Literature review
Hi folks! Recently I saw a news article about the introduction of unified curriculum for all schools in Pakistan. This is an amazing reform by the State of Pakistan but I and my team are strong advocates of the fact that cramming is not education. No matter what reforms you bring up if you are not fostering the true essence of education among children then it can not be considered education.
The word education is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. The word Education according to etymology has its roots to Latin word ēducātiō which means bringing up, rearing or breeding. This shows that cramming the bookish knowledge is by no means a form of education. In fact science says children deserve to EXPERIENCE an education that aligns with core strengths and reinforces other skills necessary for personal and professional growth. Learning is an individual process, and what works for one person may not work for another. Thus multisensory learning is an effective way of educating children. In a report by D.G. Treichler, as cited in the journal “Trends in Cognitive Sciences,” he stated that “People generally remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, and 50% of what they see and hear.” Another psychologist Dr. Haig Kouyoumdjian states in a Psychology Today article that “…our brain is mainly an image processor, not a word processor.”
Mission:
Keeping these facts in mind Circle seven undertook the initiative to introduce an experience learning center in a very remote area of Peshawar with scarcity of urban schooling facilities. Targeting children of grades 1 to 2 is ambition as this is the prime foundational age of learning, experiencing and integrating into the society.
Vision:
We believe that children are sanjay. We envision an equal opportunity of multisensory learning for all children.We have sown the seed and want everyone to nourish it to budding sapling and then to a strong tree. So that no child ever feels deprived.
Planning:
Under the flag of Amal Academy we got an opportunity to turn our dream into reality. We group of eight members also known as Circle 7 held a meeting on April 8th, 2021 to decide on the scope of the project. We discussed what our project should look like, what to include and what not to include. What can be covered within the given duration and be most effective.So we decided that a suitable classroom that had the basic needs to meet an urban 21st century educational needs of students would be a great starting point. These 21st century needs of a classroom includes
- Flexibility of furniture and space
- Areas for collaborative learning and independent study
- Facilitation of movement
- Fostering of inspiration and creativity
- Technology
- Light and bright colors
Focusing on last three needs according to the age group we were targeting we decided to equip the classroom with modern Visual Learning Equipment such as Projector with USB interface, LCD etc along with painting classroom with bright and refreshing colors and artwork to inspire and educate the students to grow and learn through experiences and senses such as vision, hearing and touch.
Responsibilities:
Muhammad Haris:
Survey of the school was an immediate requirement to get to the situation of the classrooms at the earliest. This duty was assigned to Muhammad Haris who is a faculty member at the public sector school we are targeting. Since it is a government sector school hence subject to ignorance.
Uswa Baig:
Financial Management is one of the most crucial steps for any project. This duty was assigned to me to keep a record of all the spending and funding along with the receipts to maintain the inflow and outflow. She was also given the duty to do documentation of the entire project.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W5rPMClw4TDAT06qFQQZQAo3sgJY3W5XfMQ4ZcFB-7A/edit?usp=sharing
Zoya and Shanza:
Zoya and Shanza are the social media directors along with Talha as a graphic designer. These three were given the task to design the social media pages and grab the attention of the audience to spread awareness about the social cause.
https://web.facebook.com/Model-Classroom-106585101596406
Akhunzada and Mehmood:
Akhunzada and Mehmood were given the task to do a market survey to get the best possible prices of the products required such as technological equipment, paint, painter, furniture repair etc.
Abdur Rehman, Haris, Talha and Uswa:
We all were given the responsibility to get the funding from our close circle to execute the entire process smoothly.
Classroom survey:
Haris is a junior teacher of grade 17 in the government sector school in remote areas of Peshawar. He is one of the most dedicated teachers in the community and wants to bring change in the lives of his students. He has faced a lot of friction in doing so from his own people and school administration despite this he is relentless in his mission.
Situation Before:
Following are the pictures of the school that is in very bad condition.
These classrooms have never gone under renovation or repair since the school was made nor the furniture has ever changed. However, we were happy to see a white board hanging that showed that the world is changing gradually. We decided to renovate the classroom shown above by installing modern tech equipment.
Funds Collection:
Since we all were newbies in this field of operational social work, we were not sure about how much funds we require for this project. So we divided our funding plan into two halves to be pocket friendly for everyone.
In our first half, we estimated the expense of painting the room and gathered a lump sum amount whose details are given below in the spreadsheet below.
Medium for funds collection:
We raised a total of Rs.10,000 (Ten thousand rupees) from external sources which include teachers and staff of the school and volunteers thorough box collection. We also contributed for this noble cause as a group, 1000 rupees per head or as per someone’s financial capability. We did not want to force others or pressurize them as firstly this was a volunteer work for a noble cause of nation building, secondly we raised a huge sum in our last project of Edhi Foundation donation. So it was a little troublesome to approach people for money and donations again and again. So the majority of our funding was from our own pocket money and self funded. However, we were lucky enough to convince people to give us discounts on paints and other equipment as this was for a noble cause. In fact I would really like to appreciate the efforts of our painter who subsidized his services for the future of children.
Total Funds:
Total funds collected in the first half of our financial plan was Rs.14,000 /- through self and external funding.
Financial Plan:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W5rPMClw4TDAT06qFQQZQAo3sgJY3W5XfMQ4ZcFB-7A/edit?usp=sharing
Hurdles in Funds Collection:
We faced a lot of challenges in collection of funds, I think maybe the timing was the biggest factor. Eid was approaching, it was locked down so we had no physical contact with the masses to request for donation. We had already used our online platforms for collecting donations for Edhi Foundation literally two weeks ago. It was tough but we still managed to collect a sum of Rs.10,000 /- from our external sources. In this difficult time we needed a strategy to get some money to start our project. We decided to bootstrap. We collected minimum possible funds to buy paint and other wall repairing material such as cement, sand paper and plaster of paris, distemper and chalk to embark on our journey. We planned to collect more money along the way according to our needs. This would give people a break from continuous donation. Eid would have ended by then and then we can ask our fellows to contribute a bit from their handful of Eidi.
Social Media Campaign:
We wanted to spread the word and our work as soon as possible but without a proper campaign planning we were destined to fail. Search Engine Optimization is a technique that helps to increase the engagement of a social media page and takes continuous posting into account. So after creating a Facebook page Zoya, Shanza and Talha decided to design a campaign that contained posters, taglines and captions. Talha is our graphic designer. The work of the campaign is under progress and we have enough stock of posts piled up. We will start engaging through our social media platform.
https://web.facebook.com/Model-Classroom-106585101596406
Social Media Statistics:
These will be shared in our next and final blog. Engaging through social media is our next step of the plan.
https://web.facebook.com/Model-Classroom-106585101596406
Appreciations:
I would really like to appreciate the efforts of Talha for offering his services as a graphic designer for free and also Muhammad Haris to take his time out of visit school and facing backslash. Zoya, Uswa and Shanza were very punctual in all the meetings and showed keen interest in all activities and providing support to all other group members from virtual platforms. And again we can not forget the philanthropic passion of the painter who trusted us and subsidized his services.
Learnings:
The experience of our Mega Project, Model Classroom has taught us a lot. It has taught how we can bring change in the world by small baby steps. I want to share the lyrics of one of my favorite songs that shows how much responsibility we have on our shoulders and how much obliged we are to pay back to the world.
There comes a time
When we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
Oh, and it’s time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
We can’t go on
Pretending day-by-day
That someone, somewhere soon make a change
We’re all a part of God’s great big family
And the truth, you know, love is all we need
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day, just you and me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSozptLRGF4
Timeline:
Plan for next 4 weeks:
This week will be spent drying up the paint and repairing material. We have planned that in the next week, we will work towards murals and colorful wall art. Our last task that is installing visual learning equipment will be bought and installed in the third week and the last week will be utilized for documentation, winding up the tasks, as a buffer period and social media campaign.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —The End.