Event Partner
REPORT Magic Bus India Foundation
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The Maidan Summit 2016 was held in Mumbai on the 13th and 14th of December in the University of Mumbai Campus in Kalina and the theme for the summit this year was “Converging Education and Livelihood Spaces Through Scalable Innovations�. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was the academic partner, The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) was the skill development partner for the event and Department of Physical Education, University of Mumbai cohosted the summit with Magic Bus. The main purpose of the summit was to create a platform for sharing best practices and learning to help address challenges and bridge the gap between education and livelihood using sports as a medium. The two-day summit was successful in doing this and saw active participation from more than 90 organizations across the country and over 230 individuals who attended it. Over the course of all the sessions and panel discussions, different practitioners and organizations working in the field of development were able to come together, network, and discuss how they could collaborate in order to provide better opportunities to children and youth from underprivileged backgrounds to become socially and economically empowered. Day 1 of the Summit began with the registration of all participants in the Summit and was followed by the Inaugural Session. Inaugural Session: Investing Early in People for a Sustainable Livelihood
The Maidan Summit 2016 began with the Inaugural Session where Ms. Havovi, HoD, Research & Development, Programme Development at Magic Bus India Foundation. Magic Bus, introduced the speakers and set the tone for the session by highlighting some of the key issues India faces with regard to the youth and their employment. While India enjoys the advantage of a young population, the important question that was raised was that of whether the youth are employable. Ms. Havovi pointed out that the transition from education to livelihood is an important area of focus and it is not possible for Supported by
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individuals and organizations to take on the challenge of fighting this problem all by themselves. Hence, it is important to bring together all the stakeholders involved and give them a common platform to address issues, raise concerns and plan towards a common goal; and this is exactly the kind of platform that the Maidan Summit provides. With this, the panel for the Inaugural session was called on stage to light the lamp and formally inaugurate the Maidan Summit 2016. This was followed by an address by each of the speakers. Mathew Spacie – Founder, Magic Bus India Foundation Mr. Spacie started his address by reiterating that the Maidan Summit provides an agnostic platform for people to share ideas and validate what they all do. He pointed out that using sports as such a platform was still at a nascent stage in India and remembered how he had many difficult conversations with funders while trying to articulate how sports can be used to change lives. He quoted data from The Economist to explain how over the next 10 to 15 years there are likely to be about 43 million Indians who would be either unemployed or underemployed. The problem is that though India has a huge proportion of the population in the working age, most of them don’t possess the skills that would make them employable. He again explained that while 98% children in India lie within 2kms of a primary school, 57% of them won’t reach 8th standard and almost 90% won’t finish school. At the same time, statistics have shown that for every year an individual remains in an academic institute his/her salary goes up by 20%. Given these numbers, it is important for all of us to think about how to rectify this situation and how to invest in building sustainable livelihoods for people. Prof. P.K.Shahjahan – Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Community Organization and Development Practice, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Prof. Shahjahan, being an academic, emphasized the importance of sport, not just as a tool to mobilize the youth, but also to make them a part of the development discourse. He also mentioned that the Maidan Summit revolved around two important themes – education and livelihood spaces, and scalable innovations; and spoke about how both of these need to come together to create sustainable livelihoods for the youth. Prof. Shahjahan also noted that in a country like India where poverty and malnutrition are so pervasive,
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education often takes a backseat in the minds of people. However, a good education can form the means of emancipation for the youth who are poor and unemployed. He also spoke about how a lot of attention is given to taking the youth out of crime and deradicalising them, but not enough attention is given to engaging the youth in productive activities and civic engagement. He concluded by stating that his vision was to see the youth as drivers of social change and development. Professor Vasanthi Kadhivaran – HoD, Department of Physical Education, University of Mumbai Prof. Vasanthi started her address by giving a brief overview of the University of Mumbai in general and the Department of Physical Education in particular. She stated that the department was established in 2005 and provides courses in Physical Education at the undergraduate, postgraduate and research levels. She noted with sorrow that sports are not given much importance in India and spoke about how Physical Education is not treated at par with other subjects. She also emphasized that sports as a medium of development is vital in shaping the youth of India.
Mr. Bhaskar Som – FICCI Representative Mr. Bhaskar Som gave the audience the industry perspective on skilling and job creation for the youth. In his insightful address, he highlighted that India and China are once again at the centre of economic activity in the world. Mr. Som also reiterated the problem that a large number of the youth looking for jobs today are not employable and hence the government has set up the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to address this issue. However, he also noted that the trends in the job market are constantly changing with the changing needs of our society. He predicted that in the near future, there will be many job opportunities in the hospitality sector, dentistry, physical training, nannies, etc. He thus stressed on the importance of vocational training for the youth and pointed out that FICCI has already begun setting up centres for skill development in key sectors.
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Ms. Deepa Krishnan – Entrepreneur, Educator, Social Worker Ms. Deepa Krishnan narrated her journey from the corporate world to the world of social work. After spending 18 years in the domain of financial services, she set up a travel company where children take the lead and give city tours to foreign tourists. She identified three main skills that are required for better livelihood options to open up for the youth, viz. spoken English, an academic degree and computer/digital literacy, and it is these skills that she provides to the students she recruits for her travel company. Initially started in Mumbai, the company now runs these tours in 25 cities and she only takes in students who are pursuing regular college as well. Ms. Deepa spoke about how the active participation of students as leaders and as people who have control in their work brought a lot of confidence to them and also built their leadership skills. She also runs a mentorship program called Abhyudaya in S.P. Jain College with a group of 230 MBA students. Each MBA student is paired with a student from an underprivileged background as a mentor. Since the MBA students are the future leaders of tomorrow, she stated that it was important that they understand how the “base of the pyramid” functions so that they are more empathetic and sensitive towards them. Rahul Bose – Indian film actor, Director, Screenwriter, Social Activist and Rugby Player Rahul Bose started his address by revealing that he and Mathew Spacie, the founder of Magic Bus, actually played Rugby together in the national team for India and shared a common love for sport and its vast potential to change lives. He went on to highlight some of the major lessons that sports can teach us and peppered his address with personal anecdotes in his very own witty and inimitable style. Among other things, he spoke about how sports and Rugby in particular, taught him that one can never do anything completely on one’s own in life, how it is important to do one’s best and leave it at that because winning and losing are not in our control, how it is essential to not be afraid to do things alone if it is good for the entire team, how to channel fear and anger productively, how to keep a cool head even as the heart gets hot, how superstitions never work, and how discipline
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can lead to something beautiful. He stressed that sports should not be treated as a dessert served after the main course, but should be an integral part of education especially because it helps to increase concentration, makes a person work harder and sleep better, and even helps to deal with stress better. He also spoke about the growing number of jobs available in the sports industry as coaches, trainers, physiotherapists, etc. and said that hence, it was all the more important to bring sports into the realm of mainstream education. ___ The inaugural session ended with Ms. Havovi summing up the main points made by each of the speakers and having touched upon many of the major issues concerning sport, education and livelihood, the session left the audience with a lot to consider and think about as they moved through the rest of the Summit. There was a short tea break after this, along with informal interactions of participants at the various kiosks that were set up. This was followed by the Innovation Demonstrations.
Kiosks – Maitri: Interaction space with other participating organizations at their stalls/ kiosks. Also during the course of the day kiosks were setup where individuals/organizations were showcasing their work, achievements and best practices using posters, product displays, demonstrations and sales.
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Innovative Demonstrations 1. Developing Skills through Arts (Looking Glass) Facilitator: Anuraag Dhoundeyal, Co-founder, Looking Glass The Looking Glass builds Life Skills through Arts; namely, Music, Dance, Theatre and Visual Arts. In an age where children are left bereft of culture education and lack platforms for expression, TLG works with building communication skills, problem solving skills, leadership skills, negotiation skills and other such everyday skills that help the kids to learn effective coping mechanisms; in a fun and hands-on way through arts. The primary focus is on self-reflection through a process-driven approach.
2. Story Telling Works (Ever After) Facilitator: Deeptha Vivekanand, Founder, Ever After Learning and Development The Ever After (Learning through stories) sensitized participants to the power of storytelling and how it can be used as an effective tool to connect with audiences, regardless of age, culture, nationality and gender. Story examples, exercises and activities will gave participants practical tips on how to implement the approach within their area of work.
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3. Application Based Learning(CLIx) Facilitator: Ajay Singh
CLIx improves and strengthens student learning and skills in areas considered critical for access to further educational and employment opportunities. It supplements the high school curriculum in key areas, namely Digital Literacy, Communicative English, Mathematics, the Science subjects of Biology, Chemistry and Physics, and Value Education. The workshop demonstrated some of the above mentioned modules in an interactive space.
4. Integrating Sports in Academics (Hockey Village India Foundation) Facilitator: Andrea Thumshirn, Founder & Director, Hockey Village India Foundation As sports is still not accepted as a medium to develop a child’s body, mind and soul, Hockey Village India Foundation developed a concept to integrate sports in the daily teaching. This method helps develop a child’s basic physical education in early ages and later on the approach towards sports is no more separate from academics, but a part of it.
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5. Aflatoun - Social and Financial Education (Mel Jol) Facilitator: Mr. Anil Saini MelJol has pioneered the Aflatoun - social and financial education programme in the country. It’s the only programme balancing social and financial education so far, where children are the major stakeholders. MelJol as an organization from the start has been using Child centred approach. MelJol has learned that Active learning methodology is important not only for children but also for the teachers, facilitators as a school cannot be a happy place unless every stakeholder has some share in the creation and maintenance of that happiness. The child-friendly methodology uses sensitization games and activities such as role play, discussions, case study presentations, audio-visual inputs, fact finding, interactions, opinion polls, or interviews conducted by the children.
Panel Discussion: Evidence based education innovations – Bridging the gap between academia and industry Before the panel discussion, two 6th grade students from a Marathi medium MCGM school and their teacher Ms. Pramodini Parab addressed the audience. They spoke about a new project initiated in their school called the School Excellence Project which involved activity based learning. The students in the class learn through worksheets and activity cards which are divided into four categories – teacher supported, partly teacher supported, peer supported and individual. There is hardly any homework given to students as all the activities are completed in the classroom itself and they include drama, craft, etc. which help in the overall personality development of students as well. The panelists for the session were then called upon the stage and the panel discussion started with the moderator of the session – Ms. Kamini Kapadia – quoting the classic proverb that if you give a person a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Thus
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emphasizing the need to teach the youth “how to fish”, she called upon the speakers to address the panel and the audience.
Ms. Usha Rane – Pratham Education Foundation Ms. Usha Rane, after giving a brief introduction of how Pratham was established, spoke about the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). While over 95% children are enrolled in school, ASER data had shown that almost 50% students in 5th standard are unable to read a 2nd standard text. Since reading and basic arithmetic are foundational skills for getting a good education, the Read India program was started by Pratham which grew to become the flagship program of the organization. Under this program, children are grouped according to their reading levels which are Beginner, Letter, Word, Para and Story. A 30-day intervention is then provided, which is broken into blocks of 10-8-6-6 days with gaps in between the intervention blocks. The evidence of the success of the program was revealed in the baseline and endline tests conducted by Pratham wherein one could see that most of children move to Story level at the end of the program and are able to successfully read grade appropriate texts. Similarly, the arithmetic ability of children also rose from not even being able to recognize numbers to successfully performing basic arithmetic operations. Ms. Usha Rane also emphasized that through the program it was learnt that investing time in training each student is very important and working with elders in the communities is a must. Supported by
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Professor Jayashree Ramadas – Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR Prof. Ramadas spoke about TIFR’s initiatives in the field of Primary Science Education through the interaction of the three domains of Research and Innovation, Development of Materials and Methods, and Outreach and Advocacy. TIFR has published many books titled “Small Science” for students in classes 1 to 5 and these have also been translated in Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. Thousands of students use these books and in many schools these books have replaced the NCERT Science textbooks as well. Based on the enquiry method of learning, these books focus on making sense of the world through questions. They also encourage students to communicate their learning to peers through observation, analysis, expression and discussion. The workbooks provided along with the textbooks can also be used as assessment tools to gauge the levels of learning. Though a systematic follow up with schools has not been done, Prof Ramadas noted that they had received strong positive feedback from the users of the books.
Professor Rohit Dhankar – Founder, Digantar; Professor, Azim Premji University Prof. Dhankar started his address by emphasizing the need to first problematize the notion of education itself. He said that it is important to be clear about what the aim of education is and that it is not merely the learning of a skill, but also the knowledge of what to do with that skill. He also spoke about how there are many varied forms of alternative education in India, but they all fall under one spectrum and share a common dissatisfaction with the existing education system. While acknowledging the positive benefits of alternative forms of education in terms of nonauthoritarian teacher-student relationships and starting to do away with exams, he also noted that these alternative forms often create confusion. He said that the new techniques and innovative ways of teaching are still rooted in the framework of an old and orthodox system and trying to fit alternate models of education into such a framework was like trying to grow rice in the sand dunes of Bikaner!
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Dr. Ankita Sharma – Managing Consultant, Learning Links Foundation Dr. Sharma spoke about the importance of evidence based pedagogy in the classroom. Data based feedback is provided to teachers through the use of classroom observations, “dipstick” student evaluations and by using new technologies, which the teachers can use to better cater to the needs of the different children in the classroom. The focus is on how assessments can best help to enhance teaching–learning activities and students are assessed not just on the basis of exams, but also based on detailed portfolios which they maintain. Learning Links Foundation has signed MOU’s with Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh in order to focus on evidence based teaching through different assessment tools.
Mr. Glenn Anderson – Founder and CEO, Aball1 Mr. Anderson started by explaining why he started his company Aball1 and summed it up by saying, “Throw a ball anywhere in the world and a group of children will run after it”. The emphasis here is to promote learning through activities and games which involve using 25 red and 25 blue balls. These balls have letters and numbers printed on them and can be used to teach a vast number of exercises including reading, numeracy and basic mathematics, thereby making learning more fun, engaging, inclusive and interactive while also focusing on physical activity, social inclusion and mixed learning styles at the same time. Mr. Anderson noted that these activities have been conducted around the globe in over a thousand schools and also spoke about the possibility of a pilot project to be undertaken in India in partnership with Magic Bus.
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Ms. Shipra Chowdhary – Manager, Strategic Alliance, Corporate Affairs at Intel Corporation Ms. Chowdhary spoke about the growing interest of Intel in fostering the spirit of science among children, and about the move of Intel from specializing in only microchips towards cloud technology. In this regard, the youth are seen not just as consumers of technology, but also as developers themselves. She spoke about the various CSR initiatives that Intel has been engaged in over the years through various partner organizations which help them to amplify their work. Through various computer literacy programs and innovation workshops, Intel has worked with school students in communities to create devices to help check the cleanliness of water, predict rain and even check alcohol levels in drivers. Ms. Chowdhary said that the focus was on building the ability of students to use technology as a medium to address their local problems. Questions and Answers An interactive Question and Answer session followed the speakers’ addresses with questions to individual speakers regarding their particular work and also broader questions for the entire panel such as how do we go about preparing our children for an unknown future. Questions were also asked with regard to reaching out to differently abled children and children with learning disabilities who are often
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not even identified. The role of the community and the relevance of separating education from politics was also discussed. The panelists answered all the questions by drawing on their experience and knowledge. Prof. Dhankar pointed out that though the future is technically unknown, it would not be completely new because the present always has linkages and connections with the past. He went on to say, “No matter what world we are in, two plus two will still be four.” In regard, to children with disabilities, Ms. Shipra Chowdhary said that though they had not directly worked with them, they have been indirectly touched through the CSR initiatives of Intel. Ms. Usha Rane brought to everyone’s attention that the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) had developed a special curriculum for students with learning disabilities, in partnership with Pratham Education Foundation. Mr. Anderson answered the different questions regarding the use of the red and blue balls for instruction. Prof. Dhankar chose to answer the question on politics by saying that education by its very nature is political in the sense of every person having equal access to a good education. However, sectarian politics which promote certain specific ideologies should be kept separate from the field of education. Ms. Natasha Ramaratnam, Regional Director, South, Magic Bus India Foundation, Regional Head of Livelihoods from the South Zone, Magic Bus was called to give away the token of appreciation. She concluded the discussion by saying that though we cannot always measure subjective things for a future we are unsure about, what we can do is to create an environment where we can help our children to be more creative by providing them with more opportunities. Day 1 was concluded by a demonstration of a pyramid routine presented by the students of the Department of Physical Education of Mumbai University. DAY 2 Day 2 began with the registration of participants and was followed by the first session of the day. The session started with Mr. Jayant Rastogi, the CEO of Magic Bus, addressing the audience. He spoke about some of his past experience and highlighted how he had actually learnt a lot more from his failures than from his successes. While motivating the audience to never give up in the face of difficulties, he expressed his desire to scale up the operations of Magic Bus in the field of using sports for development, with quality and consistency. Mr. Rastogi’s address was followed by a brief address by Sushmita, a girl from Dharavi who had been involved with Magic Bus for about 10 years and was now a youth mentor for the organization. She spoke about how Magic Bus gave her a Supported by
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new perspective, a new opportunity and a new identity in life. She also explained how the exposure to sports helped her become more confident and taught her to keep persevering in life. Panel Discussion: Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close – What Works with Young People The panel for the session was then called on stage, with Mr. Vishwas Parchure, an experiential educator, taking over the role of the moderator of the session. Mr. Parchure set the tone for the panel discussion by commenting on the title of the session and saying that what was “incredibly loud” was the amazing work being done by all the panelists in their respective niches and that they were all “extremely close” to knowing that learning was happening. He then called upon the panelists to address the audience.
Mr. Anurag Dhoundeyal – Co-founder, Looking Glass Mr. Dhoundeyal started by asking the audience what they are passionate about. Many audience members answered the question and he instantly composed a song using the answers as lyrics to the composition! This, he explained, was an example of how music and the arts can be used in classrooms. He went on to speak about how Looking Glass focused on integrating music and arts with education and has reached over 7000 students across the globe with 33 facilitators working for them. He also quoted studies which have shown that that the corpus coliseum in the brain, which connects the left brain and the right brain is bigger in a person who plays an instrument or sings, meaning that the individual would be capable of learning better. Mr. Dhoundeyal highlighted the importance of the arts in education by saying that art
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helps people to express themselves without inhibition and engages the entire being of a person. Art also serves as a great medium to teach life skills and it transcends all social barriers. Ms. Deeptha Vivekanand – Founder, Ever After Learning and Development Ms. Deeptha started by doing what she does best – narrating a story. But this was no ordinary story telling. She involved the entire audience in her interactive and engaging narration of the simple story of two goats who learn that it is in their interest to cooperate with each other instead of fighting to have their own way. Ms. Deeptha ended the story by asking, “What kind of goats are we?” She emphasized at the end of the narration, that the best way to kill a story was to overtly ask students what the moral of the story was and that it was much better to let them absorb the story and leave them with a more nuanced question the way she just did. Talking about the power of stories, she said there is a need to debunk the myth that stories are only for small children or fully grown adults. She explained that story telling is a form of human expression and that we all communicate as story tellers without even being conscious of it. Stories and storytelling can thus be a great way to teach children a number of important lessons. Dr. Sunil Kaul – Founder, The ANT Dr. Kaul shared his experience of working with children and the youth in the highly conflict ridden state of Assam. He said that people who are unsure about their future do not invest in it, and so it is important to help the youth to envision a better tomorrow. Dr. Kaul spoke about their initial attempts to channel the youth away from violence which failed repeatedly. He then started working with children and through the success of those programs, gradually started working with the youth again. The many challenges of working in a place as rich in diversity as Assam were pointed out. The local people spoke as many as 175 different languages but the schools operated in only two languages. He also spoke about how a partnership with Magic Bus facilitated the use of sports for development as a tool to transform the youth and integrate boys and girls from different communities. However, the incentivization of violence by certain power groups poses a recurring challenge.
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Mr. Lewitt Somarajan – Founder, Life Labs Mr. Somarajan started by asking the audience two questions – whether plants were vegan, and whether a 2GB pen drive would be lighter than a 124 GB pen drive. While the audience tried to think of answers, he revealed that he didn’t know the answer himself and was open to different opinions. Through this he demonstrated the point he was trying to make which was that teachers often ask questions in class with a ready-made answer in their head and only the students who match that answer are correct, while the others are wrong. It is this notion of teaching that he seeks to challenge at Life Labs through the use of activity-based learning, especially when it comes to teaching Science. He said that it was possible to teach children more than 50 concepts in Physics through a simple hand-made balloon car. But since this kind of teaching requires effort on the part of teachers, they often resort to more conventional modes of instruction. He emphasized the need to help teachers who struggle in classrooms and make experiential learning more accessible to them.
Mr. Vikramjeet Sinha – Director, Building on Art Therapy (BOAT) Mr. Sinha first asked everyone in the audience to stand up scream. He then asked everyone to think of a person they would like to scream at and then scream. Finally, he asked everyone to repeat the same thing, but this time, to scream without making any sound. This, he explained, was how a dramatic form is used in order to release tension. Along with other such techniques, Mr. Sinha spoke about how he works with people in conflict areas, especially Kashmir, in order to release physical, emotional, environmental and personal tension and stress which develops when one is constantly in the presence of violence. He highlighted the importance of using different art forms in conflict zones to provide children with different ways in which they can express themselves as art can help a person explore spaces within themselves which they never knew existed.
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Ms. Andrea Thumshirn – Founder and Director, Hockey Village India Ms. Andrea shared with the audience the story of how she went from running a travel agency in Germany to teaching children to play hockey in a remote village somewhere in between Agra and Jaipur. Her first visit to what is now known as Hockey Village India, was as a part of her expanding travel business for which she had thought of local children giving foreign tourists a taste of a rustic Indian village. But her association with the village rapidly changed into something much bigger and led her to shut down her business, sell her house in Germany and move into the village full time. She then started training the children in hockey and even started her own school where she emphasizes the integration of sport with education. Being a hockey player herself, and coming from a country where sport is an integral part of most people’s lives, Andrea understood the importance of sports in the lives of children and spoke about how crucial it is for sports and academics to go hand in hand.
Professor Vasanthi Kadhivaran, HoD, Department of Physical Education, University of Mumbai Prof. Vasanthi spoke about how Physical Education is neglected in schools
and
colleges
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misconceptions regarding Physical Education such as considering it to be a rest period, thinking that only delinquent children need physical education, anyone can teach it, etc. Along with this, Prof. Vasanthi also pointed out that budget allocations for physical education are usually low and not enough importance is given to the development of sports in general. Moreover, the existence of nepotism and regionalism in selection for sports teams further exacerbates the problem. However, she also stressed that sports is a multi-disciplinary field and teaches important life lessons and also enhances interpersonal skills. She gave the example of Finland, where students in schools are given a lot of time to play and indulge in sports and how the country’s students have consistently topped world rankings in educational achievement.
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Questions and Answers After all the speakers finished addressing the audience, the floor was opened for questions to the panelists. Dr. Kaul was asked about how the problem of identity crisis can be solved in the North East of India, to which he replied that it is important to convey to people that while we are proud of our own identity, we should recognize the rights of others to be proud of their identities as well.
Ms. Deeptha was asked that while it is recognized that everyone tells stories differently, should everyone also listen to stories differently? Her response was that it is but natural for everyone to hear and process stories differently and that is how stories work. A question open to all panelists was regarding how to incorporate different learning styles in teaching. The panelists answered by saying that according to Howard Gardener there are 7 different types of intelligences and so over a period of time, teachers can use different techniques in order to reach children with different types of intelligences. A question was also asked about the issue of teachers not using the innovative techniques and products which education based companies develop. The panelists responded by saying that teachers are often pressurized by parents into teaching a certain way and giving regular homework, etc. Hence, such changes can only be made permanent if the government mandates that school boards must shift from their conventional ways and move towards alternate forms of education. The moderator of the session, Mr. Parchure, concluded the session stating that while everyone supports education and accepts the importance of schooling, there needs to be a shift towards thinking of how our classrooms can be made more interesting. He ended by saying, “If we can make the connection between what we are doing and what it can do to others, I think our education system can be incredibly loud and extremely close.�
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Innovative Demonstrations: 6. Science as an Attitude (Life Lab) Facilitator: Lewitt Somarajan Academics, & Social & Emotional Learning have often been seen as two different aspects of a Child’s Developmental Growth. However, several research publications have shown proven correlations between Academic Intellect, with Social & Emotional Intelligences. The objective of Activity Based Learning Workshop is to marry Science with social & emotional intelligences in an engaging, hands-on & visual story telling form that can act as a tool to have effective communication between Adults (Parents, Teachers) & Children, thus creating a lasting curiosity in the minds of children to be learners for Life!
7. Making Activities Meaningful Facilitator: Vishwas Parchure Many people use activities in the work they do. Does that make it ‘experiential’? Maybe not. An activity remains an activity - unless we do something to it before, during and after, to help players to make meaning of it in the context of their lives and learning. By using activities, the demo session looked at the elements that help learning.
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8. Know Your Style (Magic Bus Centre) Facilitator: Nachiket Joshi In this workshop, the facilitator presented ways that can enhance people’s facilitation skills by allowing participant to explore oneself through Kolb’s Circle. This engagement intended to help the individuals to identify their individual learning styles. During this, the facilitator also helped the participants have an engaging experience with respect to facilitation process.
9. Theatre and Our Intimate Experience “A classroom beyond chairs and table “(BOAT) Facilitator: Vikramjeet Sinha The classroom beyond chairs and table philosophy propagates the idea of poetry in action It's the idea of teaching poetry without reading the text out to the children. The idea behind experiential
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understanding of poetry is to experience the poem through image theatre. To use shapes and use the body to hold the shape that is triggered by the poetic words. This makes the student experience the poem, listen deeply and experience the poem through the body. It's a powerful spontaneous response to the words and brings about a birth of imagination and motor skills in unison. Literature through drama is very powerful in imparting a more playful way of educating children, and also its more dynamic. The teaching process of using literature through a dynamic, interactive, child centric method rather than a cognitive method, the children experience the poem or text through their body that is through their senses rather than only through their mind. We go beyond the idea that a teacher is a mere talking head, but a facilitator and more involved in engaging with a child with all the senses. 10. Puppetry (Mumbai Mobile Crèches-MMC) Facilitator: Sashikala Tchikne MMC, which has been supporting children living on construction sites to be safe, healthy and educated since the past 44 years, also specializes in making a variety of puppets using scrap material. Types of puppets made include finger, box, glove, socks, bottle, etc. and can be made using scrap or used material like waste papers, boxes, bottles, tins, etc. This process was demonstrated to the Maidan Summit participants. Also, these puppets can then be used for edutainment – for educating young children on different concepts as well as for increasing awareness about various issues.
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Short Address by Professor Colin Beard Prof. Beard spoke about how experiential learning is different from conventional learning by narrating a personal anecdote from a family holiday in Africa on which he went on some jungle safaris. He contrasted the feeling of looking at a group of giraffes from a distance through a pair of binoculars to the experience of having a giraffe bend into their jeep and touching and feeding it with one’s own hands. “Experiential learning touches you”, he said. He explained that words and speech are linear in nature and humans get habituated to them quickly and hence are easily bored by a constant stream of words coming at them. Experential learning, however, is like a navigational tool that can be used to understand complex things. He highlighted that in today’s world, information of all sorts is available at the click of a button, so it is not important to merely provide information in our classrooms. Rather, it is important to teach students the different ways in which they can use the information they have. He spoke briefly about the six dimensions of human learning and explained that experiential learning goes from Transmission to Transaction to Transformation. Panel Discussion: High Impact Methodologies for Livelihood Attainment Before the panelists for the discussion were called on stage, Suryakant, a boy who had joined Magic Bus many years ago in order to play football, addressed the audience and spoke about his journey through Magic Bus and how it helped him become the person he is today. He explained how sports had helped him to develop his personality and also learn important social values.
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The panel discussion started with the moderator, Ms. Kusum Mohapatra, Director Livelihood, Magic Bus India Foundation, inviting the speakers on stage and introducing the topic for the discussion. Ms. Vibha Desai – Head, Gujarat Operations, IL&FS Ms. Vibha spoke about the demographic dividend that India currently enjoys, but also highlighted the need for the right kind of jobs to be created for the youth of the country. She also spoke about the existence of a major disconnect between our academics and the industries. Ms. Vibha emphasized the importance of introducing skill based learning at the school level and said that there should be a vast variety of skills that can cater to needs and aspirations of different students. She also spoke about private skill development initiatives through CSR activities and said that through their program they have reached out to over 6 lakh youth and provided them with training, exposure to industries and also placed them in jobs.
Prof. Neela Dabir – Dean, School of Vocational Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Prof. Neela spoke about how TISS entered the Skills Training Programme in the year 2011 in order to address the pressing issue of skills development. She too stressed on the major gap between what the youth can do and what industries actually need. She spoke about the Bachelor of Vocational Education (B. Voc.) degree that TISS offered to students in 25 industry based skills and said that their new model of vocational training helps to give students more hands on experience and lesser classroom education. Prof. Neela also explained that in order to increase their outreach, TISS partners with learning hubs and skills knowledge providers, which help in the mobilization of trainees and facilitate the provision of the right kind of infrastructure for the program.
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Ms. Prema Gopalan – Founder, Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) Ms. Prema spoke about SSP and how it started its work in Latur, Maharashtra in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that shook the region in the year 1994. Since then, SSP has been working with women, not just to help them earn more income, but to make them social entrepreneurs. The focus of SSP has been to partner with women's groups to strengthen and upscale their participation in local development and local governance. While earlier, many women died due to constantly inhaling smoke in their kitchens, today there is a marked improvement in the health productivity and well-being of women. They have also increased their earnings and savings while also protecting the environment from the harmful effects of kitchen smoke. Ms. Prema also highlighted the importance of an ecosystem of partnership, which she said is imperative in order to connect the vital dots of information required to foster innovative business models for women entrepreneurs.
Mr. Dipesh Sutariya – Co-founder and CEO, Enable India Mr. Sutariya said that while education is important, it is economic independence that is a vital attribute for all of us, but more so for those who are physically disabled. He explained that once a disabled person starts earning, he/she is no longer looked upon as a burden to their family, but gains respect and recognition. He also spoke about various macro level challenges such as the lack of awareness regarding both disabilities and the possible solutions to the problems faced by the disabled. He also threw light on the work of Enable India in trying to overcome these challenges by providing training and spreading awareness in order to provide employment opportunities to the physically disabled. He said that since its inception, Enable India had placed more than 4,500 disabled people in jobs and about 36% of these are the primary bread winners in their households.
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Mr. Rajendra Joshi – Founder, SAATH Initiatives for Equity in Development Mr. Joshi began by stating that he began his initiative with just playing volleyball with the local youth, to get to know them better. He stated that while he recognized the problem of low skill levels among the youth in India, he also felt that these youths have now unfortunately become fodder for the various skills development programs in the country. Everyone is only interested in number of people they have trained but no one tries to understand what the youth wants. In this regard, he said that this is the issue they seek to address at their centre by providing career counselors and trainers to help the youth understand and be aware of the different livelihood opportunities they have. SAATH also undertakes family counseling since they are aware of the community influences on children and the youth. Mr. Joshi mentioned that they have been able to provide 52,000 formal jobs, 1700 informal jobs and have trained about 400 women till date. Mr. Nirmal Singh – CEO, Wheebox.Com Mr. Nirmal Singh stated that India is already well into the phase of the demographic dividend which in enjoys in terms of a young, working age population. He pointed out that 15 years of this phase have already passed and only 25 years are left. At the same time, each year India is adding about 11 million unemployable students into the workforce. He emphasized the need for good teachers and the requirement to move from focusing simply on the power of students to remember things to understanding and then to applying that knowledge. He said that in India, assessments are the outcome of learning, but there is a need to turn that around and make learning an outcome of assessments. Mr. Singh also discussed how Wheebox.Com interviewed about 6 lakh youth and asked them what their skill sets were and also asked employers what kind of skills they would be looking for in a fresher in a couple of years. They then try to analyze and bridge this gap. He also quoted studies which show that only 20% jobs require domain knowledge and the rest of the 80% depends purely on soft skills.
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Ms. Renu Vasanth Kumar – Head of Citizenship, Asia Pacific at Barclays Ms. Renu gave a brief and crisp address in which she talked about the importance of providing soft skills training to the youth and what Barclays was doing in this regard. She stated that Barclays had trained over one lakh twenty thousand by providing 24 to 48 hour training boot camps for soft skills training. After the training, students are tracked for about one year and feedback about the training is sought in order to further improve the programme.
Questions and Answers As the last panel discussion of the event came to a close, the moderator, Ms. Kusum opened the floor for audience questions. A question was put to Mr. Joshi regarding the time that entrepreneurship takes to generate profits, vis-Ă -vis the quick money and success which the youth want. Mr. Joshi agreed that it takes time for entrepreneurs to make profits and hence it is important to develop reasonable expectation in the youth while training them to be entrepreneurs. Mr. Sutariya was asked by a member of the audience about how he could go about starting a program like Enable India in his own village. Mr. Sutariya responded by saying that he was working on making his model simple enough to be scaled up
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and once he does that, he would give out modules to facilitate such scaling by others in different areas. He was also asked whether there is enough infrastructure in order to make our society more inclusive of disability, to which he responded in the affirmative and said that by building strong partnerships with other organizations, it was possible to do integrate the disabled into the mainstream. A question was also asked regarding the viability of sports coaching as a career choice to which the panelists responded by saying that sports coaching was indeed a viable option for a career and training to be a coach is often included under vocational training. Ms. Kusum ended the session by highlighting the key points discussed during the session and stated that thought the demographic dividend is an advantage, it can also quickly turn into a liability. However, as practitioners in the field of education and livelihood, it is important to take a step back and formulate a long term vision for what they want to achieve. She also emphasized that it was not possible for organizations and individual to tackle all the challenges that face alone, and hence it was important for all of them to work together in building a better future for the country. Ms. Medha Oka, Director, Programme Development, Magic Bus India Foundation concluded the Maidan Summit by saying that the Summit was aimed at bringing together like minded people to interact and collaborate with each other. She also said that she hoped all the participants in the Summit had enjoyed themselves over the course of the two days and also imbibed the spirit of the Maidan.
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ANNEXURE
Converging education and livelihood spaces through scalable innovations Information on Kiosk 1) Goa Rugby
Project #GoaAmche is using Psychology from Sports to Develop the Child, both on and off the Field as rugby being the Tool. 2) Karunalaya
Karunalaya Social Service Society is a reputed non-profit voluntary organization working for the protection, rescue and rehabilitation of runaway, destitute, street children and for the empowerment of Marginalized women in Chennai City for the past 21 years since 1995. Karunalaya is the Indian National Partner for the Street Child World Cup and Street Child Games held in Rio, Brazil. Karunalaya is an organization for Child Rights with a holistic approach. 3) Sujaya Foundation Sujaya Foundation has been bridging the linguistic and digital divide in India, since 2002. The aim of the Foundation is to provide education and employability skills to the underprivileged by leveraging technology and incorporating the best pedagogical practices at an elementary, as well as at an advanced Level. 4) Connected Learning Initiative (CLIX), TISS The Connected Learning Initiative is a bold and innovative effort that aims to improve the professional and academic prospects of high school students from under-served communities in India. CLIx incorporates thoughtful pedagogical design and leverages contemporary technology, including online capabilities, to provide quality educational content and experiences at scale. The initiative aims to reach Supported by
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a total of approximately 1,000 schools and 150,000 students in 4 states during 2015–2017, as well as conduct professional development for approximately 2,700 teachers. CLIx aims to catalyse access to quality learning opportunities at scale that are capable of changing what Indian students and teachers know and can do. 5) School of Vocational Education School of Vocational Education - TISS offers Vocational Educational Programmes through Work Integrated Training. These programmes have been initiated for the first time in India with a focus on jobspecific skills rather than providing only a broad based education. Skills based Education is being provided in the areas of Agriculture, Automotive, BFSI, Childcare & Geriatric Care, Dialysis Technology, Electronics, Hospitality, Healthcare, Industrial Safety, Industrial Tool Manufacturing, ITES, Management & Entrepreneurship and Professional Skills, Media & Entertainment, Pharmaceuticals, Printing & Packaging Technology, Renewal Energy, Telecom and Travel & Tourism. 6) Masoom
Masoom is a not-for-profit organization with a passion for establishing quality education in night schools. In order to achieve this, Masoom partners with night schools to facilitate the “Night School Transformation Programme”. The Transformation Program is specifically tailored to meet the needs of the night school and the night school students themselves. Masoom recognizes that the task of addressing poor quality education in night schools requires a multi-pronged approach. 7) Naz Foundation The Naz Foundation (India) Trust is an NGO that focuses (since 1994) on reaching marginalized populations infected or affected by HIV by highlighting issues related to sexuality and sexual health. The Goal Program is a sport for development program that uses netball and life-skills education to empower adolescent girls and young women in Delhi, Mumbai and parts of Tamil Nadu. The Goal Program has reached out to 40000 adolescent girls and young women since 2006. 8) Sol’s ARC Sol’s ARC is a Non-profit registered under Public Charitable Trust Act in 2003 Focus on development of inclusive pedagogy (life span), Training, capacity building of teachers and advocacy to enable inclusion."
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9) Snehalaya
Snehalaya means 'Home of Love', and was founded in 1989 to provide support for women, children and LGBT communities, who have been affected by HIV and AIDS, trafficking, sexual violence, and poverty. They operate in Ahmednagar, a town and district in the agricultural region of Maharashtra, India, and provide services to over 15,000 beneficiaries. They help to fight HIV and AIDS and to end human trafficking, improve education for deprived children and campaign for justice to bring rescue, rights and rehabilitation to those that need it. 10) Bharath Calling Supporting youths with informed career choices 10) Edusharp
We are a Psychometric and Skill Assessment Platform offered as PAAS (Product as a Service), which can be used for recruitment and talent management by corporates, Career guidance for graduate’s (Engineering and Non engineering) and Management Colleges, Universities and Schools for their captive students. 11) Experifun Experifun designs and develops affordable and curriculum based science gadgets to bring science concept exploration to classrooms. Designed in its R&D lab in Bangalore, Experifun gadgets and products are first of its kind. They bring unprecedented capabilities to classrooms that otherwise are not possible through any solution as of today! Experifun is supported by one of the world's largest education company Pearson (Pearson Affordable Learning Fund, UK) and a leading US based social fund Village Capital. 12) Avehi
Avehi Abacus Project believes in improving and strengthening the public education system by making it qualitatively better, to reach out to the most marginalized sections of society and to impact mainstream policy on education.
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Avehi Abacus Project holds a unique place in Indian educational scenario. Its path-breaking contribution is evident in the rich and relevant content that has been appreciated and adopted by children, teachers and policy makers alike. It’s sustained work spread on a large scale with teachers and children in public schools has been taken serious note of by the National and State level policy making bodies. 13) Quest
QUEST has extended its focus from working directly with the students to working with teachers. The work is currently carried out in Palghar, Thane, Jalna, Pune and Dhule districts. QUEST has reached out to around 20000 children through its various interventions pertaining to quality of education. These children are in the age group of 3 to 14 years and come from marginalized communities. QUEST has also reached around 1000 teachers through workshops and its online forum (in Marathi). QUEST’s interventions have mainly happened through capacity building of teachers to ensure long term sustainability. 14) Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education We are involved in researches in science, mathematics and technology education for primary to undergraduate students. Our broad aim is to understand student’s ways of learning and to design a pedagogical method to enhance their learning process. 15) Magic Bus Center
The Magic Bus Centre for Learning & Development is a purpose built, 22-acre residential campus providing one of the best outdoor and adventurous experiential learning spaces in India. The Centre offers you an opportunity to discover how the expansive outdoors can help people nurture and develop their personal and interpersonal skills that transfer into all areas of education, business and social situations. Our own unique approach and techniques help you on a journey of self-exploration of your potential through experiential learning. Engaging, thought provoking and challenging activities combined with careful and constructive facilitation draw out the amazing capabilities you have within.
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