Teachers’ Learning Centre: Hub of change

20^th March, 2017. A remarkable day for all of us at Mantra4Change.

Normally, Monday is the devil in working people’s lives as it follows the day of relief, but at Mantra4Change, Mondays have always been different and so was March 20^th. It was the day our Teachers’ Learning Centre (TLC) at Goripalya got officially inaugurated. The hard work put in to create the space, to make it effective for teachers and above all, succeeding in making the teachers see the value in it was finally going to be put in public. As any big day starts, this too began with a lot of apprehensions and fits of nervous activity. We were all set with our big plans and all the preparations, but somewhere we were anxious if invitees would turn up. The reason was the choice of date. It was the first day of exams in the government schools and most of our private partner schools too. We had prepared ourselves for a low attendance. Little did we know, what awaited us was more than we expected. 

The event started at 2 P.M and then came the big surprise. All the chairs that we had put in the room were filled with SDMC members, partner school principals and teachers. It was enriched by the presence of our chief Guests- Mrs. Kumari Shibulal, who has been constantly supporting Mantra through her foundation, Mrs. Nagarathnamma, the Block Education Officer South Range-II, who managed to join us despite her busy schedule with the exams in government schools and Dr. Anupama Purohit, who has been a mentor to us at Mantra. These special guests didn’t only inaugurate our TLC Space, but also inspired all of us by their childhood stories and words of wisdom about the relevance a teacher in a student’s life and importance of teachers to be lifelong learners.

It was a pure delight to see the room come alive with enthusiastic people who participated as well as shared their wonderful experiences at the TLC so far. One of the partner school Principals, Mr. Ayub Pasha went on to say that the TLC should be renamed as “Creativity Studio” because it provides a platform to the teachers to explore their potential and unleash their “Out of the box” Thinking! 

What more could we ask for..! We had got the Change makers, the School leaders and the nurturers of a child’s life under the same roof talking about innovative teaching methods to improve the quality of education that our schools currently offer. This definitely looked like a dream come true. Read our previous blog to explore the purpose of the TLC.

This day indeed will be etched in our memories not because of what happened but because what it symbolizes in our long quest of educational equity. We can now finally say, that the ripples of change have started forming.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Poonam Shukla, 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.

Mantra4Change: The journey of 2015

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it. - Greg Anderson

At MANTRA, our journey during this last one year has been truly magical. 

Our associations and partnerships have grown tremendously. As we reflect, we feel elated that through our initiative STEP (School Transformation and Empowerment Project), we have been able to put our partner schools on a path to provide quality education to our children.

From implementing STEP in three partner schools, we are currently in partnership with nine under-resourced schools, which are working with a singular vision of providing education to children coming from neighbouring under-privileged communities.

One major component of STEP is ongoing, in-service professional development for teachers. Today, we are part of a 230 members' strong teacher community. As we work together, we keep learning from each other and keep sharing the best practices.

Across our 9 partner schools, there are approx. 7100 students who are being positively affected by the improved quality of teaching in schools.

As we move to greater number of schools, our own team at MANTRA is growing too. From a two-member on-field team in Jan 2015, today as the year comes to an end, Mantra4Change has an amazing team of seven mavericks, who are passionately working towards the vision of providing high-quality education to children, no matter what background do they come from.

We thank all our amazing supporters and awesome volunteers, who have joined us in this amazing and beautiful journey. Lets weave an even more beautiful and inspiring story together in the new year..! 

Coffee and Conversation @MANTRA

With Mr. Sanjay Purohit and Dr. Anupama Purohit

This article is a part of MANTRA’s blog series, “Coffee and Conversation”. At MANTRA, we invite inspirational figures to meet and share their experiences with our team over coffee. With a hope that these recollections from our conversations will help and motivate those on a similar path, we will continue to post these. Stay tuned.

It was late in the evening. The candles in the bistro were being lit. It was only then that I realized time had flown past, and I had not a clue. Such was the conversation with the minds sharing the table.

The public education system has always been a cause of concern for many. Few make the effort of converting coffee table conversations into action. A couple that would fall into the latter group of leaders is the Purohits.

Dr Anupama and Mr. Sanjay Purohit, on the outside, seem like any other couple. Sanjay strolled into the café with a wide smile followed closely by Anupama, who shared the same warmth. It’s only when one gets to interact with them that the couple’s work and passion for education at large comes to the forefront.

Our guests for the evening

The combination of Sanjay, who is currently the Senior VP and Global Head, Products, Platforms and Solutions at Infosys Ltd., and Dr. Anupama, Program Manager at Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (a Bangalore-based NGO), had to be the perfect recipe for inspiration for a team of young dreamers and doers such as those in Mantra4Change.

Wisdom for Newbies

Encouraging the members to be a part of something bigger than themselves, Sanjay said, ‘The only goal an organization should have over the first 12 – 18 months is to make the cause bigger than the individuals, who make the organization.’  Having clarity on the ‘why’ always helped, according to him. ‘It’s the ‘why’ you’re doing what you’re doing that gains credibility in the initial phases,’ he added, ‘because leaders in the industry know that the idea may change along the way. It’s the values and the passion that would be the constant guide. Values should always form the core – the nucleus.’ In addition to knowing the reason behind every step taken forward, a strong sense of values and ideals are also important for the organization, according to the Purohits. Stating the example of Infosys itself, Sanjay said that values should be seen as something that cannot be compromised on.  

Lauding the courage of youngsters to step into the development sector and work on the field level, Sanjay also expressed his own desire to be a part of the classroom to gain first-hand understanding of the challenges of being in the classroom and the experience of working in a school.

Getting into the Classroom

Having been a teacher herself, Dr Anupama helped bring the focus of the conversation from the macro to the micro, i.e. to the school/ classroom level. ‘The key to any transformation is to make it a collaborative process,’ she said.  ‘Work with the teachers rather than on them,’ she added, stressing on the need to make teachers and everybody else accountable stakeholders to the growth of the children. 

As the sun went down and the candles were lit, the promenade facing the café filled up with people enjoying the late evening breeze. The Mantra4Change team bid goodbye to the passionate couple, but the thoughts and conversations in their minds had just begun. The aroma of the coffee they shared with the Purohits would stay long after.

This article has been written be Shardha Narayan, a Teach for India fellow 2013-15, who worked passionately and constructively with MANTRA4Change team as a summer intern on STEP (School Transformation and Empowerment project).