Samanta has been working on Project Based Learning with the - Van Gujjar and Taungya -children across the Shivalik range. The youth - men and women - from the community have been the key enablers. They are the ones who have been working with the children on a daily basis - 2-3 hourly engagement - in groups. Each week a new project is initiated and the children participate using local resources and materials.
The projects have been conceptualised keeping in mind the local resources and context. The process of contextualisation has been engaging as it has brought together the knowledge of community, language, history, culture and experience at play. The project orientation and engagement with youth at the 'CENTRE' has led to -
Youth questioning the pedagogy a lot leading to long conversations around ways of teaching
Community supporting with space and resources for the children to get together
Women from the community acting as the facilitator challenging the social roles and also initiating conversations around education for girl child and women
Stakeholder churning - touch questions for Team Samanta from community on women, girl child and continual education
The projects have also highlighted the following -
Community Language and Knowledge - creating a local ABC
Youth documenting and sharing generational learnings
Piloting some concepts from the Forest Curriculum Framework
We intend to create a content (short books), worksheets and lessons for learning for children via the project engagements.
(TANYA)