BASE Camps for Afterschool

BASE is the Bangalore Association of Science Education. BASE focuses on non-formal science education. It offers workshops, exhibitions, summer camps, etc., for school-age children. For more information go this this link and see under BASE. The website also offers a sky chart for every month - you will find it at this link.

Media Literacy Afterschool

A young girl took her life over fear of the world coming to an end following the start of the LHC experiment. Amidst the fierce competition between TV channels for dishing out sensational news - a life is lost.

It brings home some harsh facts:

• If you do not give people the right information - they will have access to only the wrong information
• People have any number of information sources today - but do they have access to media literacy skills?

Media literacy should be a core part of any afterschool curriculum - how to access information and how to critically evaluate the information you access.

Afterschool services in India also need to have many avatars - there are thousands of school drops outs like the unfortunate 16 year old who will benefit from a non-formal flexible educational experience. Is there a local learning club that she could have gone to - to discuss her fears and to seek facts? I find it so disturbing that the child was constantly asking her family questions about the end of the world. She did not get her answer...

My dream is to have a network of afterschool learning centres that anyone can walk into - to learn and to share their own learning and life experience.

Experience Science Afterschool!

"Children experience science everyday from dawn to dusk. But, how much of this science do they truly analyze, appreciate, apply or even understand?" This question is from the Anubhava Science Centre's website. I think it expresses the core concern which led to its creation.

Anubhava Science Centre is a facility in Bangalore that lets children learn science by doing. It caters to children in the age group 5-10 years. Children spend time choosing and doing science experiments for an hour every week. (I like the choosing part the best - it is so tough for an adult to actually let a child choose!)

We need so many of such facilities - one in every residential locality!

School with Afterschool

Schools in India have started offering afterschool programmes. Wonder what took them so long! A lot of teachers, of course, offered tutions at their home. A great majority of children attended these tutions. In fact, goign to an afterschool tution is considered the norm for many. At about 6 or 7 in the evening, it is common to see children lugging their school bags home from the tution class.

A well-respected school in Hyderabad recently put out an ad in the newspaper for an afterschool programme. I should say it is a pioneering facility - considering the comprehensiveness and scale of what is being offered.

Schools have a ready advantage when it comes to offering afterschool services - they have everything at their disposal - qualified teachers, infrastructure and a 'captive' customer base. But for the children...

the good stuff -

• you get to go to another good school - you benefit from teachers, infrastructure that your school may not offer
• you get a place to go to afterschool - that is more secure than just staying at home all by yourself (if both parents are working, and there are no grandparents at home)
• you get a range of activities to choose from (academic and non-academic) - a better alternative than watching TV

the bad stuff -

• another school! come on!!
• you need time to be a kid - in an environment that is as close to home as possible - you wouldn't want to sit in classrooms again!
• will school teachers be different afterschool? afterschool programmes don't need teachers - they need mentors

This list needs adding to but I guess it is good for starters.

Move it! Afterschool

Sports education used to be something most Indian parents thought about only when an Indian won an Olympic gold!

Thank fully, things have started changing...

Jelly Beans is a first-of-its-kind activity centre in Bangalore focusing on movement education for preschool and kindergarten children. It has 4 different programs tailored to age-groups from toddlers upwards. With a 1:7 trainer:child ratio, international standards, and a curriculum filled with non-competitive yet challenging activities, Jelly Beans is a useful service for children with no access to open play spaces and playmates.

Afterschool Guidelines

Afterschool programmes in India are not yet structured as in several other countries. There are no guidelines to help you with key decisions such as the children : staff ratio. I found this document (13 Indicators of Quality Childcare - a research update prepared by the Pennsylvania State University) very useful.

It suggests a child : staff ratio for the 9-12 age group at 12 : 1 with a maximum group size of 24. Suits my own centre! On staff qualifications it says that the director of a child care centre must have an academic qualification in child development (or a related discipline - elementary education), qualification/experience in administration and teaching experience. It also says that centres shall have licensed teaching staff. Again, I'm quite close!

Just how many Afterschool Programs out there?

There are several afterschool centres in Indian cities - but how many are there? what do they offer? This is one area where a rigorous search is needed.

They are several websites listing classifieds - one such site on Hyderabad city lists 120 entries under the category afterschool activities. Searching the same site for dance and music classes threw up 83 entries for music and 122 entries for dance. Even after accounting for cross-listing, that is a substantial number for one city. How about Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai? How about smaller cities and towns? A quick search only frustrated me - I know that there are lots - but they are not being captured!