Shikshantar & Udaipur As a Learning City

Many among us who are parents and teachers often wonder about the meaning of education and the purpose of schooling, and whether we can reconcile our philosophy of education with the current systems of formal education. Most of us (for various reasons) simply don't act on our instincts to step away from the mainstream to give our children a better, meaningful education.

An increasing number of parents, however, are opting for alternative schools or home schooling in order to better meet the needs of their children; and then there are those very few who are actually taking concrete steps to support their children in real shiksha or natural learning (not simply alternative schooling) which is in keeping with their philosophy of sustainable and just living. One such family and organization is that of Manish Jain, who with his wife, Vidhi, has decided to adopt a unique approach to the education of their daughter Kanku. Through their unique organization called Shikshantar: The People's Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, Manish, Vidhi and a band of "learning activists" are also transforming the face of education in the "learning city" of Udaipur.

educatorslog.in recently shone its 'spotlight' on Shikshantar and Udaipur As a Learning City (ULC).

Here's a youtube video on ULC that Manish shared with me recently --

School Admissions Redux - Homeschooling an answer?

There has been a spate of articles in the international media in recent days about the sorry state of admissions to private schools in India and the attendant stress for the Indian parent due to an extremely warped demand-supply equation. Sample these 2 from the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.

About a year ago, really early in the life of educatorslog.in, Beena Babu wrote an elog that generated a lot of discussion among the members of this forum. It was titled Grey areas of school admission policy- A search for new assessment ideas and it took an educated look at the what/why/how schools should assess young children during the admissions process - if they should be "evaluated" at all!

A massive movement in the US and the West, homeschooling in India is still in a very nascent stage with numbers probably only in a few hundreds or thousands (not counting children with disabilities who are home schooled due to lack of educational institutions that cater to their needs). If issues with school admissions continue to grow at the current rate, I personally feel that a lot of educated parents may look to home schooling their children as a viable, even sensible alternative. Given the increasing violence in schools and the pressures of regular schooling today (I could list out several - just commuting to/from school in the metros has become a source of stress, fatigue and ill-health for many urban kids), homeschooling and alternative education may make sense for a variety of reasons for many urban families.

Thoughts?