Education to Employability Convocation Programme for High School Students

(July 2010) 

The Convocation Programme of the Education to Employability (E2E) Foundation Course, 2010, organized by Vikramshila Education Resource Society, was held on the 3rd of July, 2010 at G. D. Birla Sabhaghar, Kolkata, West Bengal (India). Renowned industrialist Mr. Harsh Neotia presided the event as Chief Guest. Mr. N.C. Biswas, Director, News, All India Radio was the Guest of Honor. Mr. Satya Gopal Dey from CRY, Ms. Soma Chowdhury from IL & FS ETS and Mr. Samir Ghosh from Kolkata Doordarshan Kendra were also present to encourage the young minds. 304 students from Vikramshila’s partner government schools (10 government aided, Bengali medium schools of Kolkata), Nabadisha centres, Vikramshila’s rural school at Bigha, Burdwan (West Bengal) and Mode Citizenship centre in Titagarh attended the programme along with their teachers and parents.

The programme was organised to was to felicitate the students of these schools who had recently appeared for their board examinations and had successfully completed the E2E Foundation Course, 2010 of the Education to Employability programme which takes them a step towards employability.  

The 120 hours career counseling course was intensively designed to equip the students with the knowledge in 6 main areas- Personal Effectiveness, Social Effectiveness, Personal Work Habits, Workplace Skills, Entrepreneurship Skills and ICT education. 104 students successfully completed the foundation course and were felicitated and certified in the convocation ceremony by the guests.

The guests addressed the children to their level and interest. Mr. Biswas and Mr. Dey related stories from their childhood to encourage the students to think differently, to be confident and explore new sectors. They added that all work was noble and no form of work is unworthy or undignified. They taught a valuable lesson to the students on dignity of labour.

Mr. Neotia addressed the students in a way that would touch their hearts. He chose to narrate four stories about four virtues---- honesty or truthfulness, forgiveness, compassion and courage or fearlessness. Each little story struck cord with the young minds. Mr. Neotia concluded by saying that one must appreciate the beauty of life. He urged them to pray to God, not a smooth life but the ability to fight and overcome obstacles and dangers in their lives.

Representatives from Dr. Reddy’s Foundation, India Skills, CYSEC (Calcutta Youth Self Employment Centre) and IQST (Institute for Quality Skills Training) attended the convocation as well. These institutes are well known in India in offering employment related training to high school students in several areas, following which they assist the students in seeking placements and employment in different sectors, such as Marketing, Retail, Customer Service Food and Beverages etc. The idea was to expose these high school graduate students, to such new opportunities available so that they can develop the necessary skill sets to enter the job market confidently. The skills training institutes had set up desks with their materials and information sheets. Many students expressed interest and registered their names with the different institutes. Some have already visited their training centres and joined the programme. Ms. Shubhra Chatterji, Director, Vikramshila addressed the students encouraging them to explore the diversity of the market in India today.With the new economy a host of new sectors have come up that have very different kinds of opportunities in them.

 She urged students to think out of the box and look beyond traditional employment options, to develop the requisites new skills and confidently step towards their new destinations. 

Mathematics Workshop with Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE)

July 2010 

A 3 days Mathematics workshop was held in collaboration with Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education, in Kolkata in July 2010.  

The workshop was aimed at the middle school level. The resource persons Ms. Shweta Naik, Dr. Aaloka Kanhare and Mr. Amol Parab discussed the concept of mathematization and undertook variety hands on activities on mathematics with the participant group. The importance of concept formation in maths and the aims of mathematics teaching were seen in the light of the NCF 2005 and the position paper of NCERT on mathematics. Assessing mathematics was also taken up as an important area of discussion. The frequent problems of ratio, fractions and proportions faced by students in middle school was taken up . In ‘learning through problems’ the resource persons demonstrated how learning through students error and solutions to know more about mathematics Instruction 

Social Science Workshop with Eklavya

(April 2010) 

A 3 day workshop on Social Science was held at Kolkata, in collaboration with Eklavya, a well known NGO from Bhopal. The resource persons, Ms. Anjali Noronha and Ms. Rashmi Paliwal, interacted with the 30 participants of Vikramshila together and teachers of madrasas.

The nature, pedagogy and assessment of social science was the main area of discussion. Demonstration lessons in conducting history and geography in classroom was taken up by the resource persons, with Eklavya textbooks. In another activity, selected chapters from Eklavya’s textbooks were read and analysed. All the group assignments and activities was in keeping with the objectives of studying history and objectives of studying geography. Blue prints for the development of question papers for assessing history and geography was also discussed.

Childrens Festival for Government High Madrasas

(March 2010)

The government aided Madrasas of West Bengal have become an international model by successfully combining religious and secular education. Another feather was added to the cap when a “Childrens Festival” was organized last week for the 10 model Madrasas that Vikramshila is working with.

The Honourable Minister of Minority Affairs and Madrasa Education, Mr. Abdus Sattar  was deeply moved when he found a large number of children, specially girls, participating confidently in various kinds of competitions, proudly showing off their science exhibits, debating on abolishment of “pass and fail” in school education, letting go their imagination in the creative story writing competition, painting, reciting, playing – in joyous exuberance. As one who has been deeply involved for the past 10 years to bring these institutions on par with other regular schools, the sight filled him with so much joy that he said “he was moved to tears” The atmosphere was charged with enthusiasm and a healthy competitive spirit. The school that finally won the Best Performance Trophy was an “underdog” – this was evident from the emotional outburst of the teachers of the school – who actually broke down when the Trophy was being handed to the children.

The Minister has announced that he would like to have similar festivals held in all the districts involving all the Madrasas.

Such a move will go a long way in boosting the self image of the children and teachers of these institutions.