Abhibhavak Vidyalaya

[Rakesh Gupta]

Hello!

 

I had participated in some meetings about "Abhibhavak Vidyalaya" couple of weeks

back at Raipur/Achhoti.   Abhibhavak Vidyalaya - as many of you may be knowing already - is

a new school started at Raipur.  Smt Anita Dhiren Shah has kindly provided the premises of

Satyam Bal Sansthan for the school, and she is leading this whole effort.  The school is

founded on the principles of Madhyasth-Darshan.  The teachers

don't get any renumeration for the teaching.  Most of the teachers are parents of the children.

There are about 15 children enrolled.  It is a first experiment of its kind, and the teachers are

learning by doing while being totally assured under the guidance of Baba ji.  The teachers, parents,

and some people from the city meet regularly for doing adhyayan alongside, and to reflect over

the learning during the classroom sessions.  The children are the happy lot!  Almost all of them

say that they want to go to school on weekends also!  The teachers shared their experiences of 2-3

weeks at school.  Pawan ji from SIDH shared his insights from his vast experience in the field

of education.  Baba ji addressed the gathering at school premises, talked about the shift in

child psychology which this school is addressing. 

 

We had one meeting in the school about the evaluation (moolyankan) method, taking the

example of the concept of "sambodhan".  Sambodhan is the first concept being

imparted to children - which is about recognizing and addressing one's relationships starting

from family-members.  We discussed - Whether evaluation is needed or not?  What to evaluate? 

How do we go about evaluation?  What is the benchmark for evaluation?  How do we go about

sharing evaluation - with children, with parents?  What is the follow up of evaluation?  There was a

good discussion over this, and we got some ideas collected.

 

I particularly liked Ravi Prakash Sinha ji's presentation at Abhyudaya Sansthan - where he shared

how he went about imparting vidya concepts and also subjects, like mathematics in school.

The prevalent education has partitioned the education content into disparate subjects - like science,

maths, language, etc, with little connectivity across them.  He highlighted the flaw in this

reductionist approach.  However, since not all schools are going to adopt integral-way like

abhibhavak vidyalaya overnight - there is a need to fill the gaps into subject-based curriculums.

He illustrated quite a few examples of how algebra, trignometry, set-theory, etc can be rooted to

reality and co-existential understanding.  I also liked the way in which he went about explaining

the core concepts of darshan to school students, without diluting or altering the content, while still

maintaining the bond with children in their mannerisms, their language, their context.  Ravi ji is from

Gorakhpur, and is the "visiting faculty" of the school.  If you have children or are associated with

schooling, and want to learn more from him - you can call him at +91 9956010585.

Ravi ji may be scheduling a workshop in the coming months for sharing these ideas/experiences.

 

For more details on Abhibhavak Vidyalaya and its progress, and for discussing how you can be

complementary for this initiative - you can contact Anita didi at +91 9009778000.

 

Regards,

Rakesh.