Maargadarshi, our flagship program, serves as our dedicated ideation and innovation center. Here, we engage in rigorous exploration, pushing boundaries, and acquiring valuable insights.
Our focus is exploring programs and interventions that can build student agency in classrooms and schools.
We delve into understanding emerging trends, identifying challenges, and formulating innovative solutions that empower students to shape their educational journeys. With pride, we collaborated with approximately 30 schools in the Anekal block of Bengaluru, where we curate and implement a diverse range of student-centric programs.
Our flagship program is the Peer Teaching program which has been running successfully since 2018.
In the Peer Teaching program, senior students (Student Leaders) are selected based on their competencies and then paired with 4-5 junior students to help bridge gaps in foundational numeracy and literacy by creating collaborative, joyful spaces for their peers.
The learners, through their participation in this program, receive personalized support to bridge crucial learning gaps and, therefore, be better prepared for the grades. The Student Leaders find themselves in a leadership role, experiencing skills like communication, problem-solving, and empathy.
Reflections and leadership sessions further enhance the Student Leaders’ experience of the program reading to both immediate and long-term changes among students.
Student Leaders
Learners
Improvement in Foundational Numeracy
students improved reading skills by 1 level
Mahendra, an 8th-grade student, faced challenges paying attention in his peer-teaching class. His original leader found it tough to conduct classes for him, so he was placed in a different group led by Deekshitha. She was willing to help Mahendra and collaborated with his leader to make math more interesting through games and activities. As the year progressed, Mahendra became more engaged in learning and happily shared, “I am learning addition from Deekshitha, and I am really happy.”
An interesting thing about this story is that Deekshitha is in 7th grade, yet her confidence and empathy supported her senior Mahendra in his learning journey! This story highlights that age is just a number when you have the will to make a positive impact.
Entering this new year, we had a question for our Student Leaders. The question was, “What is your goal for this year, and how are you planning to achieve it?” During this activity, we saw our leaders have big goals, think critically about different ways to achieve the goals, and list materials and steps to be taken to achieve these goals. The leaders not only did it for themselves but also asked questions to help each other think critically.
The two key observations we made during the session were, first, the unlimited potential in children to dream big and create a sense of possibility for themselves and, second, the role a mentor/ guide and peer can play in helping students envision these possibilities for themselves.
