S

Simran Sanghi

Muktangan

• An NGO was established in 2003• Has grown from 1 school and 7 teachers to7

schools, with more than 400 teachers over 11 yearsAnd still continues to grow..

Mission StatementTo evolve sustainable, replicable, inclusive models of quality child centered teacher and school education in partnership with marginalized communities and to advocate them to the larger system.

My experience with Muktangan

Over the past 2 years I have worked closely with the faculty and children of Muktangan in various capacities:• 2014: Part of a student profiling project• 2014: Volunteered at Muktangan, teaching their Grade

6 children basic English• 2015: Contributed to a case study project• 2015: Conducted a session on Terrorism with their

faculty

2014: Student Profiling Project

The project was aimed at accurately discerning the strata of society the students of Muktangan were coming from and the difficulties that they faced.I was assigned a group of children, and went personally to their houses, to collect the relevant data for them.The difficulties they faced ranged from:a. Availability of electricity and water b. Treatment of women in their homesI visited many homes of students and was sensitized to their reality.

2014: Working with children of Grade 6Through the year 2014, I volunteered at Muktangan.I coached Grade 6 children in the application of basic English like, prepositions, antonyms, adverbs and adjectives.

2015: Case Study ProjectThis involved interviewing students from Grade 1 to Grade 8 of the Baba Saheb Ambedkar School to assess the impact of Muktangan’s education on their children, to showcase it to donors.

This is Sriram Bandari from a Junior KG class. He shared with me, that his deepest desire was to be a superhero like Spider Man!

This is Sakshi Gawli from Grade 1. She wants to be a pilot because her father told her that she could be anything that she wanted to be. (This is a decision that she has made with her best friends approval, of course!)

Himanshu Tarswar is a part of the 3rd grade classroom and aspires to be a policeman so that he can keep people around him safe and “catch all the robbers”.

Shreya Chinta is in Grade 4 and has severe learning disabilities. However the teachers of Muktangan have inspired her to become a teacher herself, so that she can help other people to learn.

Many of the children whom I interviewed told me that they wanted to grow up to become teachers because

they loved their teachers at Muktangan.

2015:Workshop on terrorism for 32 of Muktangan’s faculty.

The aim of this workshop was to:• Increase their awareness of terrorism• Causes of terrorism• Effects of terrorism• Names of some terrorist organizations, that are

plaguing India

Session PlanActivity Description Time taken

Balloon game Each of them is given an inflated balloon and a pin, and told to play, keeping their balloons safe. (They reflexively began trying to pop each others balloons.)

5 minutes

Peace Close your eyes for a minute and think of what peace means to you

3 minutes

Terrorism Described what terrorism means to you. Then I gave them the dictionary definition

5 minutes

Where is terrorism concentrated?

I made each of them mark conflict zones on a map of the world.

7 minutes

Terrorist groups

I asked the trainees to name some terrorist groups and asked them if they new their symbols. Then I asked them how they recruit members.

5 minutes

Session PlanActivity Description Time taken

Terrorism and religion

I showed them pictures of groups like the Naxalites and the LTTE, who were not Islamic terrorist organisations.

3 minutes

Solution I questioned them on potential solutions to this global problem. Many of them cited education as an appropriate solution.

6 minutes

Education This activity involved asking them how to incorporate a solution to terrorism in our education system, and their roles as teachers.

8 minutes

Peace I asked them if after this session they thought that there could ever be peace in this world.

4 minutes

Imagine To conclude I played the song “Imagine” by John Lennon 5 minutes

Feedback To gauge how much they had learnt from the session I asked them to write down how they, as teachers would incorporate the lessons that they had learned while they were teaching.

10 minutes

I began by asking them their idea of peace, and whether that was actually achievable/practical.I asked them what they thought terrorism was, and we concluded “Terrorism is a violent way to resolve conflict.”I then asked them where they thought terrorism was concentrated in the world.

The next question was what they thought was the motive of some terrorist groups.The methods of recruitment for these groups was also discussed.In order to shatter their assumption that many terrorists are “followers” of Islam, I made sure to tell them about groups like the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam) and the Naxalites of Bengal.

I ended the session by asking them if they believed in a solution to terrorism. Most of the trainees responded by saying that education was the solution. Then they informed me that as teacher trainers they could teach their teachers and children about terrorism and the right way to resolve conflict by peaceful means.

I left them with this quote:

My work at Muktangan has served as my way of giving back to society. Coming from a sheltered

background, Muktangan, has opened my eyes to the real world, and made me realize how much I can

contribute to it positively. It has taught me to appreciate the education that I have had the opportunity to get, and how I can spread this

education to those that do not have this privilege.I intend to continue engaging and contributing

towards education – the greatest equaliser.