Gyan Anant Vidyalaya - Initiative by Mobius Foundation
A remarkable initiative by Mobius Foundation plans to provide all the facilities of an urban schools in rural area. The School is different from other schools as sustainability will be integrated into core curriculum areas and its focus will be on all-round development of children. Vision of the school is to provide quality education in a secure, eco-friendly and a nurturing environment. It will also help students develop pro-active thinking, responsibility and consciousness towards environment.
The school has been set up in the rural area of Ghaziabad near village Atrauli. It has infrastructure comparable to any urban school thus addressing the requirement of best in class infrastructure to reduce urban-rural divide.
Beside shaping up responsible and competent citizens, the emphasis is laid upon spreading knowledge and awareness on sustainability to ensure that children resonate with nature and feel responsible towards their actions (for e.g. throwing garbage, wasting food etc.). The School is also awarded IGBC Green School Platinum rating for sustainable design and development for its infrastructure.
Non Formal Learning
The following list of pedagogies will be opted for some of the types of ‘non-formal learning’ activities that can take place through teaching the curriculum and extra-curricular activity:
- Group work/ Team work
- Student presentations
- Competitive activity
- Lessons designed by students
- School trip, or an overnight stay
- Outdoor activities
- Work in the community/Social work
- Mentoring or support from older students
- Work according to written instructions (e.g. a worksheet)
- Long-term project work
- Hosting guests
- Work experience
Non formal learning will help in Building Character, which could be looked at building base of three character ‘capabilities’:
- Application, or ‘the ability to concentrate, discipline and motivate oneself to persist with and complete a task’
- Self-regulation, or ‘emotional control and emotional resiliency – an ability to bounce back from disappointment, conflict and distress’
- Empathy, or ‘an ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes – and to act in a way that is sensitive to other people’s perspectives’
Extracurricular activities
Extracurricular activities will include music bands, sports(indoor and outdoor), student newspaper, literary, social service, acting & drama, music(vocal and instrumental), cultural activities. These are the Strong pillars of building ‘positive attitude’ in an individual. A list of enrichment activities from, the following broad categories of extra-curricular activity can be outlined as:
- Sports activities (like team or individual sports)
- Creative activities (like art,dance, drama and model-making)
- Volunteering or social action (helping out your community, maintaining cleanliness in school campus and its surrounding, doing things for charity)
- Outdoor activities (like visiting wild life sanctuaries, hiking, camping and trekking)
- Deliberative activities (like debating societies, a model UN, youth parliaments or school elections)
- Uniformed activities (like NCC, Girl Guiding and Scout, traffic controlling or similar organisations)
Extracurricular activities will play the main role for moral character framework for Character Education in Schools, which will include four core dimensions of ‘character’:
- Moral virtues such as courage, honesty, humility and gratitude
- Civic virtues such as service and volunteering – the moral virtues acting in society at large
- Intellectual virtues such as curiosity and critical thinking
- Performance virtues such as resilience, application and self-regulation
With Added focus on integrating the skills of:
- Perseverance, resilience and grit (through the visits to heritage sites and giving the children the feel of our rich culture)
- Confidence and optimism (by encouraging them to participate in debates and open forums)
- Motivation drive and ambition (letting their creativity and imagination flow miles ahead by activities based competitions in arts and science)
- Neighbourliness and community spirit (adopt a village/visits to orphanage and old homes, teaching and caring poor children)
- Tolerance and respect ( team building activities and games)
- Honesty, integrity and dignity (project based activities and work)
- Conscientiousness, curiosity and focus (Yoga, Meditation and value education)
Apart from different activities and skills the school will emphasise on civic education from the beginning to develop the feeling of nationalism by providing instructions about Government history, law and governance and discussion on current/local/national/international issues. The respect for national flag, national song, national property and leaders who sacrificed themselves for the country will be imbibedin the children.
To know more go to: gyananantvidyalaya.org
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