I. The Saathis are most critical link in our intervention and they are the catalysts for learning of children. The mode of interaction and engagement of the Saathis with the children enhances learning level and motivation to learn. The Saathis are selected from the local area, as they can use the local language to communicate effectively with the children. Further, being at home, they can take up the job for longer period of time. However, this brings in additional challenge of grooming them to perform the task effectively. Most of the Saathis’ education level is till 10th grade, without much conceptual clarity on the basics of different subjects. They also come with the set of belief system that can be contested if one wishes to make learning fearless and fun-filled in a joyful environment. So, a process of continuous engagement and training of the Saathis have been realized early in our intervention and being taken up systematically.
II. Training and Capacity Building of Saathis
We conduct weekly training sessions for all Saathis where, we create a demo environment of the classroom and the Saathis get an opportunity to refine their teaching -learning skills and at the same time add new teaching practices to their skill-set. Apart from the regular training session, special training sessions like “Learning through ToY training workshop” and “Science Kit training workshop” are taken up.
- Klorofeel’s Toy Training Workshop: The games we practiced, are all educational games and can be used in various ways to help students acquire different grade specific competencies. We are building more learning methods and games keeping those 153 games, provided by Toy Foundation, as base.
- Science Kit Training Workshop: The science kit training is used to introduce the Saathis about basics of science and its need in our daily life, including our holistic growth.
III.Exposure Visits
We organise visits for our Saathis to provide them exposure about the efficient education models around the country.
- We had visited Vidyakshetra in Bangalore. Vidyakshetra is an education centered community focusing on ‘Holistic Education’ and ‘Sustainable Living’, that intend to create pathways leading to social transformation.
- Our learning facilitators attended the 21st Waldorf Education Seminar at D.C. school, in Khandala.
- Puvidham Learning center is an open and lively environment in an eco-friendly environment with enough play area, organic farm and a little forest for children to learn in a natural environment. It is a government approved Nursery and Primary school in Tamil Nadu. Teachers from Puvidham had visited our centers and interacted with the Saathis. There was an exchange of ideas among the 2 teams.
- The Learning Societies Unconference was a place to bring together all kinds of people who are co-creating diverse learning communities, sustainable learning spaces, creative (un)learning processes, etc. for new models of happiness, well-being and swaraj. Our Saathis attended the conference and participated in various activities along with socializing with a lot other change makers.
