Parvarish - A Museum School

Urban slum children who have never been to / or have run away from school, jump around with joy in the environs of knowledge and learning.
Using experiments and science models as toys, swinging in the rain among trees, using colours of leaves and flowers to paint the world, writing on the slate of sand, playing with pebbles to learn mathematics, dropping them into water to understand how sound travels, and playing treasure hunt in tribal habitats to understand culture and architecture, are the many ways of learning, the children enjoy.
That is Parvarish – The Museum School.

Getting started
Watching tiny feet bruised by glass pieces, walking bare on hot tar roads, carrying back full of garbage, with hardly a meal in their sunken bellies and forced to snort local drugs, was a pathetic site in rag pickers colonies.
These were the children of a lesser God, born to suffer the wrath of the privileged, and turn into law breakers to settle scores later. Neither the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyans, nor the mid day meals could divert them from their regular grind and the dark future.
Taking it up as a challenge, Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security (OASiS) steered its focus to find an alternate path to mainstream these children with society, and get them their right to a decent living.
The search took OASiS to Shantiniketan (Guru Rabindranath Tagore’s dream), International Centre of Education, Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry and a few other non-formal education models.
Combining their best practices, and designing a curriculum that could enable complete transformation of the child, OASiS collaborated with 3 Museums of Bhopal to create a new environment of learning and development for the children.
Based on the belief that ‘Nature is the Best Teacher’, and ‘Exposure is the Best Learning’, PARVARISH – The Museum School was conceived and designed by OASiS with the collaborating Museums .
With blessings of great academicians, teachers and learned people, Project PARVARISH started on September 5, 2005 in Bhopal.

The Initial Days
As we dodged filth and garbage to make way to their homes and register children aged 5-10 years for our project, we faced a lot of abuse from their drunken fathers, who thought we were out there to deprive them of their child’s earnings.
The strength of 50 on the first day might have been only a picnic for the children, as the numbers soon dwindled to 20.
But as the teachers cared for each child, cleaning them, combing them and showing them their real self, the children started showing remarkable changes in their appearance, cleanliness and behaviour. The sudden exposure to a strange and knowledge filled environment, the warm company of well groomed people, and the new world of alphabets and numbers, were enough to influence a change in personality of the children.
As the children started taking back the learning to their families, the abuses changed into appreciation and the numbers started swelling.
As word spread, non-school going children from nearby slums started ogling the school bus on the surreal road to a bright future.
Starting from 20 children from 1 slum, the project reached 70 children from 3 slums in its journey of 18 months.

A Day at Parvarish - The Museum School
A Typical Day in Project Parvarish starts with the Teacher Volunteers fanning out to their allocated slums at 2 PM to collect the children. This gives the teachers an opportunity to meet their families and enquire their well-being.
The children take a short walk with the teacher to the bus stop, and on the way describe their jaunts in the morning at home or at work.
The bus is filled with greetings and giggles as it picks up children from 3 slums on the way and glides through traffic and scenic landscapes.
At the scheduled Museum, the children fall in line, disciplined and well mannered for the prayer song. Following that, the children separate into groups (by age) and led by their respective teachers to different spots.
The teachers conduct their sessions as planned using objects from nature to teach the children through games. The session is followed by a group meal, and then its time to roll on the grass & play.
The return trip in the bus is known to every passing commuter, as it resonates with songs sung by the children.
Then its time to go back home and share the learning they had today.

Milestones

1. In 18 months, the children have learnt:
2. To read simple text and sentences.
3. Basic mathematical operations
4. All about the 5 senses and anatomy of the body.
5. Basics of Science, environment, evolution and habitat.
6. Terracotta and clay modeling. In their words “A new way to play with mud”.
7. Handicrafts, Paper crafts, Card making

Contact:

Pradeep Ghosh (Ashoka Fellow)
President - OASiS

Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security
Address: 158, Sector - 1, Shakti Nagar, Bhopal - 462 024, MP, India
Tel: +91 (755) 4274407 Mobile: (+91) 98932 74407
Email: oasisorg@airtelbroadband.in , oasisorg@connect.to
Pers: ghosh.pradeep@gmail.com , ghoshpg@yahoo.com
Web: http://connect.to/oasisorg