SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE AS ADDITIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Now-a-days it has become a major concern for the educational administrators, teacher-trainers, school heads and teachers to ensure the attainment of required learning levels of the children at the end of every class after the enactment of RTE Act 2009 as Section 16 of the RTE Act do not permit any children to be held back in any class. On the other hand, their service decorum does not allow them to let the children be promoted to next higher grade without achieving the required learning levels. Many of the school heads and teachers complain that the children appear not serious on the study as they don’t have the fear of being failure. Further, ‘No Board Examination till the completion of Elementary Education’ stated by the Act in its Section 30(1) also added worries of the teachers. In fact, almost all the teachers before the enactment of the Act were following such classroom processes which allow detention of child in the same grade if the child could not attain the required level of competency for next higher grade. The detention policy in one way was taken as the weapon to threaten the students concerning their study.

Though the RTE Act is in force, some of the school heads and teachers opine to have a chamber somewhere in the system where they can detain the children who cannot acquire the required competencies. This kind of hassles among the educational functionaries shows that they are facing challenges to acclimatize in the new situations brought by the Act.

Whatsoever may be consequence; this has triggered the mind of the educational administrators, teacher-trainers, school heads and teachers now to think about the alternative/additional learning resources to supplement their efforts of attainment of required grade-end competency level among the children. Very often it has been found that the teachers and school heads are demanding Teaching Learning Equipment or support materials to cope with the present situation created by the enactment of the Act.

Many of the situations in our life crave introspection to innovate new ideas to manage the situation. The same situation is with us now for which we need to analyse every possibilities of the materials or funds available with us in the school which may help us to tackle the situation like this. The schools are getting `500/- per teacher every year as Teacher Grant. This can be used to develop low-cost teaching learning materials from the locally available materials. Every teacher is aware of the fact that the locally prepared content and context specific materials can enhance effectiveness of the pedagogical processes. Further, the use of inclusive practices in pedagogy will also minimise the chances of children falling behind in their study.

The aim of this article is primarily to suggest the ideas to develop the school infrastructure as the additional learning resources. It is anticipated that this article will benefit the readers especially those who are in the teaching profession.

We have infrastructure like school building block, toilet block, water reservoir, MDM kitchen shed, etc. in the school campus and the building block itself has lot of spaces other than classrooms like walls, stairs, columns, doors, windows, varandah, etc. In the same way, toilet blocks, water reservoir, kitchen shed, also possess empty spaces that may be developed as learning resources. We can develop such spaces as the learning resources in the following way:

a. Varandah Wall - In the buildings of hilly terrain, mostly three sides of the building are visible. Among these three, the varandah wall remains in the prime place. As such, the school can do maximum use of the varandah wall as learning resource. The lower level of the wall, up to the height of window sill, can be developed as ground level blackboard with series of letters and numbers at the top in a line. This will not only provide scope to the children of 6 years age (Class I) to be familiar with the letters and numbers but also provide them the spaces of free-hand writing practices. The upper part of the wall can be used for drawing content related pictures like water cycle, maps, parts of plant, parts of human body, use of water, use of plants, etc. in attractive colours.

Other two walls of the building can also be used for drawing the pictures of State Animal, National Animal, State Flower, National Flower, etc.

b. Classroom Wall – Classroom wall has high importance in making it as learning resources. This can be used for multiple purposes like hanging grade specific teaching learning materials, displaying children’s works created during activities, preparing classroom profile, displaying children’s achievements, etc. Many of the displays in the classroom wall will keep changing. It is not permanent display as in the case of varandah wall. Thus, the display in the classroom wall has higher implications than the display of other walls. This display not only supports the children for cognitive excellence but also nurture them to acquire balanced personality. The walls of the classrooms are to be painted with different colours. This will make the classroom inviting for the children and teaching about colours will be easy in such rooms.

c. Building Column – The column may be developed for measuring height as it stands vertical. Different side of the column can be used for different measuring unit like one side for centimetres, another side for inches and other foot or metre. This will facilitate the children to know different units of measurement. The side of the column facing toward front courtyard cannot serve for this purpose. The column can also be used for showing the size of the moon from new moon to full moon or vice-versa using four sides of the column in spiral way.

d. Corridor – Many of the higher category schools have corridor in school building. The corridor also can serve as additional support for learning if it is develop properly. This may be developed like dolls corner, mathematics corner, EVS corner, etc. The school also can display best works of the children created during learning activities.

e. Door – Door can be developed as learning resource to teach the children about Angle. The doors of our school can swing from 90 degrees to more than 170 degrees. The swing of the door starting from its closed state can be used for showing angles like 10 degrees, 20 degrees, 30 degrees, and so on up to last point.

f. Varandah floor – Like varandah wall, varandah floor is also a prime place for developing it as learning resource. This floor can be developed as learning resource by drawing geometrical shapes like circle, triangle, rectangle, square etc. The drawing of ludo board, chess board, etc. can also be a part of this space. This will help in mathematicization of school.

g. Toilet Blocks/ water reservoir – The wall of the toilet Blocks and water reservoir can be developed as learning resource. The drawing depicting healthy habits, importance of water, etc. will be best on these spaces.

h. Kitchen shed – Walls of the kitchen can be used for drawing pictures of the plant that gives us food, food habits of different local communities, table showing nutritional values of different food items, vegetables and related vitamins, etc.

These are very few examples which can make difference in children’s learning. There are several innovations we can do in the field of enhancing children’s learning. School campus development as learning-friendly ecosystem and use of display boards, grid boards, etc. are another area of making whole school itself as a learning resource. Everything is possible when you begin to think by your own brain and from your own heart.

[My tribute to all innovative teachers]

6^th September 2011