Kajoli Model in India
Lotus Feet School is a Nursery School for the underprivileged children. Born on 3rd of April 2012, it is located at Kamdhenudham Gaushala, Carterpuri, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon. The children get their education in an interesting and enjoyable learning environment along with meals, medical support and assistance to get admitted into good primary schools after nursery.
Gurukul Kalpataru, started on 17th Feb, 2013 as a Learning Center for Culture Education and Training. It runs the after-school-hours extracurricular activities like homework support, English, Hindi, Maths, Sport, Self-Defense, Painting, Dance, Music, Yoga and Indian Heritage Arts and Crafts. The Gurukul aims at creating a platform for holistic personality and skill development among the children.
In these two schools Dr Bari visited us and inspired our teachers to start experimenting and we are now introducing the Kajoli Model for learning Hindi. The Kajoli Model is being developed for the Hindi Language is in the first phase of the pilot study. The first four set of cards have been created based on the Bengali Language cards. This phase of the testing is helping the teachers to learn how to help children to learn, instead of ‘teach’. It is also sensitizing the children to this new system of learning. Besides, it is helping us choose the cards that the children can easily identify and learn from.
We at the Gaushala are very excited about the fun way of learning. Our next step is to compile the traditional rhymes and songs into a book which can be used by the facilitators and the children. We have already started inviting the mothers to come and participate in some school activities. We hope to start implementation of the full Kajoli Model for Hindi Language learning by July of 2014.