is to make them self-employable, confident, responsible and independent in society.
The Museum School (also called PARVARISH), takes a fixed number of non-school-going children from slums every year, and grooms them so that they can join a mainstream school. After joining the school, Parvarish acts as their after-school support, teaching them all that they cannot get in their school or afford to buy. Since 2005, Parvarish has groomed over 2500 children, some of whom are now pursuing Engineering, Science and Commerce undergraduate courses in Universities, some are pursuing performing arts education like Bharat Natyam and Acting, some have started their own small livelihoods, and some are exploring various areas of their choice. The transformation of children from unkept, untidy, illiterate, bad mouthed vagabonds, to polished, decent, confident, educated children, has been like a dream come true. Some passing out children are joining back the school as regular Teachers.
Parvarish - The Museum School has also recruited educated girls from slums as part-time literacy teachers and collaborated with other NGOs to train them on literacy teaching. Since these teachers come from the same community as the children, the community feels comfortable and secure to send their children with them. These girls also feel empowered and elated as a Teacher in their community.
Started as a small experiment by few people, supported by Dorabji Tata Trust, The Museum School has grown into a People’s Project. Concerned citizens now come forward to sponsor a child each, thus helping the children groom themselves on all aspects. Some philanthropic groups take responsibility of some expenditure areas, so that the school can be sustained easily.
The Museum School has been running successfully in Bhopal, MP, India since September 2005 in collaboration with 5 Museums: Regional Science Centre, National Museum of Mankind, Regional Museum of Natural History, State Archaeology Museum and State Tribal Museum. 3 Museums in Mumbai: Prince of Wales Museum, Nehru Science Centre and Maharashtra Nature Park; 5 Museums in Delhi: National Science Centre, National Museum of Natural History, National Crafts Museum, National Rail Museum and Shankar’s International Doll Museum; 3 Museums in Chennai: Birla Planetarium, Government Museum Egmore and Dakshinachitra; and 1 Museum in Bangalore: Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum have already expressed their interest and support for the project.
Through this model we are trying to show the Government, that the urban poor can also be given the same quality of education as that for the urban rich, by just making optimum and effective utilisation of its existing infrastructure (The Museums and B.Ed colleges), at practically the same or maybe lesser cost, that the Government today incurs on urban education.
Let us bring Quality in 'Education for All', by giving the Museums their true place in it.
OASiS is looking for suitable partners who would like to replicate ‘The Museum School’ in their cities, for poor urban slum children.
