Sikshana
(A programme of Sivasri Charitable Trust)

NURTURING, EMPOWERING AND
IMPROVING GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

The summer camps conducted in schools adopted by Sikshana has received overwhelming response from teachers and students. 108 Sikshana schools participated in the camp, making it a successful initiative. The intention of the camp was to hone the skills of the students, increase their confidence and interest levels in academics. Activities such as art and craft, extempore speeches, talks by resource persons and games were conducted for the students, which helped them build confidence and leadership qualities.

As a part of the summer camp activities, students of Kanakapura schools visited KSRTC bus depot. 25 students visited the bus depot and interacted with the drivers, mechanics, conductors and managers. It was an enriching experience for the students as it was first of its kind experience for them and was different from the usual academic schedule.

Summer camp students interacting with KSRTC staff member in Kanakapura Bus depot.

Children in summer camps held in Kalghatagi, Kanakapura, Halasuru and Harapanahalli, participated in art and craft activities, which involved, clay modeling, paper craft, drawing and painting. Students of Kanakapura schools were taught to make envelopes, which was a not only a fun activity but a learning tool to understand the concepts of geometry.

Paper Envelopes ...

Fun with Paper Crafts...

Clay modeling ...

To enhance the quality of learning and increase the interest level amongst children, local experts and resource persons from various fields were invited to the schools where summer camps were held. The resource persons shared their personal and professional experiences, which inspired the children. In addition they shared their knowledge on the topics and subjects they were well versed in. Some of the topics discussed by the resource persons included music, languages, mathematics, science and craft.

The book project implemented as an activity for the summer camp showed tremendous response from the children in Halasuru government school. This activity designed by two Belgian resource persons, Stephanie and Louis, was implemented on a trial basis in this school. The children were divided into groups and each group did an activity based on the story of a book assigned to them. This evoked interest in the children to read books. To sustain the interest levels, around 400 books were distributed to 5 local shops in the vicinity of the school. The children could borrow books from these shops every day and could return to the nearest shop after reading. The shops maintained a log of the books borrowed by the children and this evoked keen interest in the children to read books.

‘Early start’ is a new initiative under Sikshana program focused on the high school students who will appear for the board exam in 2013. This was run across all the 118 high schools under Sikshana in Ramnagaram district and Kalghatgi Taluk, Dharwad.

Why ‘Early start’?

• To ensure teachers start teaching 10th class children on day 1 of the academic session. Prior to this initiative, the teachers could not start teaching since students would not attend school full strength the first few days, leading to delay in starting classes.
• To make an impact statement on the students that 10th class exam is something entirely new and it requires extra effort to clear the board exams.

How was it done?

• The classes were started on May 7th, three weeks ahead of the reopening of academic session.
• The permission to run the camp was obtained from the parents of the students and in some cases the SDMC (School Development Management Committee) helped in running the program.
• Sikshana hired temporary teachers from the local area to help run the camp.
• Few government school teachers and Headmasters/headmistress also participated voluntarily.
• Teachers, Sikshana Mentors and External resource persons helped in counseling students about options post 10th class, the approach need to clear the exam and the help they will get from Sikshana.
• Students were encouraged and motivated through games and other recreational activities.