Guest Features

Ritinjali Highlights and Success Stories
Ritinjali works continuously to offer opportunities for youngsters from underprivileged backgrounds to achieve their dreams and gain success in life. This article showcases some of the recent Success Stories.

August 2022 at Pallavanjali
by the Pallavanjali Team
August turned out to be surprisingly high in celebration, vacation, and relaxation. With all these combined students create life-long learnings and friendships. Students marked the calendar with cultural and national festivals, night stay, and most excitedly the outbound camp.

The Purpose of Education By CEP
As an organisation that is committed to creating platforms and establishing programmes that encourage the free exchange of ideas across borders, the Centre for Escalation of Peace (CEP) seeks to broaden the conversation around education, sustainable development, society and culture.
One of these platforms is the Philosophers’ Retreat where eminent thinkers from the field of education, government, business and social work, come together to have an open discussion about education and how our systems could be better equipped to benefit the learner in an ever-changing world. Below are the salient points put forth by the panelists on their personal philosophies of what the purpose of education should be
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Visit to Jhalawar by Team Jhalawar
While addressing the teachers during Mr. Kapur’s visit to Pallavan School Jhalawar he spoke about the Pallavan philosophy of “Learning to Learn”. He emphasized that a teacher has as much to learn from the student as student does from the teacher
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At Pallavanjali by Team Pallavanjali
May is celebrated as Mental awareness month. 8Th May was celebrated as Mom’s Day by the community of special moms, educators, and supporters. The moms came to together with the PIAIP team to interact and bond with each other
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Success Stories from Pallavan, Jhalawar
At Pallavan, Jhalawar, we strive for excellence with sincerity of purpose, inculcate independence of thought and action among our students and encourage actualizing their potential by making informed choices in their lives. We not only encourage them to perform academically, rather we inculcate the five areas of development through which the students can discover the genius within themselves.
Amid COVID crisis, we never compromised with the quality of education even though, our students were not there on the campus. We organized regular online classes of every subject in addition to organizing online physical activity classes inclusive of yoga, music classes, art and craft competitions making sure that the children did not lose the essential learning and development.
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Fragile- Handle with Care!
The stress on children in schools has increased considerably in the last few years. Most students, today, are already thinking ahead and planning careers while still in school. Sometimes, this process begins as early as Class seven or eight but the pressure and stress to prove themselves by achieving ‘entry’ into these careers can cause many disturbing behaviour patterns. Over the years of adolescence, a span of six to seven years, different aspects of the person’s identity come into focus – the sexual self, a sense of confidence or doubt, work on career goals, personal values and a sense of recognition or isolation. This growing awareness of an inner, maturing self is a profound step in the development of a young adult, and is a period of time required for finding his/ her role in an adult society.

Every Child Matters
Can You Use the Same Approach with All Your Children?
by Anita Sud
Introduction
Every person is different, and it is important to understand and alter your approach with people.This holds true to every aspect of life. We humans are constantly modifying our behaviour, actions, responses to people, as per the degree of familiarity and understanding you share with them, situations and places. Read more

Expectations of Parents and Children
by Anita Sud
Introduction
The moment a parent conceives a child, the journey of expectations commences. The baby’s arrival brings great joy and fulfilment to the lives of parents, who happily adapt to their new lifestyle with alacrity, hitherto unknown to them. The parents learn when to expect the baby to cry for attention, food and sleep. They are sensitive to all the needs of their precious bundle of joy.
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Pallavan Learning System’s Two-Day Workshop for Chiragh Junior School, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
by the Pallavan Learning Systems Team
Introduction
Pallavan Learning Systems designed and organized a Professional Development Programme for the faculty of Chiragh Junior School, Meerut. The programme was designed to be a part of our training workshops after the summer break in the academic session 2022-21. This programme was developed for all staff in pursuit of the belief that learning is lifelong and to help them with Technology in the online transition keeping in mind the needs of students and the teaching -learning experience. In this context, since education and learning are lifelong processes, it is particularly important for schools to encourage all teachers and staff to pursue professional development, not only to ensure the best teaching- learning practices and outcomes for their students using the online platform but also to be more effective and fulfilled in their respective roles during these difficult times of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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Ritinjali Success Stories II
Sushil Kumar belongs to a remote village of Basti district of Uttar Pradesh. The family of 10 members owns a small piece of land. His father lost one hand while he was working in a factory. Therefore his elder brother has to earn money as a daily wage labourer.
Sushil passed class 12 in which he took Hindi, English, Mathematics and Science. Sushil came to learn about Ritinjali’s Second Chance School from a student who helped in learning Science subjects in his village. After going through the background of the family and their poor financial status and, more importantly Sushil’s interest in continuing education, Ritinjali enrolled him in Second Chance School in October 2020. Read more

Workshops: Pallavan Learning Systems with Pallavan Jhalawar
Part 1
Pallavan Learning Systems designed and organized a Professional Development Programme for the faculty of Pallavan School, Jhalawar. The programme was designed to be part of our training workshops for the beginning of the new academic session 2021-22. This programme was developed for all staff pursuit of the belief that learning is lifelong and that it is important for the school culture to be understood by all.
In this context, since education and learning are lifelong processes, it is particularly important for schools to encourage all teachers and staff to pursue professional development, not only to ensure the best learning outcomes for their students but also to be more effective and fulfilled in their respective roles. Read more (leads to webpage with full article.
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Colorable – Annual Day Pallavavanjali Institute for Actualization of Individual Potential by Krishna Das
It is amazing how the last one year of pandemic have transformed learning and taken it to a different level. Yes, there are many cons into the same number of pros. But let’s just concentrate on our pros. Technology has never been appreciated as much. The human mind is unique and how quickly we adapted to new ways of online teaching. From the beginning we had decided that we would not miss any activities because it is difficult to do them online. Innovative ways were developed, be it occupational therapy, physical education, exposure visits, internships, celebrations of events and now the celebration of our Annual day is an example of that. Read more

A Workshop on Online Safety for the Students of Second Chance School
Observing the challenges faced by the youths while using the social media, an online workshop was organized for the students of Second Chance School of Ritinjali involving students from both Jhalawar and Ritinjali, Mahipalpur. Read more
Second Chance School, Jhalawar – A Programme which Helps Fulfill Dreams
The recent Pandemic brought major changes in our lives some good and some not so good. The Second Chance School took the decision to conduct classes online which was a big shift in functioning. As a consequence, we decided to include boys from Jhalawar where we run a CBSE School (K to 12 including all three streams Arts, Science and Commerce). Pallavan Jhalawar is a sister concern run under ‘The Usha Nath Kapur Foundation.’ Read more

Ritinjali Success Stories – I
Ritinjali’s Second Chance School as the very name suggests provides another chance to educate those who are deprived of education owing to adverse economic conditions and lack of proper guidance. Here the boys’ holistic development is taken care of during a two-year programme. They not only learn hard skills needed to get jobs but more importantly learn people skills which transform them into responsible citizens enabling them to successfully face the challenges of life with confidence. The boys belong to different parts of India with different languages, food habits, customs and culture. Ritinajli’s intervention creates an atmosphere of mutual learning and respect. Read more

The Ritinjali Blanket Drive
The Ritinjali Winter blanket drive is an annual event that we have been taking part in since 2015. It is our attempt to bring comfort to the lives of so many across the city who struggle to get by in the winter season. Especially homeless people and people living in slums and shelter homes. Read more

Pallavan Jhalawar Application: Salient Features
In the midst of the Corona Crisis when all schools were shut and the students were sitting idle at home with no constructive work to do, Pallavan School Jhalawar took an initiative and started online classes for the students from March 28 and became the first school in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan to do so. The classes were organized through the Zoom app. Initially, everything was working smoothly, but soon we realized that the classes were not secure and many people or students from other schools were entering our classes and creating a nuisance. Seeing the demands of parents, we decided that we should have our own application through which we could organize online classes for students and manage all the activities related to the school. Read more

Online Special Education For School Students By Pallavanjali
When the educational institutions were shut at the start of the Pandemic not many reckoned it would change the face of education as we have all known. From no smartphones allowed in school, to learning from only these devices it has been a massive change for all of us and we are still getting accustomed to it. For teachers, the move from a physical classroom of boisterous students to a room in their homes, from where they hope to impart the same level learning to the young ones, has been fraught with challenges and quite the learning experience. We, the Pallavanjali team, also had to endure many challenges but then we also were quick to find the solutions. Read more

How COVID Changed My Life by Arjun Doraiswami
Even after 4 months, I can still vividly remember the confusion that followed the University of British Columbia’s decision to move towards online classes and closedown campus in March. The university’s decision, while a prescient one, was one that made lives difficult for all students, as many of us are used to the “normal” routine of physically attending classes, commuting from home to university, seeing our peers, friends and professors and even doing some chores between classes. Read more

Self-sufficiency during Lockdown by Suhani Sharma
It was the beginning of March 2020, and everything was going incredibly well. Term 3 exams were wrapping up, and Grade 10 students had just submitted the last bits of our 9 month long Personal Projects. The days were intense, and the constant juggle between schoolwork and SAs tested our ability to stay focused, but I very much loved it. Read more

The Pallavanjali Institute for Actualization of Individual Potential Journey by Krishna Das
Pallavanjali Institute for Actualization of Individual Potential (PIAIP) is a career training program for students who are 18+. We started in 2006 when we realized that students with special needs did not have any alternatives to college education. Many students are not reader-writers or may not have the cognitive ability to make decisions or sustain a job without interventions. We started with 7 students with special needs in 2006. Read more

The Paradise Valley Journey by Mahesh Varma and Learnings during the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Inclusion Team share their Experiences
Honestly, I don’t know Adams from Adam and am quite surprised that he even came to know that I actually ended up being where I needed to be instead of where I wanted to be.
Life is strange. I should have started my education in Kolkata (was Calcutta then) where my father was posted, but instead went to a boarding school in Patna and it was only later that I realised it was Patna where I needed to be because of the amazing set of friends I made and because of the absolutely wonderful education that I received in my school. Read more

Adaptive Abilities of our Teachers by Benu Khanna, Director, Pallavan Jhalawar
In times of COVID 19 when shutdowns seem to have become the order of the day, and life all around us seems to have come to a standstill, Pallavan was the first school in Jhalawar to come up with a novel idea to continue classes for their students. At Pallavan School Jhalawar all the students from Nursery to grade 12 are attending virtual classes. Our teachers are able to connect with our students in far off areas like Asnawar, Ratlai, Bakani, (approximately 30 to 35 Kms from our school). Harigarh and Khanpur and conduct online classes successfully. Read more

Muscat Musings by Denise Roache
The enforced paralysis of our interactive lifestyle due to the stringent COVID-19 mitigation strategies has us all reflecting, redesigning, rethinking and re-evaluating our life as we have known it. For myself, employed in a new country at a start-up school, it is perhaps the collateral gift of time that we so rarely have access to! It is an opportunity to look back at the last six months of our inaugural academic year and our endeavors to establish the unique inclusive culture that is Paradise Valley Private School in Muscat, Oman. Read more

Lockdown at Second Chance School
The lockdown has affected all sections of society differently, with the ever- increasing number of infected cases along with the overwhelming migrant crisis and the collapse of the health infrastructure of the country. Ritinjali is an effort to provide access to quality education and skill development in various parts of the country. Second Chance School, is a vibrant two year residential programme for youth who lost their first chance at education. Currently 43 boys from different parts of the country and abroad are a part of this programme. They were engaged in technical education, internships and jobs. Out of 43 boys 10 of them were not able to return to their hometowns and experienced lockdown in a different way. Since all of their engagement has been stalled for the near future they had a lot of time in their hands which they used very responsibly and effectively.Read more

Write-ups from the India Bhutan Bhutan Youth Summit and the Asia Pacific Schools Initiative Alumni
We contacted our alumni from the India Bhutan Youth Summit and Asia Pacific Schools Initiative to see how they were coping with the pandemic and the changes it has brought to their lives. They wrote back about what has helped them deal with the current situation and the shift in teaching and learning.Read more