Ten schools across the nation have been given the title of 'Changemaker Schools' as they work with main aim to come out with new initiatives in the prevailing education system so that students in the long run are able to bring about developmental changes in the society. The schools got the recognition at -day conclave 'Ashoka Changemaker Schools' which was conducted in New Delhi.
SELECTION PROCESS
The conclave was organized so as to provide a platform to the principals, teachers, students and parents from the different schools to interact and engage with social entrepreneurs from throughout the nation who are toiling day and night to come out with approaches to education. The initiative was undertaken by the Ashoka Foundation which has Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi associated with it.
The felicitated schools were selected after a survey which was conducted on 60 schools located in 30 different cities across the nation. The schools were shortlisted on the basis of their commitment to influence and help others at large in the education sector.
Vishnu Swaminathan who is the South Asia representative, leadership group member of Ashoka was of the view "With the change maker initiative we are striving to change mind-sets and catalyze changes through schools and across the wider ecosystem so that every child could be provided with environments and experiences that are exclusively designed to foster change making skills."
THE TEN SCHOOLS
The TEN SCHOOLS who have been given the title of 'Changemaker Schools are Digantar Vidyalaya (Jaipur) Riverside School (Ahmedabad) R N Poddar School (Mumbai), KCT Vidyaniketan (Pune), TVS Academy (Hosur), Vidyodaya School (Gudalur), Headstart Learning Centre, (Chennai), Uday Community School (Sawai Madhopur), Muni International School (Delhi) and The Heritage School (Gurgaon).
How these Schools have become 'Changemaker Schools'?
Riverside School from Ahmedabad has taken the initiative of change making by adding 'Feel, Imagine, Do and Share framework' in their curriculum which let the faculty teach the academic subjects through empathy.
Headstart Learning Centre from Chennai has set up the Elina Resource Centre which helps the children suffering from disability participate into regular classes by which children are consciously taught to be empathetic problem solvers.
Uday Community School from Jaganpura, Sawai Madhopur sends each teacher to adopt two government schools in the nearby villages to build a mind-set of quality education across the district in Rajasthan.
FUTURE PLANS
In the long run the schools would be a part of the larger Ashoka network of leading social entrepreneurs, business people, media and academics and will lead the conversation on changing education in the country by regular outreach, innovation labs and creating toolkits of best practices
Schools will also be required to work on joint projects - either with each other, Ashoka Fellows or with Ashoka Foundation. The projects could be like storytelling or leading conferences in education or building a toolkit - towards building and assessing change maker skills.
