The Change Catalyst

Someone once told me that magic is what you make out of your potential and it shines through your hard work. Today I saw a real life example of that. I was lucky to accompany one of my colleagues to her school today, where she was gearing up for her quarterly update on STEP* to the school leadership team. School leaders are instrumental to the success of any intervention in schools and hence, engaging them in the process helps build sustainability of change efforts. The update presentation is a way to formally apprise the leadership team about our work, successes and challenges in school and to brainstorm with them on further possibilities.

To set the context, my colleague is a School Transformation Lead for a low-fee, private school located in the (semi-urban) Hebbagodi area in Bangalore. As her profile says, she drives efforts towards the transformation of her school by influencing a change among all the stakeholders responsible for a child’s education. This includes school teachers, principal, parents and of course, the children themselves.

So today was the day of the quarterly update presentation. I, as a new joinee, had accompanied her to just see her school and to understand the dynamics of the school. Little did I know, what I was about to witness was indeed magic..!

It was a tiny room where the Head master and few senior teachers were present. She started off her presentation by thanking them for the support and then headed onto describing the areas of her work. Next came the videos of teachers using child-centric teaching methods in the class and interesting Behaviour management techniques (which replaces corporal punishments and develops ownership among children), innovative teaching methods and use of trackers in a class room. Normally, these aspects are rarely seen in under-resourced schools. All these videos exhibited the confidence with which the teachers were applying all these techniques. It was an eye opener for me because I could imagine the extent of efforts that would have been put in. Change is a slow process and not everybody is receptive of new ideas. If she was able to convince them to do so, that means many barriers and battles against fixed mind set were won. She talked about how teachers are taking responsibility of helping their fellow teachers and how they asked her to organize more training sessions that’d equip them with more techniques and ideas. Guess what, all this was achieved in a short span of six months.

What followed was even better, the school head master and the senior teachers asked her to present this video in the staff meeting, where they could inspire other teachers as well and could acknowledge the teachers’ hard work on a public platform. This is where my colleague picked up a discussion about the structures for appreciating their staff. It was interesting to see how opportunities for setting up better structures & processes can be created during such one-on-one conversations. It was a brilliant opportunity to point out to the school leadership that their appreciation and feedback matter a lot to teachers; and hence, they can inspire the teachers to bring innovation to classrooms on a regular basis.

At the end of the meeting, the HM and the teacher walked out with an extremely positive frame of mind and feeling great about themselves; and I went out with a learning that inspiration lies all around us. All we need to do is be open to it.

*STEP: School Transformation and Empowerment Project is a key initiative by MANTRA4Change.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Poonam Shukla, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change. 

The Side-Effects of Research

This is a story that began in July 2016, when Dr. Balachandran came to conduct a session on how children can do research in Geography. Read more about it in our earlier post, ‘The joy of research’.

I clearly remember Mahima (a student) standing up in the introductory session and saying, “I have a topic, I care about but even if do the research, what will happen? How can I alone change the garbage situation in my area?” Similar sentiments could be sensed on many faces in the room. I remember telling these 9^th graders that if they are passionate about solving these issues, they would definitely succeed in making a change. Like the thousand things that we speak of and hope for, but move on, I moved on; fortunately, Mahima and her friends didn’t.

In the International Geography Youth Summit (IGYS), a total of 9 students presented their primary research. They had gone and studied people’s belief systems regarding the issue and also how people thought it affected them. They spoke to experts to find out their opinions on the situation and what can be done about it. They also managed to inspire the community in their own way to act on the situation. All these groups received huge appreciation and applause from the panelists for their honest efforts and passion.

But the story didn’t end there. The exciting part, what I call as the side-effects of research, is here.

These students continue to work on their respective research topics even today. Mahima and her team continue to practice waste segregation at home and try to recycle as many things as possible – keeps them creatively happy as well. The team that studied the ‘drainage system’ have taken it a step ahead by spreading awareness among community members. Together, these students convinced the school management to try out methods of reducing and managing waste at their own school. After already impacting many families and inspiring a few more, Mahima and her friends now believe that they have the power and will to positively impact their surroundings. I see many strong leaders in the making.

The whole experience of doing the research and participating in IGYS has had many such interesting side-effects. The confidence level of these students has shot up immensely; they show initiative; the clear edge these students had over their classmates in presentation skills became evident during several classroom presentations- they knew exactly how many slides to use, how to engage the audience, how to use effective body language etc. They volunteered to mentor the next batch of students for the IGYS projects. Such amazing enthusiasm… and if one thinks about it, this life-changing journey began with a request to think beyond textbooks and to do original research.

One simple looking exercise had such long lasting impact. What else could be more motivating..!

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Shikha Bohra, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change. 

Teachers’ Learning Centre: creating a culture of ‘learn-it-all’

What is common between the multi-billion dollar, US-based technology giant Microsoft Corporation and our under-resourced partner schools, located in the ‘not-so-famous’ alleys of Goripalya in Bangalore? 

Both of them are on their path to a huge culture shift: from a ‘know-it-all’ to ‘learn-it-all’. In his interview to Bloomberg Businessweek, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella told how he is transforming the culture at Microsoft ‘by creating an environment focused on learning’. At Mantra4Change, we have been trying something similar with our partner schools.

January 2017 saw over 45 teachers from 8 different schools coming together to learn and explore better teaching practices. At our newly set up Teachers’ Learning Centre (TLC), these teachers - from both Government-run schools as wells as from low-fee private schools- forgot their differences & competition and started a new journey of collaborative learning. The atmosphere in the TLC was electrifying. 25 year olds were facilitating the sessions and the participants, with an average teaching experience of 25 years, were beaming with unmatched enthusiasm and joy. One could see how teachers exhibited child-like curiosity and were exuberant about volunteering during the demonstrations.

Anyone, who has worked with under-resourced schools and teachers, would agree that this is no easy feat. This is a complete overhaul of the hierarchical, rigid culture typically seen in such schools. It marks the beginning of the evolution of a collaborative and learning culture.

Collaboration and learning are at the core of our conceptualisation of the Teachers’ Learning Centre (TLC). The idea is to dissect isolation from teaching profession. TLC would enable teachers to come together and to discuss, brainstorm & learn together. They could be each other’s sounding board. They could leverage each other’s connections to catalyse and accelerate their own learning process. TLC will form the foundation of a professional learning community for teachers.

At Mantra4Change, the TLC at Goripalya (Bengaluru) is a culmination of our efforts in that community for last 2 years. Creating change readiness among different stakeholders doesn’t happen overnight. Ours is a tale of unflinching efforts towards trust building and of living our values of empathy and resourcefulness. Spending time on ground with our teachers, students and school leaders helped us understand their challenges and limitations better. This informed our program design and thus, improved its acceptance among the participants. Today, we are a part of their learning community. We learn together; we grow together.

Stay tuned for more mesmerising stories of collaboration and learning from our TLC.

[Update]: Read our next blog on the inauguration ceremony of the TLC.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Khushboo Awasthi, who works with schools at Mantra4Change.

Lighting up the temple of knowledge on Diwali

Diwali is the celebration of good over evil. But it is more popularly the festival of joy and that of light. It is symbolic of fighting off darkness. What could be a better way to celebrate Diwali than by building a temple of knowledge that could fight off the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy..! What could be a better way to celebrate Diwali than by creating a space for the tiny human beings- the students of the Kindergarten section- of my school to learn by exploring in an 'adapted' Montessori Method..! 

This beautiful space would have only remained a dream, but for the Principal of the school. The Principal's belief in the changes that Mantra had been bringing into the school and his trust on the process of transformation made this possible. This huge shift of mindset from garnering the little profits earned from the school to spending most of it on development of school is very heart-warming and is an achievement worth being proud of.

Read our previous blog on how we introduced the ‘adapted’ Montessori to our pre-primary classrooms.  

Gradually as the principal of the school started realising how kids were excited about this new way of learning and how this is benefiting them, he went out of his way to ensure that his kids get the best environment he could offer. The dirty-looking corner that used to store all the junk and discarded materials suddenly got transformed into a shining and bright ‘Activity Room’.  At Mantra, we reached out to our partner, Let's Do Some Good Foundation (LDSG) for monetary support. They contributed part of the funds for building this space, and so did the extremely invested principal of the school. Now that is how magic happens..!  

Usually these kids in the pre-primary section are live wires, full of so much energy that they can't always seem to contain it. Turns out that the activity space is their Zen-zone, a place as envisioned by Maria Montessori; a place where the child is a dedicated worker and explorer.

Every day, we (adults) stand around the kids watching them in awe as they labour in pure bliss and concentration. The teachers look on proudly at the children and why should they not. It is their handiwork, indeed. They imbibed the training, meticulously implemented it and even created a few activities to add on to the already existing Montessori activities. Such was the dedication of the staff and the management of the school.

Nobody could have come up with a better way to celebrate Diwali. It was the day a dump yard in the school got transformed into a beautiful activity space for children.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

A Step in the right direction: Giving new meaning to Women empowerment

As I narrate this, I do so with pride: Proud at having been able to witness the events of change unfold before me. I had always imagined "important meetings" to take place in high profile offices. After having been a part of the social sector, I have realised that it is the willingness to work and an undefeatable sense of purpose that is essential; and an "important meeting" can take place in a room, a shack or as in this case, in a government school.

At MANTRA, one of the key elements of our project is working on enabling community. To this end, we keep exploring meaningful partnerships that can bring (economic) opportunities to the doorsteps of these people in the community. Today’s is a story from one of such communities that we work very closely with.

It is a community like any other low-income community that has blended so seamlessly with the more affluent part of the city that nobody gives a second thought about its being, purpose or reason. The agenda for the day's meeting was to create self sufficiency amongst the women in the community. These women work at the local ‘beedi’-rolling and ‘agarbathi’-making factories in order to supplement the meagre income that their husbands bring. The wages that the men in the family receive often reduces before they reach home due to many habits, they have inculcated over the years. 
Along with Mantra came the rather influential benefactor of the community and Mr. Venkat Raman Iyer and the other people in attendance were the women in the community. Having turned myself into the photographer for the event, I happened to notice how raptly everybody listened to Mr. Iyer as he spoke of how in a similar community, he along with the women in the community formed a self- sustaining group. They make cloth bags that are sold to nearby shops. While the women earn some amount of financial independence, an environment-friendly alternative is being provided. What a brilliant example of killing two birds with one stone..! Thus, the meeting set the wheels of change in motion.

About a week later, I visited the community in Koramangala with my colleague, Pallav and the ladies from our community. We met the group of ladies who successfully run the cloth bag enterprise. As we entered the house of the 'aunty' who manages the entire process, we witnessed piles of cloth bags and cloth material, covering every inch of the floor. We seated ourselves on one of those piles and 'aunty' dove straight into business. She opened by explaining different kinds of materials used for making the bags and followed it up by demonstrating how to measure and cut each kind of material. Once she felt that sufficient practice time had been provided to the ‘visiting’ ladies, she moved on to explaining how to maintain and tally accounts effectively. It was impressive to watch how she articulated her experiences as manager and shared them with the audience. She went onto say that it is imperative that the accounts manager make each tailor sign in a separate book mentioning the number of bags submitted, once they have been counted in front of the tailor, in order to avoid misunderstandings later on. She then let the ladies use the sewing machine in her house, so that each of them can practice sewing a bag. As the machine whirred on and each lady got to work, they started sharing their experiences in their community. They disclosed that they don't feel valued and often are at a disadvantage of being a woman. This meant that they don't get paid regularly for the work they do. The work being rolling 'beedis' and 'agarbathis' in the nearby factory.

As they each flourished a cloth bag proudly, I overheard one of the ladies, Gulnaz promise Pallav that she will stand by us for the good of the people.

As I took leave of the group, I walked away light-hearted, yet excited.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change. 

A Summer of Transformation

- This blog post is written by Ms. Megha Sreekanth - a high-school student from the US who spent the summer with us at MANTRA as an intern.

The Preparation

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to go out and serve the under-privileged, but I always thought of it as something that I would do in the future when I had free time and some money. However in spring’16, when my cousin Aishwarya mentioned going to India to help “Mantra4Change” teach under-privileged kids, I jumped at the chance. For the next couple of months, I became engrossed in researching and preparing materials and lesson plans to use at the school. I prepped myself for the challenges of teaching kids, along with Aishwarya and Naina; we even learned a little Hindi to be able to communicate with the children. I landed in India feeling prepared, but I did not foresee the challenges, learning, experience and transformation in those three short weeks at Florida English School.

The experience

As we stepped into the colorful rooms of Florida English School, we were first greeted by the boisterous chanting of 80 plus lower-kindergarten (LKG) students. Their voices melting into each other until eventually the words became incomprehensible. As the weeks progressed the children opened up to us more and receptive to our new curriculum, particularly because it included coloring and playing with building blocks. We provided more hands-on activities so the children can develop their motor skills and learn to enjoy school. In addition, all of the children were taught how to introduce themselves in English, and in a couple of weeks the default way of introduction was in English. When we asked one child what his name was, instead of just saying his name as we expected, he fully stated “My name is ______”, gaining applause from all of the teachers around him. By the end of the three weeks the children were well versed in introduction, colors, numbers, and letters. Furthermore, the children became more independent and self-determined, as Aishwarya, Naina and I watched the seeds of transformation building roots in all of them. 

At the beginning of our internship the teachers did not understand the curriculum and regarded it as games instead of work. They also insisted that we alternate classrooms so the children can have one day of learning and one day of fun. The teachers tended to harshly punish the children if they were not behaving or if they did not understand the concepts. After 2 weeks, with the improvement seen in the children, teachers slowly started to believe in our new curriculum. We also requested that the teachers start encouraging the children instead, of punishing the children. It is from the teachers, who taught the children with their limited supplies and training, that we learnt how to make do with the finite supplies. From them we started to use colored backpacks to teach the students coloring and to use students to help the children to understand that numbers are values, and understood that it does not take fancy materials for the students to learn. Along the way we always had the support and guidance of Santosh, Khushboo, and Amrutha, our mentor at Florida English School, who gave us advice when asked and always encouraged our own growth. They encouraged us to use a trial and error approach to our teaching; if one method did not work we moved onto the next method of teaching.

The learnings

Throughout our time in Florida English School, we began to understand the challenges of a teacher and learnt to be more patient and persistent, in addition to learning many useful skills. As the weeks progressed, we earned the confidence in our methods and respect and this resulted in small and sure transformation of teaching methods and delivery in the teachers.  

At times, it was distressing when the progress in the children was slow and the teachers were resorting to old methods of punishments and rote learning. We learnt that it took an outstanding amount of patience to teach the students, as there were always students who were slow learners, were trouble makers, or were always crying for their parents and we had to keep our calm and continue to teach all of the students. Throughout our time with Mantra and Florida English School, we learnt that you have to be steadfast in your efforts and if you want something you have to go get it. We wanted to change the way the students were being taught, and we soon figured out to change anything we had to do it with our own persistence. We used hands-on methods, encouragement and continued to teach the students even if they were not showing drastic improvement. To be steadfast and patience is the key to success - We understood this from Amrutha, teachers, principal and the Mantra team who worked tirelessly to improve the standard of education in spite of numerous challenges.

Gratitude

All in all, this experience grounded me and I am very thankful to all of them for teaching me so much in those three short weeks and for allowing me to be a part of the efforts to help India’s education equity. I set out to have an experience in volunteering in an under-privileged neighborhood, but in the end it was I who was transformed and inspired after witnessing the triumph of human spirit to educate and uplift with limited resources, challenges and true sense of sacrifice. 

"There is much to celebrate": An afternoon with Mr. Avinash Kumar

Have you ever stepped out of a meeting/session with a feeling of being liberated and thanking the stars and the people who helped you be in that place at that moment?!

That was exactly what transpired in my head when I came out from a meeting with Mr. Avinash Kumar, a software engineer turned educationist, currently heading the WIPRO Fellowship Program at WATIS. How and why?! Let’s find out!

There are usually two kinds of responses from people when they find out that I am a software engineer turned ‘person working in education sector with an NGO’. 

The responses being:

(a) “BUT WHY?!” (b) “Such a NOBLE THING! The country needs more youngsters like you”. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with either of the responses, it is definitely overwhelming and not to mention confusing, when one is seen as a saviour, especially that of a wicked problem such as the state of education in our country.

So here comes a person who starts off the talk by saying that what we are all doing is honest work that might not be astoundingly successful (I could feel a brick being lifted off my chest at that point). He then goes on to talk about what is and can be perceived as success in an education intervention and how we are generally harsh on ourselves about such things.

He flips my thoughts on how probably nothing worthwhile has happened so far (exceptions being RTE, Rishi Valley and other widely known endeavours) by mentioning that the enrolment rate in schools was just ~12% in 1947, whereas now, it is almost 100%! It makes me realise that I and quite a few of us weren’t really appreciating the stupendous work that happened! The numbers written above indicate a cultural shift that took place and it isn’t a small thing by any measure! He goes on to talk about the status of gender disparity then and now. About how people who couldn’t think of sending their girls outside the four walls are now sending them to schools, and the way civil society played a major role in these phenomenal transformations.

We go onto speak about what Education means to each one of us and the tricky topic of expansion in this sector. He mentions how the experimentation at Hoshangabad (popular as HSPT), started in 1972 by Eklavya was the seed for Science Curriculum in NCF in the year of 2005. In the same breath, he tells us the story of David Horsburgh, a British-born educationist who first came to India in 1943 while serving with the Royal Air Force. This man eventually founded ‘Neel Bagh’, a school in Madanapalle district of Andhra Pradesh in 1972 and lived there till his death in 1984. During his years spent at this school, he trained far less than 100 people. Would you term it successful?

Probably no. But what if we tell you that out of those whom he trained were Malathi, Amrutha Mahapatra, Rohit Dhankar and many more who went on to contribute to education by setting up schools such as Digantar, Sumavanam, Vikasana and more importantly in helping state and central governments in programs such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan.

By mentioning how the direct impact of this school was probably not scalable and yet its long term impact is something that was mammoth, (Mr. Avinash Kumar) gave us food for thought about what exactly we are aiming at when we talk about scaling and expansion in this sector. Made me think of how even a number such as ten or five or even 1 school is meaningful, important and unignorable!

Before signing off, Mr. Avinash Kumar mentions how there’s a tipping point for visible change to happen and if we haven’t reached that tipping point yet, it doesn’t mean that there was no work done. Something to keep in mind and also something that leaves us free to experiment within reasonable limits, right?

By the end of this interaction, I felt visibly light- so light that I could feel a spring in my feet. It gave voice to my thoughts on how what I and many others are doing is not just about changing the current poor state, but also, and probably more about continuing the good work that has gone in so far.

It turned out to be one of those very rare interactions that showed me the possibility of how some simple observations when presented in the right way helps one look at things with a fresh lens even when he/she isn't ready for it. Something that I should be conscious of while working with my set of teachers.

P.S. Elisha, if you are reading this, please know that as soon as I stepped out, you were amongst the first who I thought led me to him. Thank you!

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Veda Veeravalli, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

The Joy of Research

‘Yesterday, my view of geography and how to teach it changed. It is actually so interesting and relevant every day.’ 

Imagine the goose-bumps you would get when a social sciences teacher comes up to tell you this..! When a teacher’s view of the subject improvises, the impact can be seen on literally hundreds of students in the years to come. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Chandra Shekhar Balachandran (Founder & Director, TIGS) for conducting a workshop on ‘How to Conduct Research in Geography’ at one of our partner schools. Though the target audience for the workshop was the students and the idea was to present them with the opportunity of “International Geography Youth Summit” (IGYS), this is the mindset shift that happened in one of the four teachers, who attended. 

Moving on to the students now, during the workshop itself, I witnessed the passion for research shine into students’ eyes. They were seeing what they could do, the things they could find; more importantly it was one of the rare occasions when they were told to put efforts in things that really mattered to them. I clearly remember Sai Mahima from that day and how she spoke about the problem of garbage in her community. She saw it everywhere, she said. She actually went ahead to think if her research could create an impact.  When 15 year olds of a community start thinking this way, something good is bound to happen there.

A few days later, students started coming to me with the general problem of being unable to ‘choose their topics’. These extremely bright and interested students were genuinely struggling with choosing what they wanted to study. I feel, in our Indian Education System, the liberty to choose comes too late. Even when it comes, the impact of the decision is usually huge due to a plethora of ‘reasons’ like the economic condition etc. and hence, students don’t end up being the completely independent decision makers. Hence, it wasn’t exactly surprising when the students struggled at this point. We had a discussion and a round of elimination of topics with the teams and viola, there has been no looking back. 

One team has chosen to study the drainage system in their team mate’s community. There are open drains in Headmaster’s Layout and he faces frequent problems; another decided to study how an industry is interacting with the environment in the Bommasandra Industrial area and Sai Mahima’s group is obviously working on the effects that garbage has on the people in her community.

Each day these 9 students (from the 3 teams) come to me with new findings, struggles and ideas. Their resolve to conduct and find solutions to their research problems is intensifying with each passing day. Sometimes, their faces now reflect the ‘joy of finding things out’. After all, it is the insatiable curiosity that bells the learning cat. I feel extremely privileged to be able to witness this in these nine souls. As for the teacher, I can only imagine the magnitude of positive impact that she is now going to create for generations of students to come.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Shikha Bohra, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.  

Science means unlimited fun!

- This blog piece has been submitted by Ms. Revathi Menon - a School Transformation Lead at MANTRA.

As I enter 7^th 'A', my attention falls on Maaz, a chirpy enthusiastic kid, blowing his lungs out into a piece of straw. I shot a glance at the rest of the room only to find a bunch of other kids doing a similar action; another set of kids were making tiny holes in their tiny straws and trying to squeeze in another straw through it. I look around for the teacher; she was silently observing the class. My attention is then suddenly disturbed by a strong yet calm voice saying “are you doing it correctly”, and from the crowd, I see a tall, thin gentleman rise from the bench where he was seated and he was smiling amongst all the chaos and clearly happy with all the attention he was receiving.

Suddenly, Nadiya runs up to me and squeals with excitement “ma’am, look my toy is working.!” and dips her straw into a glass of water and blows from the other end and the toy squirts out some water in a circular motion that seemed like a sprinkler to me. A few of her friends gathered around her to examine the toy and questioned her on how it worked so perfectly! Nadiya replied with a clear hint of pride in her tone, “did you not see sir place the straws? The angle needs to be right, come I will help you” and she goes skipping with her friends tailing behind her.

This is just one of the many happy classroom stories. Science classes have gone through a radical change in the school. Gone are the days where science classes were all about the million definitions, the book back exercises and neat note books. The school always had a vision to provide a holistic education to children and Mantra envisions to make this a reality, hence Partnering with Innovation and Science Promotion Foundation (ISPF), we have found the perfect way to make the science classes come alive in the classroom.

ISPF is a foundation that helps children learn the various concepts of science through their various toys. They set up labs in school where they provide all the materials required to make these toys. They conduct regular ongoing training sessions with the teachers to map the curriculum with the toys and help them with instructional support.

Someone once said, “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge”. Science cannot be contained within the four walls of the classroom or in their textbooks, science makes sense when a child is allowed to experience it.  With the involvement of ISPF in the classrooms, science now seems like a fun class to be in.

To Quote Shabir (a student), “ma’am lets have 2 periods of science everyday”. 

Now this is where I see my purpose of education.

Filling the world with hope..!

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”, said Mr Barack Obama. 

Mitisha Dodderi and Prakhar Saxena are two such amazing individuals, who are filling the world with hope in their own way. Both of them are currently in the third year of their engineering and when they are not busy decoding the mysteries of Computer Science, they teach Mathematics to the students of grade 10th at one of our partner schools.

Mitisha, who wants to take up teaching as a profession, writes, "I love helping people and sharing my knowledge; and I often help out my friends or cousins with their curriculum. Since, I had a liking to teaching and was considering teaching as a profession I thought volunteering to teach would be a wonderful start."   

She adds,"My journey with Mantra4Change has been incredible. It has been a delight to teach math to the 10th grade students. Every day that I spend with these amazing students has been imprinted in my mind. The students have been extremely co-operative and welcoming. Although a talkative lot, they are bright and eager to learn. Teaching them is something I to look forward to every single day. This opportunity has made my will stronger to take up teaching as a profession."

Prakhar is a gaming enthusiast and loves to spend his time programming on computers. Sharing his experience of being a teacher to grade 10th students, he smilingly says, "The voyage has been a roller coaster ride for me. Although, I have work experience in the technical field, I was a newbie in the teaching field before I grabbed onto the wonderful opportunity provided by Mantra4Change. Teaching maths to these students has been an adventure, which every person must look forward to and one must experience the joy in sharing knowledge at least once before dying. Bill Nye, an American scientist, aptly quoted, 'Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don't'. So, not only sharing knowledge, but gaining knowledge from the 10th graders also held much importance while volunteering for such an amazing opportunity. It feels like I am crafting the future of the young India in some sense."

Its said that Volunteers are not paid - not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless. Mitisha and Prakhar are two of such priceless gems of our team at Mantra4Change, who are filling the world around them with hope. We feel so privileged to have them with us. Way to go, guys..!

Every morning, I wake up with a purpose..!

I am Azra Bano and I teach grade 4 students in a Government school. I am glad to share some amazing moments of my life.

I had finished my secondary school in 2011 and joined the Pre-university College to pursue Science. I did well in my PU College. But I was not allowed to study further. In the year 2014, I had to stay at home, looking after my parents. That was also a very good experience of my life, but soon I realized that I wanted to achieve more in my life. I used to see girls around my house, who were never given a chance to go to school. I used to feel sad for them because I knew what they were missing in life.

I wanted to share the knowledge that I had got throughout my years at college and school, but did not know where to start. Then one fine morning, one of my friends told me about the teacher training program by Mantra at a Government school in our community. Immediately, I went there and enquired about the program. I submitted my application and after interview, I was selected. I was so happy. It felt like my dream was about to come true.

Today, after 6 months, I spend my time with 25 amazing students from grade 4. I am their class teacher. I have learnt so much in these past months. Training sessions were fantastic and even today, they are fun. I maintain my logbook to record my lesson plans. I have learnt interesting ways to teach English and Maths. I conduct many fun activities in my class to teach the subjects. Actually I am supposed to spend my time teaching the kids, but the fact is I am also learning so much from them. I am enjoying every moment and want to remain in such an environment forever. My life has become beautiful and every morning, I wake up with a purpose- a purpose to help my students learn better. 

The post has been submitted by Ms. Azra Bano, one of the teachers from our pre-service, community-based teacher training program.

..when those beautiful smiles appeared all over..!

At MANTRA, we understand that education and health cannot be seen in isolation. Health education is an integral part of education. And hence, we conduct regular awareness sessions for our school children on various preventive healthcare topics, like hygiene, sanitation, how to prevent malaria & dengue etc. This also helps us build great rapport with our students.

After one of such sessions, Shalini, a 12 year old girl from grade 7th at one of our partner Govt schools came to us and hesitantly, asked us some questions around menstruation. She had got her first 'period' a week back and her mind was full of confusing questions. Afraid to ask her mother at home, she had only discussed this with one of her elder cousin sisters, who herself did not have answers to all questions. We knew we had to address this.

So, we contacted Aunna at Pasand. 

They have a well-defined program for students to 'understand puberty and personal hygiene, examine gender norms and to be safe and happy on their journey through adolescence'. She readily agreed to conduct the 3-day workshop for our children at the school. 

Students loved the session. There were so many things they were being told for the first time. They felt relaxed after knowing that menstruation was a normal occurrence for any girl/woman and that they were not facing an unknown. The activities during the workshop was fun-filled. Gradually the girls started finding it less awkward and less uncomfortable to talk openly with the facilitator. Questions started pouring in. 

We repeatedly tell our students it is important to understand what is happening and why is it happening; More importantly, they should call out for help whenever they need it. Ignorance is definitely not bliss under such circumstances. Knowledge gives confidence and confidence is indispensable to one's life. As our girls shed their veils of embarrassment, they became more candid and gradually, the room was filled with those beautiful smiles all over again. 

Bengaluru Marathon 2015 and MANTRA's Run2Liberate

18 Oct 2015:

It was a beautiful Sunday morning and the City of Bengaluru woke up to thousands of running enthusiasts participating in the Bengaluru Marathon 2015. People have different reasons to run at such events; some run for pleasure, some run to test their fitness etc. At MANTRA, we ran for the cause of quality education reaching all those amazing and awesome students, studying in under-resourced, low-fee schools. We had our 'Run2Liberate'*.

Two members of team MANTRA participated in the Half Marathon (21 KMs) to spread awareness about the issue of quality education for the less-privileged and to raise funds for our Target (Pre-service community teacher training) program. We understand that what started as a program to create a pool of effective teachers for our students in the under-privileged community had today turned into a skill-building and empowering experience for the (educated) youth in the community. And hence, we took it upon ourselves to raise the required resources and to continue this program for many more batches of community teachers.

We reached out to our supporters, friends and family to contribute to this cause. And today we stand overwhelmed with their support..! Thanks to our awesome supporters whose faith in us has and would always continue to encourage us to test & expand our limits, whether physical or intellectual.

* Run2Liberate: MANTRA's crowd-source fundraising campaign to support its pre-service community teacher training program

Joining hands with Govt teachers

Recently, Mantra was invited by Mrs. Nagarathnamma, BEO- South Range II, Bangalore to conduct training for Govt English teachers in her block on use of phonetics in classrooms. The training session was conducted at the BRC, Hosahalli School and was attended by 22 teachers and 2 CRPs (Cluster Resource Person).

Our team at Mantra was overwhelmed by the response, we received. The excitement among teachers was contagious. They loved the way sounds of alphabets could be used in classrooms to introduce new words. The games and activities that were planned as part of the session saw enthused participation. Even as the clock ticked 5:00 PM, teachers showed no sign of hurry to head home. Some of the teachers stayed back asking us various questions. It was amazing to be part of such a group.

Seeing the positive response, one of the CRPs, Mrs. Nirmala Mary has asked us to further conduct this training for more teachers in schools of her cluster. We look forward to joining hands with these new set of teachers to take the best practices forward.

Bringing parents and teachers together - one STEP at a time.

At Mantra, we religiously believe in the power of collaboration and purposeful participation. Establishing an effective school-community connect is, hence an important aspect of our initiative, STEP (School Transformation and Empowerment Project). We consciously work on this in all our partner schools. Here's a story from one of our Government partner schools.

The school principal is an amazing lady who supported the idea of inviting parents and community members to school with great enthusiasm. Parents were familiar to the concept of parents-teachers meeting, but hadn't expected finding us at their doorsteps with the invitation. Four of the SDMC members, whom we lovingly call 'Didi' accompanied us to several houses in the not-so-closely-knit community. Thanks to their expert guidance within the narrow lanes , we could invite many parents personally; and in the process, gulped down countless cups of tea. Some of the women would just not permit us to leave without having tea. Seema didi (one of the students' mother) actually smilingly 'threatened' us that if we didn't take tea, she won't come for the meeting. Quite a deal..!

Since then, we have conducted four such meetings. And the attendance has seen a constant steep rise. Parents come to school on days of these meetings and ensure that they bring along 2-3 extra community members with them. Next, these parents proudly take the visitors to the classrooms and explain the purpose of various charts that have been put on the walls. These expressions of happiness and pride are priceless. Parents have voluntarily agreed that to cooperate with teachers to keep track of their children's learning. The school diary has now become a medium for two-way communication.

And now comes the best and the most recent part of the story..!
During our last meeting, parents suggested that we should fix first Saturday of every month as the Parents-Teachers meeting day. Whoa..! The school principal, teachers and us were completely taken by surprise because we had been internally discussing along the same lines. And so, we agreed.....instantly.

Any of you, reading this blog want to see how community comes together to participate and contribute in the process of their children's learning, please write to us and we will take you to the site of this amazing action..!

MANTRA Programs - an introduction

MANTRA an an organization is committed to the cause of Education and Healthcare. Aligned with the vision, "To champion the never-ending quest for a better world through our innovative models and projects, making Education and Health the flywheel of development"

MANTRA began its sojourn in the year 2012 with the launch of two Programs:

1. TaRgET (Talent Recognition, Engagement and Training)

Through this, we aim to prepare children for an increasingly competitive world - one that requires our children to have skills over and beyond prescribed.  

TaRget aims at identifying outstanding young talent across socio-economic spectrum through various products and projects and provide them with opportunities in form of mentorship, scholarship and other such vehicle/s so as to ensure that such talent have a successful and impactful careers in the long term.

2. PreCIOUS (Preventive Care for Inhabitants of Urban Slums)

PreCIOUS is MANTRA's attempt to promote the myriad aspects of  Preventive healthcare in day-to-day lives, especially for the economically challenged. 

With rising cost of curative healthcare (treatments), do those residing in slums, under unhygienic and inhuman circumstances, have an alternative than getting into debts? Yes. 

PreCIOUS aims at raising the healthcare related awareness among the mass and at promoting the cost-effective solutions to a healthy & smiling life.