Community Bal Sabha

Baal Sabha

• The Baal Sabha is a tested and accepted method of children’s participative engagement in a range of activities, within their own village or at a wider community level, that is known to have a range of benefits for the holistic development of the child.
• It is an activity organized and managed by children, supported by teachers, where children have the opportunity to plan and showcase their talent within their own communities. The activities could range from theatrical performances, display of craft skills, and physical abilities, to display of academic skills or knowledge.

The first and one of the most basic and important processes of Gandhi Fellowship is School Ecosystem Immersion.SEI enables a fellow to get an insight into the social, political, economic, and geographical factors that influence the working culture within a school and to empathize with the teachers and students, to find out the root causes of the factors that hinder academic and intellectual development of the school as a whole.

From the Begusarai location, 24 fellows have undergone this process. They went to school with a clear agenda i.e.

To increase the student learning outcome.

The focus will be on 2 subjects-Maths & Hindi in class 3 or 5.

To organize a community Baal Sabha.

To merge with the school ecosystem and to understand teachers’ viewpoints.

Here is a glimpse of the overall experience of the fellows:-

Broad challenges

´Communicating and gaining the trust of stakeholders.

´To keep up patience and energy with students.

´To make the students interactive, interested, and self-disciplined in the class.

´Inactive teachers; negative attitude of Headmaster towards school development.

´Fixed mindset of the community and negative attitude towards school development.

´Language barrier (understanding the local dialect of the community).

´Lack of TLM (teacher learning material).

´Disagreement and strikes held between permanent and temporary teachers.

´Lack of space for the mid-day meal and assembly in school.

ANNEXURE

School name	Block name
Birpur Middle School	Birpur
Harrpur Middle School	Barauni
Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya	Madhuban,Manjhaul
Middle School Papraur	Barauni
Utkramit Middle School	Cheriya Beriayarpur
Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya	Kankaul,Begusarai
Rajkiya Krit Madhya Vidyalaya	Sahebpur Kamal

Middle School Singhaul	Sahebpur Kamal
M.S Railway	Sahebpur Kamal
Srimati Anar Dae Saithani Madhya Vidyalaya	Balliya
Utkramit Middle School	Singhaul, Begusarai
Primary School Raja Dumri	Begusarai
Middle School Rani	Bachhwara
Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya	Teghra
Primary School B.M.P 8	Begusarai

Annexure  (contd.)

School name	Block name
U.M.S Dharmpur	Begusarai, Manjhaul
Middle School Rajaur	Garhpura
M.S Kharidi Uttari	Matihani
Rajkriyakrit Madhya Vidyalaya,Pipra Dewas	Barauni
Urdu Makhtab School,Singhaul	Begusarai
M.S Gopalpur School	Cheriya Beriayarpur
Naokothi Middle School	Naokothi

• Total number of schools intervened – 22
• Total number of Bal Sabha- 18
• Total number of Bal Sansad- 22

Fellow self learning around Bal Sabha

• Communicating and mobilizing with the stakeholders.
• keeping patience in chaotic situation.
• Empathizing with students and teachers.
• Managing and organizing events singlehandedly .
• Quick decision making.
• Learnt how to take responsibilities.
• Patience level got increased in this process.
• Development of an optimistic approach.
• Improved communication skills and public speaking.
• Applied NVC, IWA to get the work done.
• Collaborative work with team.
• Data Management .
• People Management.
• Improved observation skills.
• Systematic arrangements for any event.
• Decision based on judgments and assumptions has reduced gradually.

Way forward & strategies can be adopted to activate Bal Sabha in the district

Staff meeting ( To organize staff meeting in school in order to motivate  H.M,teachers regarding Bal  Sabha)

V.S.S ( Active communication, interaction and follow up with the Vidyalaya Siksha Samiti members in order to make them understand the importance of Bal Sabha)

Bal Sansad activation ( In order to motivate the students and increase their participation the Bal Sansad should be active)

Cooperation of H.M & teachers (Monitoring & support provided by them to supervise Baal Sabha )

   Stakeholder motivation ( Stakeholders/middle managers play a vital role in bridging the gap between the school and the community)

Community mobilization

(All the above factors will ultimately contribute to the holistic development of the community as a whole which will, in turn, lead to an increased people participation in Baal Sabha of the entire district)

´Overall response to Baal Sabha organized in 22 schools of Begusarai district

According to the data collected from fellows, there has been more than the average turnout of people for community Bal Sabha- 2,500-3000 (approximately). This includes students, teachers, CRCCs, BRPs, Community people, V.S.S members, and reporters from Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagaran )

´Expenditure incurred for organizing Baal Sabha

Almost in all the schools little or no separate cost has been incurred for the purpose of Baal Sabha.

Photo story regarding Baal Sabha