On Thursday 14th December, we visited a primary school at Wakadi, Panvel. This is a Government school run by Raigad Zilha Parishad. It has 61 students (30 boy and 31 girls) studying in standards 1 to 5. Dinesh Vyas Charitable Trust is supporting this school in various ways. The trust invited us to explore the possibility of running Catalyst project there.
Mona conducted an hour-long session with the 50-odd students present there. The session involved student introductions in a fun way, educational games and singing of poems in English. The students enthusiastically participated in these activities. They seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed this experience. The Principal of the school, who is the only teacher in the school, Ms Shraddha Tukaram Mhatre, appreciated this session. Ms Kunti Jhaveri, Managing Trustee of Dinesh Vyas Charitable Trust, distributed the chocolates to all students at the end of the session.
After the session, we had a detailed discussion with Ms Kunti and Ms Mhatre on how we can organize daily English sessions at the school. It was decided that we should hire a competent teacher from the nearby locality, who would teach students every day for 1.5 hours in two batches. It was further decided that Mona would train the newly hired teacher by visiting the school at least once in a week for first few months. We sincerely felt that the students in this school deserve the best possible education and we must work towards it.
