Graduation Project: Understanding Scopes of Learning Systems Within a Mountain Community by Chitrupi C

DEGREE PROJECT Understanding Scopes of Learning Systems Within a Mountain Community Sponsor : M/s LA, Gangtok, Sikkim

Volume : 1 of 1 STUDENT : CHITRUPI C.P. PROGRAMME : Masters of Design (M. Des)

GUIDE : PRAVINSINH K. SOLANKI

2019 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN FACULTY (FURNITURE DESIGN)

The Evaluation Jury recommends CHITRUPI C.P. for the

Degree of the National Institute of Design IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN (FURNITURE DESIGN)

herewith, for the project titled "UNDERSTANDING SCOPES OF LEARNING SYSTEMS WITHIN A MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY" on fulfilling the further requirements by*

Chairman Members :

Jury Grade : *Subsequent remarks regarding fulfilling the requirements : This Project has been completed in ________________ weeks.

Activity Chairperson, Education

COPYRIGHT 2019 Student document publication meant for private circulation only. No part of this document can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronically or mechanically, including photo copying, xerography or video recording without permission from the publisher - Chitrupi C.P. & National Institute of Design. Edited & Designed By Chitrupi C.P. chitrupi@gmail.com Processed & Published At National Institute of Design Paldi, Ahmedabad - 380007 Gujarat, India www.nid.edu

Originality Statement I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and contains no full or substantial copy of previously published material, or it does not even contain substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or final graduation of any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement id made in this graduation project. Moreover, I also declare that the intellectual content of this graduation project is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. This graduation project (or part of it) was not and will not be submitted as assessed work in any other academic course.

Student : CHITRUPI CHANDRAMOULEESWARAN Signature : ................................................................................. Date : ...........................................................................................

Copyright Statement I hereby grant the National Institute of Design the right to archive and make available my graduation project/ thesis/dissertation in whole or in part in the Knowledge Management Centre of the institute in all forms of media, now ore hereafter known, subject to the provisions of the copyright act. I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my document or I have obtained permission to used copyright material.

Acknowledgements A designer is only as strong as the people supporting, guiding and encouraging them, and I truly had a wonderful set of people with me throughout this journey. I am extremely grateful to Amma and Appa for patiently supporting me and letting me work at my pace. My sister Gaytri, for being a friend, counsellor, problem solver and idea bouncer whenever I needed. Thank you to all the members of the Furniture Design department for making the curriculum what it is and providing me with everything I needed and more. I would like to give special thanks to my guide, Mr. Pravinsinh K. Solanki, Mr. P Rama Krishna Rao and Mr. L.C. Ujawane for guiding me through various modules of the course and to have equipped me with the knowledge to take up more projects. Thank you to my 12 classmates of M.Des. Furniture Design, 2016. You guys made the course a very memorable experience. It was a pleasure to know your approaches to design and problem solving through every project. Thank you to the complete team at Echostream for making me feel like a part of the studio almost immediately. It started over a phone call with Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen. His openness to let me visit him in Sikkim and allowing me the freedom to arrive naturally at a project idea is something I will always be thankful for. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, guiding me and being patient with me the whole time. I hope to one day become a mentor as nurturing and undiscriminating as you are.

A special thanks to Tenzing Nyentzey, for always looking out for me and pulling me out of my own over-thinking head with a fresh discussion. Ranveer Sahmbi, for challenging me with new beats. I wish to be as energetic and active as you are! Karma Sonam and Chewang Lepcha for all the valuable perspectives and suggestions. Karma Palzor, for letting me experience your captivating storytelling. The research for this project saw me visit multiple government schools in Gangtok. This would not have been possible without the permissions of the principals and teachers. Thank you Mrs. Indira Poudyal, Ms. Pema Lingzepa, Dependra sir, Mrs. Sandhya Bassnet and Mrs. Paden Bhutia for accommodating me into your busy schedules and letting me conduct my research smoothly. Every new place becomes special because of the people you meet and the new friendships to remember it by. Thank you so much Harjyot Khasla, Sonira Mehta and Norzin Bhutia for believing in me and supporting me in every way possible. I will truly cherish the memories of our numerous shopping trips, late night work sessions and deep conversations. Thank you Deergha Joshi for being my anchor. You kept me on the right narrative, guided me through every little crisis and showed me that there really always is time for tea! The epitome of reality checks, you never held back and always delivered honest critiques in the most articulate manner. Thank you for sharing my love for chai, cleaning and attempting song covers!

Thank you Neeraja Kulkarni, for teaching me to stand my ground and always ask “why?” A big thank you to Abhilash Radhakrishnan, Adersh Sreedhar, Akshay Brijbhushan, Akshara Mehta, Alejandro David, Anirudh Sah, Anju Abraham, Barkha Lohia, Ekta Bharti, Harshi Rambhia, Himadri Patel, Kalyanjyoti Mohan, Kendo Maibam, Madhavi Menon, Mandar Mhaskar, Pankaj Saikia, Shivani Cintury, Shritika Ghimiray, Sushant Ahire and Sushant Arya for becoming in every way, my super-sized Sikkim family. A heartfelt thank you to the Tonyot family and Mr. Jigmee for providing us with a home. I would like to thank Anurag Das for believing in me even when I didn’t, encouraging and reassuring me every step of the way and helping me put this document together. A special thank you to Raisa Umar, Tejaswini Nagesh, Somil Singh, Kushaghra Singh and Anurag Tank. They were always ready to give a helping hand whether it was for arranging logistics, intellectual guidance or emotional support. A final thank you to everyone who was a part of this journey. All your contributions have been extremely valuable.

Contents 1

About NID

Understanding the Context and Research Planning

The Studio

Project Proposal

The Beginnings

About Sikkim

History - 1

8-27

History - 2 Education in Sikkim What is a school Furniture and School Modern classroom Plan of action

On the field

28-108

West Point Senior Secondary School - Visit 1

Purpose

Comparative Study of the schools

Observations & Insights

Detailed analysis & insights Major Problem Areas and details

Purpose

Chosen Problem Area

Research Methodology

Why this Problem Area

Workshop Workshop Results

Middle Syari Primary School

Purpose Research Methodology Observations & Insights

Lower Syari Secodary School

109-127

Research Methodology

Initial Stakeholder Mapping West Point Senior Secondary School - Visit 2

Analysis & Problem Area Identification

Purpose Research Methodology Observations & Insights

Study of their lives

Analysis & Problem Area Identification

Aspiration & its Societal Interpretation

128-142

A typical studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s day Snippets from their lives Activities outside school hours Post school activities Re-defined Stakeholder Mapping Conversations with children

Ideation & Conceptualisation 147-191

Brainstorming on Aspirations Concepts 1-6: Ideas and details Key drivers of the final concept Final Concept details

The Way Forward

Retrospection

References

“The term 'holistic' refers to my conviction that what we are concerned with here is the fundamental interconnectedness of all things” - Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

About

Every time I walk through the campus, this is the one path where I notice myself and everyone else slowing down. For me, I have always been in awe of the displays in front and to the left of me. This path gives me just the right amount of validation that I am on the right path; and the right amount of inspiration to run up the stairs to my right and continue working. NID Ahmedabad; Image Credits : Amit Chahalia

National Institute of Design

Furniture Design

On April 7, 1958, the Charles and Ray Eames presented the India Report to the Government of India. The Eames Report deﬁned the underlying spirit that would lead to the founding of NID and beginning of design education in India. The Report recommended a problem-solving design consciousness that linked learning with actual experience and suggested that the designer could be a bridge between tradition and modernity. The Report called upon future designers to re-examine the alternatives of growth available to the country at that time., Based on the recommendations made in the India Report, the Government of India with the assistance of the Ford Foundation and the Sarabhai family established the National Institute of Industrial Design, as it was originally called as an autonomous all-India body in September 1961 at Ahmedabad. He revived the philosophy of the Bauhaus design movement which was learning by doing. This unique curriculum and revolutionary educational philosophy remain part of NID to the present day.

The Discipline of Furniture and Interior Design deals with the creation and evolution of objects, structures and systems at human scale that aim to improve the quality of life in the immediate living and working environment, while looking at sustainable and innovative use of diverse materials and processes. It believes in a broad and interdisciplinary attitude for enriching the design activity and draws from experiences of Industrial and Environmental Design professions. The Programme provides an integrated approach to the design of furniture and interior objects and systems as part of one’s living and working habitat, while striving to redefine the boundaries of such elements with a systems perspective.

Today the National Institute of Design is internationally acclaimed as one of the ﬁnest educational multi-disciplinary institutions in the field of design education and research. It is an autonomous institution under the department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. NID has been declared ‘Institution of National Importance’ by the Act of Parliament, by virtue of the National Institute of Design Act 2014.

Graduation Project The end of the students’ academic tenure at the National Institute of Design is marked by the culmination of a substantial investigation in the ﬁeld of design on a topic closely allied to their discipline of study. The investigation is done while exploring their areas of interest and demonstrating their expertise as independent practitioners of design and subsequent documentation of the same. This is then submitted to the institute for evaluation. A jury comprising faculty members evaluates the students’ performance in the graduation project, post which, students are awarded the professional education programme final graduation of the institute.

The Studio

Echostream

Echostream is an evolving community of professional designers, dreamers and doers from Sikkim, with professional expertise in industrial and communication design.

This project was sponsored by La, Echostream’s in-house brand founded by Sonam Tashi Gayltsen in 2016.

It started as a collective which aimed to gradually generate and provide services to build a creative mountain economy. The initiative promotes natural, handmade and organic products from the Himalayan state. With a team that consists of brilliant and knowledgeable designers from disciplines like product, exhibition, textile, animation and graphics, Echostream truly tackles every project with a holistic approach.

The Sikkimese word ‘La’ translates to ‘mountain pass’ like in Rohtang La or in Nathula. ‘La’ is also an honorific suffix, the Hindi equivalent of which can be ‘ji’. La focuses on collaborations with designers, creators and craftspeople, to provide the consumer with products that are a statement of craft, material, social, geographical, innovation and people.

The team at Echostream, Gangtok

Project Proposal The following is the initial proposal which was created while starting the project. Through the project, the proposal has evolved to result in a more refined final design brief.

Working Brief To understand accessibility, engagement and application in the education sector of the Indian Himalayan Region. Create furniture/interior design interventions in the form of products and/or systems in order to simplify the experience/make it more relevant to the context.

Context A person’s life and activities mostly follow a fairly straight trajectory from childhood till youth. The beginning of formal education happens in play-schools and kindergartens. The next natural step is to move through the various classes (1-12) from primary to higher secondary. The process of gaining education can be divided into 3 stages: 1. Access The quality of being easy to obtain or use. 2. Engage Participate or become involved in something.

3. Apply Put into operation or use. Each stage consists of activities that at some point overlap with activities of other stages. In this process however, we as students have not felt the need to think/plan how to get from home to school. Having grown up in one of the bigger cities of India, I had the luxury to choose between public or private transports to get to school. Within each category as well there were furthermore options (bus, metro, auto, private car etc.). In the geographical and lifestyle context of the mountains however, such is not the case. Accessibility, which is almost taken for granted in the city, is a process to be consciously planned in the mountains. Students from very young ages walk from their homes, sometimes for hours, to get to their schools. They brave the weather each day to learn and advance in their lives. In the context of Sikkim, one question comes to mind:

If schools are ‘centres of education’ and centre means ‘equally accessible from all points’, is the existing system of accessing education really relevant to the mountain context?

The next part is to engage in gaining knowledge. We as students attend lectures in assigned classrooms and learn our lessons. In a city, accessing education requires little physical effort. Therefore, we can use our energy to concentrate on our studies. But what happens when a considerable amount of energy is spent on travelling to and from school? Does it leave much to actually apply oneself and gain knowledge? How can we make the process of learning more engaging and efficient? What about time for co-curricular activities? Classrooms have chairs and tables arranged in rows/columns on which students sit, listen to lectures and take notes. Why is the furniture arranged in such a way? What roles do the chairs, tables, blackboards etc. play in the process of gaining education? Can we create something that serve the purpose better?

ii. Primary Research - Using tool-kits to conduct workshops and in-depth research. Familiarising with and mapping travel routes to schools. Visiting schools in Sikkim to understand course/class structure.

The real test of knowledge gained and understood is to apply it in appropriate situations. How can we open children up to understanding what they have learnt through real life applications and vice versa?

Phase 4:

Methodology Phase 1: i.

Secondary Research - Understanding the origin and the evolution the current system of education. Finding schools where primary research can be conducted.

Phase 3: i.

Assimilation - Understanding and organising collected data/information from the previous phases. ii. Brainstorming - Activity mapping to understand touch points. Listing out possible areas for interventions. Discussing to select the area which has possibilities and the need for design interventions. Refining the brief to form the framework of the work area.

Ideation and Mock-ups - Thinking of possible solutions for the brief. Sketching concepts and simultaneously making quick prototypes to test out the concepts. Testing and choosing appropriate materials

ii. Prototyping/Testing - Analysing the pros and cons of the mock-ups to understand what works best and what can be improved/eliminated. Based on this knowledge, the prototype can be improved. Testing the prototypes in actual use case scenarios. Recording the results and altering the prototype to make it better.

ii. Primary Research - Conversations with stakeholders to understand their view on the topic.

Phase 5:

Phase 2:

Documentation - Making a document that details out the process and the various stages of the project. The copies of the same to be submitted to the institution.

Analysis - Analysing initial research to formulate research tool-kits, planning workshops etc.

About Sikkim Sikkim is Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s least populous state and also the second smallest state in India after Goa in terms of land area. Population is unevenly distributed across the state. For instance, North Sikkim reports a population density of only 10 persons per sq.km. On the other hand, East Sikkim reports a population density of 297. It is a mountainous, landlocked state. Being part of the eastern Himalayas, almost the entire state is mountainous. Sikkim shares international with China, Nepal, and Bhutan on three sides and a state border with West Bengal in the East. Due to this, Sikkim has increasingly been exposed to the changing geopolitical scenario with its neighbours and this exposure continues with recent developments in the information, technology and commerce sector. This inevitable change is transforming the landscape and its people. After the merger with India in 1975 and the transition of politics and power from a monarchy to a democratic system, Sikkim has been modernising - willingly or not. Sikkimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urbanization, as is the trend in the rest of India could be reckoned in two ways:

2. Rural poverty induced urbanization: the migration of the rural poor in response to better income earning opportunities to the urban areas is a major reason for the growth of towns in Sikkim. Sikkim is culturally very vibrant intensified by the strong bonding between the various ethnic groups. In Gangtok, residents celebrate all the major local festivals as well as Hindu festivals such as Diwali and Dussera. The local festivals are Loosong, Saga Dawa, Lhabab Duechen, Drupka Teshi and Bhumchu that are celebrated by the Buddhists. In 2018, Sikkim the FAO recognised Sikkimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effort in going organic and is the first place in the world to have a policy on going completely organic.

SIKKIM

1. Economic urbanization in response to an economic growth momentum;

Map of India showing Sikkim and neighbouring countries; China, Bangladesh, Bhutan & Nepal

A view of the marketplace from the terrace of Kanchanjunga Shopping Complex

The Beginnings

It started with a chat with Sonam Gyaltsen about what I expect from the project and what I want to achieve. I was suggested to go through the projects done in Echostream so far and see if something caught my interest. After 3 days of going though project documents, the projects done in the education sector seemed to trigger a few ideas. The initial thought was to try working on improving classrooms in schools. While sharing this with Sonam, his advice to me was to first try and understand what actually forms the core of schools.

“What are the basic elements that make a school?” Hence, the research to identify these elements commenced. To understand current schools, I had to first understand their origins.

The questions that came to my mind were:

• How did schools come to exist? • How were people educated before that? • Why was there a need for schools? • How was the structure decided? By who? • How did the idea of schools buildings come? To answer these questions, I started my secondary research on the history of schools and education.

History: 1 Education System Children everywhere are required by law to go to school. This gives us a clue that almost all schools are structured in the same manner. Our society goes to a great deal of trouble and expense to provide such schools and ensure that each child has the opportunity to attend lessons and learn. We can better understand schooling, as it exists today, if we view it from a historical perspective.

In the beginning, for hundreds of thousands of years, children educated themselves through self-directed play and exploration. (1) In relation to our speciesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; history, schools are comparatively recent institutions. Before the advent of agriculture, our lives as hunter gatherers taught us through play and exploration. This allowed children to develop curiosity and freedom to play, learning new things along the way and gain knowledge naturally.

With the rise of agriculture, and later of industry, children became forced labourers. Play and exploration were suppressed. Wilfulness, which

(1) (2) A Brief History of Education: Article by Peter Gray, Ph.D.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedomlearn/200808/brief-history-education

had been a virtue, became a vice that had to be beaten out of children. (2) Introduction of agriculture gradually changed the way of life. Activities which were more skill and knowledge intensive; like creating tools for hunting and gathering, were now more labour intensive; like farming and cultivation. The hunting-gathering life did not require long hours of work. The distinction between work and play hardly existed. The

need to live a nomadic life was based on these habits. With the adoption of agriculture, the need to live in permanent dwellings, accumulate materials and put in longer hours of labour was required to care for crops. As farming required long hours of relatively less skilled and repetitive work, children could learn these easily. They would therefore work in the fields or at home to help feed and care for their younger siblings. Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives changed from creatively solving everyday problems (hunting, harvesting, tool making etc.), to more time spent at work that was required to serve the rest of the family.

Ownership of land and accumulation of property due to agriculture created clear status differences. People who did not own land became dependent on those who did; were employed by them to work on their lands and increase their wealth. System of slavery started taking shape and hierarchy became deep rooted in society. In this system, children of the slave/serf class had to learn obedience, suppression of their own will, and the show of reverence toward lords/masters. Going out of line could result in death. Lords/masters often physically beat the children into submission. With the rise of industry, feudalism gradually subsided but,

did not immediately improve the lives of children. Business/ land owners extracted as much work as possible from children with the least possible compensation. Laws to limit child labour were introduced only in the 19th century. In short, for thousands of years after the adoption of agriculture, education of children was to quite an extent about suppressing their will and make good labourers of them. A good child was supposed to be obedient, controlling the urge to play/explore and carrying out the orders of masters. The philosophy of education during this period was the opposite of the philosophy that hunter-gatherers held thousands of years earlier.

For various reasons, some religious and some secular, the idea of universal, compulsory education arose and gradually spread. Education was understood as inculcation. (3) As the industry gradually became more automated, the need for child labour declined in some parts of the world. The notion of childhood being the time for learning spread, and schools were set up for that purpose. From early 16th into the 19th century, the practice of universal, compulsory public education developed in Europe. By the end of 17th century, Germany had laws in most of its states which made attending schools legally compulsory; but the schools were run by Lutheran church, not the state. In mid 17th century America, Massachusetts became the 1st colony to mandate schooling. The clearly stated purpose was to turn children into good Puritans. From 1690, children in Massachusetts and adjacent colonies learned to read from the New England Primer (or The Little Bible of New England). It included a set of short rhymes that helped children learn the alphabets with ease. It also included the Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and various other lessons designed to instil a fear of God and a sense of duty to their elders.

(3) A Brief History of Education: Article by Peter Gray, Ph.D.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedomlearn/200808/brief-history-education

Industry employers saw schooling as a way to create better workers. According to them, the most crucial lessons were punctuality, following directions, tolerance for long hours of tedious work, and a minimal ability to read and write. As nations strengthened and became more centralised, national leaders saw schooling as a means of creating good patriots and future soldiers. For them, the crucial lessons were about the glories of the nation and the wondrous achievements and moral virtues of the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founders/leader, and the necessity to defend the nation from outer evil forces.

Another group of people were the reformers. They saw the schools as places for protecting children from outer damaging forces and for providing children with the moral and intellectual grounding required to develop into competent adults. According to them, children should learn moral lessons and disciplines, such as Latin and mathematics, that would exercise their minds and turn them into scholars. To sum up, all founding members in support of schools had a clear view about the kind of lessons children should learn in school. The belief was that children left to their own devices, even in a rich setting of learning, would not learn just exactly what the adults deemed as important. School was seen as a way of implanting certain truths ans ways of thinking into childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s minds. The only method of this inculcation till 11

date is forced repetition and testing memory of what was repeated.

With the rise of schooling, people began to think of learning as children’s work. The same powerassertive methods that had been used to make children work in fields and factories were quite naturally transferred to the classroom. (4) Children’s instincts drive them to constantly play and explore the world freely. Therefore, for them, memorisation of lessons becomes tedious. Children did not adapt easily to when the hunting-gathering lifestyle changed to labouring in fields and factories. The same way, adapting to schooling was also difficult and to quite an extent, against their nature. By this time, it was assumed that in order for children to adjust and learn in school, their wilfulness had to be beaten out of them and punishments were seen as an intrinsic part of the educational process. The concept of recess was introduced as a way for children to let off steam. The forceful methods used to keep children working on farms and in factories were transferred into schools too.

In recent times, the methods of schooling have become less harsh, but basic assumptions have not changed. Learning continues to be defined as children’s work, and power-assertive means are used to make children do that work. (5) In the 19th and 20th centuries, public schooling slowly evolved towards our current conventional schooling. Disciplinary methods became less corporal, the lessons became more secular and as knowledge expanded, the curriculum expanded. The curriculum included an evergrowing list of subjects. To accommodate for these changes, the number of hours, days and years of compulsory schooling increased continuously. Children gradually stopped doing field/factory work and domestic chores as their primary job was to attend school. Just like adults put in 8 hours of work in their places of employment, children now spend 6 hours a day in schools, plus at least one more hour of homework. Post school hours, children attend more lessons as well. Over the years, children’s lives are structured and defined by the school curriculum and they are almost universally identified by their performance in school; much like how adults are defined by their career and job. Though schools today are less harsh than they once were, certain theories about the nature of learning remain the same. The belief that learning is hard work that children must be forced to do exists. Its is also widely accepted that learning cannot happen naturally through children’s selfchosen activities. The specific lessons that children must learn are determined by professional educators, not by children. Therefore, education is still a matter of inculcation. Few educators today incorporate play into lessons to try and get children to enjoy the process. Children are also allowed

(4) (5) A Brief History of Education: Article by Peter Gray, Ph.D.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedomlearn/200808/brief-history-education

some free time at recess which can be utilised for lunch and play. But, even now, adults consider childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own play as inadequate as a foundation for their education. Today, school is the place where children learn the distinction between work and play that hunter-gatherers never knew. Play is always secondary to work and studies. For adults, education and school work is what encompasses what a child needs to know and must work towards to grow into responsible humans. As play or other activities do not emulate the same, they are seen as something with a relatively lesser value. If there is one thing we learn through formal education, it is that learning is work; not play.

History: 2 Education in India The education in India has a rich and interesting history. In the ancient days, education was imparted orally by the sages and the scholars and the information was passed on from one generation to the other. After the development of letters, it took the form of writing using the palm leaves and the barks of trees. This also helped in spreading the written literature. The temples and the community centres were used as schools. Later, the Gurukul system of education came into existence.

Gurukul System The Gurukuls were the traditional Hindu residential schools of learning which were typically in the teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house or a monastery. Even though the education was free, the students from well-to-do families paid the Gurudakshina which was a voluntary contribution after the completion of their studies. At the Gurukuls, the teacher imparted knowledge on various aspects of the religion, the scriptures, the philosophy, the literature, the warfare, the statecraft, the medicine astrology and the history. This system is referred as the oldest and the most effective system of education.

Brief History of Education in India: Article by V.A.Ponmelil

https://education.newkerala.com/india-education/Brief-Historyof-Education-in-India.html

In the first millennium and the few centuries preceding, there was a flourishing of higher education at Nalanda, Takshashila University, Ujjain, and Vikramshila Universities. The important subjects were mainly art, architecture, painting, logic, grammar, philosophy, astronomy, literature, Buddhism, Hinduism, the Arthashastra, law, and medicine. Each university specialized in a particular field of study. For instance, the Takshila specialized in the study of medicine, while the Ujjain laid emphasis on astronomy.

The British Era The present system of education was introduced and founded by the British in the 20th century, by the recommendations of Macaulay. It has western style and content. The British government did not recognize the existing traditional structures and so they declined. The first medical college of Kerala was started at Calicut, in 1942-43, during World War II. As there was a shortage of doctors to serve the military, the British Government opened a branch of Madras Medical College in Malabar, which was under Madras Presidency then. After independence, the education became the responsibility of the states and the

Central Government coordinated the technical and higher education by specifying the standards.

Post Independence India inherited an educational system when becoming independent in 1947. India was left with great educational disparities between men and women, upper and lower classes and urban and rural populations. In the damages left among various regions and communities by the Colonial rule, education was seen as a vehicle to bring about justice, liberty, equality and fraternity among the populace of a multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-ethnic country. The first mile stone in the development of education in independent India was the enactment of the Indian Constitution in 1950 which laid down broad educational policies for the country. State Ministers of education and other educational experts were called to discuss the problems of education and offer programs for reconstruction of education in independent India The central government through the Ministry of Human Resource Developmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Department of Education and the governments at the states formulated the education policy and planning. It envisioned that free and compulsory education should be provided for all children up to 14 years of age before the commencement of 21st century. Also, the Government of India made a commitment that by 2000, 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be spent on education, out of which half would be spent on the Primary education. In 1986, Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi announced a new education policy: the National Policy on Education (NPE). It laid stress on the need for radical reconstructions of the education system in general, to improve its overall quality

and gave great attention to science and technology. The key legacies of the 1986 policy were the promotion of privatization and an emphasis on secularism and science. The quality of education was seen as a problem and thus, several initiatives have been developed to counter these problems. Various government schemes target disadvantaged children such as the Alternative, Innovative and Education Guarantee Scheme which provides education in smaller, isolated habitations in rural areas or urban slums and schooling to difficult-to-reach groups such as working and migrating children. A mid-day meal scheme was introduced which aims to provide a cooked mid-day meal to all children attending primary school. Additionally, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a program which aims to achieve universal elementary education of satisfactory quality by the year 2010. In November 1998, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announced setting up of Vidya Vahini Network to link up universities, UGC and CSIR. The general marks-based education system is now being replaced by the grades-based system.

Current scenario In 1976, a resolution was passed to make education a concurrent topic of the federal government and the states. However, the governance of the school education systems is traditionally with the states, whereas the central government makes national level policies. A Central Advisory Board of Education has been in place since the British period, which acts as a consultation mechanism between the centre and the states The National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) defines the National Frame Curriculum for classes 1 to 12 and State Councils of Educational Research and

Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Education System: History, current issues and major public initiatives; Paper by Helen Schropp

https://www.grin.com/document/337943

Training (SCERT) are the main research and development institutions in the single states. At secondary level, school boards in each state affiliate schools and set examination standards in accordance with the national framework. An educational bureaucracy operating at state, district and sub-district levels controls, almost every aspect of school education like curriculum and textbooks; recruitment, deployment and training of teachers and certification of children graduating at secondary and senior secondary stages. The sovereignty of the states explains wide variations in the school education in the different states. The structure of the current education system in India is based on various stages of learning and is familiarly known as 10+2+3 pattern. It dates from a National Policy of 1966 and is in force in most Indian states today. In this schooling system, students are expected to enter school at the age of 6, and after 10 years of schooling, they receive their Secondary School Certificate. After this, 2 years of senior secondary education with streams of science, humanities, commerce or vocational curriculum can follow which qualify students for admission into liberal undergraduate course in the universities for three more years. The twelve years of schooling is divided into 3 stages: 1. Primary - classes 1 - 5 (elementary education) 2. Upper primary - classes 6 -8 3. Secondary - classes 9 & 10 4. Senior secondary - classes 11 & 12 This can be followed by three years (+3) for degree programs. Three main school types in India: 1. Government: Schools run by the central or state governments are called government schools 2. Aided: schools which are run by private managements but funded largely by government grant-in-aid are 16

known as private aided or aided school. 3. Private: Schools run by private managements without receiving aid from the state are referred to as private unaided schools. These schools entirely depend on feerevenues and have almost no government interference in matters such as teacher recruitment. Private unaided schools can be divided into recognised and unrecognised schools. The main aim of private schools to get recognised is so that they get empowered to valid Transfer Certificates. These are required for admission into upper primary and secondary schools. There has been a massive growth of fee-charging unaided private schooling in the recent past. Evidence suggests that unaided private schools in India are more effective in imparting learning at a fraction of the unit cost of government schools. The recent growth of private schooling indicates that there are several inefficiencies in the Indian education system.

Adi Shankara with Disciples, by Raja Ravi Varma

History: 3 Education in Sikkim History of Sikkim could be traced back to the records available during the late decades of the 18th century when Monastic Education was then recently introduced. The Monastic Education system was introduced by the then Chogyal Chador Namgyal in order to promote Lepcha literature and language apart from the teachings of the three R’s. Later during 1872-73, one Reverend Macfarlen is said to have opened a Mission House at Chidem in South Sikkim. As written in his article Educational Changes in Sikkim by Sri Norden Tshering Bhutia (Gensapa), ‘‘Education, therefore, appears to have started in two lines: First, religious education for monks in monasteries to prepare for priesthood and secondly, pioneered by the Christian missionaries.” Education of the common people was later taken up by the Scottish Universities’ Mission. Students were taught the three R’s and once they qualified, they were sent to the villages to further teach other students. Later, landlords in the villages are known to have donated their lands for establishment of schools where other general subjects like English, Hindi, Tibetan, History etc. were also taught.

HRDD, a Glimpse of its Programmes and Initiatives: Article by Bhim Thatal

http://www.sikkimhrdd.org/GeneralSection/UploadedFiles/ HRDD_Initiatives2017.pdf

Modern education system in Sikkim may be said to have taken remarkable shape when Sir Tashi Namgyal High School was started in 1924, where Tashi Namgyal Academy stands today. With free education up-to primary level and considerably low fees for upper classes, Sikkim had almost 10,000 students in the late years of 1950’s. Prior and during the merger of Sikkim with the Indian Union is 1974-75, Sikkim had 228 Primary Schools, 30 Junior High Schools and 08 Higher Secondary Schools. After Sikkim became the 22nd State of the Indian Union, educationalists like Dr NK Jangira took over as the Director and transformed education system in Sikkim. Kothari Commission’s recommendation to universalise education in 1963 could see some implementation during the time of Dr Jangira and later during the time of Madhusudan Singh and MC Mathur. Sikkim further progressed into new era in the education sector after the Sikkim Democratic Front Government was installed in Sikkim in 1994. Efforts towards improvement of education, training of teachers, provisions for the students in the schools and infrastructural development became priority of the Government.

Earlier during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, Education Department had an administrative pattern of Secretariat with Secretary at the apex to deal with the administrative affairs and directorate with a single Director to deal with educational affairs of the State. Later, when the political leadership of the State underwent change in the 1994, the system of Education Department saw multi-directorate system with different Directors for different sections. In the third lustrum of the SDF Government, the name of the Education was re christened as Human Resource Development Department in order to give a wider meaning of the education sector. This was intended in order to ensure that the Department is not only meant for education but also to develop human resource in all respects. Since 1994 till 2016, Government have been concerned enough in order to provide quality education to the children of Sikkim. Attention has been provided to all the levels of schools viz; primary, junior, secondary, senior secondary, higher education, technical education and capacity building. In order to cater to the educational needs in the remote areas, a large number of schools were upgraded in the last 22 years in Sikkim.

Students of the Tsuklakhang monastic school

Tsukhlakhang monastery campus: second building from the left is the mosnastic school

Education in Sikkim Current scenario The system of Education in Sikkim is based on education policy of the Nation. As in other Indian cities, there are numerous esteemed government and private schools in Sikkim that are either affiliated to the ICSE or CBSE Board of education. Some private schools are also affiliated to international boards like Cambridge. Some of the top schools in Sikkim are: 1. Assam Rifles School - Pegong 2. Bahai’s School - Gangtok 3. Don Bosco School - at Malbasey and Soreng 4. Enchey Senior Secondary School - Gangtok 5. Holy Cross School - Tadong 6. Kendriya Vidyalaya - at Singtam East and Tadong 7. Modern Government Secondary School - Gangtok 8. Namchi Public School -Namchi 9. Paljor Namgyal Girls Senior Secondary School - Gangtok 10. St. Francis School - Jorethang 11. St. Joseph’s School - at Gankha; Kingston and Singtam 12. St. Mary’s Convent School - Geyzing 13. St. Xavier’s School - Pakyong 14. Tashi Namgyal Academy - Gangtok 15. West Point Senior Secondary School - Gangtok

HRDD Sikkim website

http://sikkim-hrdd.gov.in/rti.htm#chapter%202

All government schools are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi (Seventh all India school education survey, 2002). Existing schools level education system in Sikkim is divided into 4 stages: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Primary (Class 1-5) Junior high (Class 6-8) Secondary (Class 9-10) Senior secondary (Class 11-12)

Prior to the primary stage, there is the pre-primary stage. The age of entry to the pre-primary stage is 4+ and to the primary stage is 5+. The medium of instruction in these schools is English. From the primary stage, English is taught as the first language. Beside this, there are many State languages, namely, Lepcha, Bhutia, Nepali, Limboo, Gurung, Rai, and Niwari which are taught as a second language. Hindi is taught as a compulsory language from class 4 to 8 and it’s treated as a third language in these classes. At the secondary level, English is taught as the first language and the student can choose any of the State languages or Hindi as the second language (Annual Report, 2003-04).

To achieve the goal of elementary education, various interventions have been launched in the State of Sikkim. A few such interventions include: 1. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: The purpose is to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6 to 14 age group by 2010. The other goal is to bridge social, regional and gender gaps, with active participation of the community in the management of schools. 2. Total Literacy Campaign: Launched in February 2004, the Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) was intended to impart functional literacy to the illiterate adults in the age group of 15-35 years within a stipulated time of 18 months. The programme sought to achieve this objective through a centre based programme and through mass volunteer-based approach. 3. Textbook Section: Free textbooks are distributed to the students of Classes Pre-Primary to V up to 2009 and from 2010 onwards Pre-Primary to Class VIII of all the Government Schools and at 50% concessional rate from Class IX and above. This is further extended to: - School Uniforms (Annual) - Raincoat, School Bag & Pullover (Biennial) - Exercise Copies - Shoes and Socks 4. Vocational Education: Vocational Education was initiated in 40 Government Senior Secondary Schools with following 8 streams: - Automobile Tech. - Dairying - Hotel Management & Catering Tech. - Horticulture - IT Application - Travel & Tourism

- Poultry farming - Office Management 5. Inclusive Education for Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS): Subsumed under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) from 2013. The scheme aims to enable all students with disabilities, to pursue further four years of secondary schooling after completing eight years of elementary schooling in an inclusive and enabling environment. Mid-day Meal Programme: As per the Central Government norms, mid-day meals are being served on all school working days to students of pre-primary to class 5. Rice is supplied free of cost by the Central Government, the food grains are supplied by the FCI (Food Corporation of India) to the principal distribution centres. The District offices of the department lift the rice and distribute them to the schools. In East District, a private agency has been given the responsibility of lifting and distributing the same. The District Collector of each District checks proper implementation of the mid-day meal programme. Implementation of cooked mid-day meal is handled by the School Managing Committee (SMC). The SMC engages a local resident as a cook for cooking the meals. Examinations in schools are conducted in different levels for various purposes. 1. CBSE Exam: Board exams for classes 10 and 12 2. NTSE Exam: State level scholarship provision exam for students of class 8 and 10 3. Annual Exam: School exams for classes 4 to 9 4. Junior High Board Exam: Board exam for class 8 5. Prerna Girls Merit: Exam for providing scholarship to 6 students of which 3 must be girls.

What is a School?

According to the dictionary, the following is the meaning of

Therefore, the elements of a school are:

the word ‘school’

1. Knowledge providers (teachers)

school /sku:l/ noun 1. an institution for educating children.

2. Knowledge receivers (students) 3. Anything required to support both of them during the process of teaching and learning. Over time, as the need for standardised education increased, schools evolved from small clusters of teachers and students to what we see today: a building with everything to sustain/

2. any institution at which instruction is given in

optimise the education process.

a particular discipline. “a dancing school” This development sees an important but often unnoticed role A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students (or “pupils”) under the direction of teachers. There is no mention of a building, furniture or other common items that we would find in a modern school.

of furniture in schools and institutions.

Furniture and School

Furniture plays an extremely important part in the physical, moral and mental welfare of the scholars. Great care should be taken in providing the same – for “education is the cultivation of a first legitimate familiarity between the mind and the things.” (6) Early furniture was the symbol of immobility and conformity. Long desks, each seating ten or twelve children, all of the same height; inevitably suggested exactly similar children, seated immobile in a minimum of space, working in the same way or at a similar pace. Proper furniture and equipment are the essentials for the successful working of the school. Improper seating arrangements lead to physical deformities and thus endanger the health of the pupils. If the desks be of the wrong kind or if benches be used instead of desks, curvature of the spine, contraction of the chest, roundness of the shoulders and a confirmed stoop may result as physical injury; bad discipline, irritation, discontent and discomfort may result as moral

(6) Article: Importance of School Furniture ; Teacher Training, Mumbai

http://teachertrainingindia.co.in/blog/teacher-training/ importance-of-school-furniture/

injury and inability to sustain attention and concentration owing to lack of bodily ease may result as mental injury. Research by Steelcase shows that rearranging the rows of desks into grouped configurations improves all of the following aspects of learning: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Ability to engage in preferred learning methods Active involvement Collaboration Creation of an enriching experience Feeling comfortable to participate Focus In-class feedback Opportunity to engage Physical movement Real-life scenarios Repeated exposure to the material through multiple means Stimulation

The furniture in a classroom provides the fundamental, underlying structure in the room. (7) Just envision the above scenario where the table is too crowded, the chair is too small (or big) and the table wobbles. The child is in the middle of drawing a rainbow or a robot and the legs of the table shake. Picture the frustration a child, who is just learning how to draw a vertical line, would feel, if his or her hand gets pushed or the leg of the table moves and the line is no longer straight. An awareness and understanding of the details involved when ordering classroom furniture ensures that the children will be able to play, explore and grow in a thoughtfully furnished room. Its not just the furniture that plays the only role in defining the space of learning. There are a various other factors that come into play like, Acoustics : The sound levels in your classroom greatly impact learning. Whether it is the minimising of background noise, or the amplification of the teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voice, achieving the correct balance of sounds will help to enhance the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; learning experience. Ventilation and Temperature Control: Correct temperature levels in your classroom and good supply of fresh air will help to keep students alert and comfortable. When temperatures rise, students may become drowsy and lose concentration.

(7) Article by Joyce Buckman in the HertzFurniture website

https://www.hertzfurniture.com/buying-guide/classroom-design/ preschool-furniture.html

Lighting: There is no substitute for natural daylight in a classroom. However, when sunlight is limited it is important to ensure that there is adequate artificial light. The correct lighting in your classroom prevents eye-strain and helps to keep students alert and focussed. Classroom Configuration: The best classroom designs will facilitate both the students and teachers. Attention should be given to how your classroom is laid out to ensure that both teacher and student are as productive as possible. Sight lines and accessibility to all areas in the classroom are important for both student and teacher. Ownership and Flexibility: Well-designed classrooms are easy to adapt, giving both students and teachers a sense of ownership for their space. Configurable furniture facilitates constant change in the classroom. The classroom can be altered for different activities, and will help to make more productive learners.

A Modern Classroom

A fundamental shift in orientation makes the 21st Century Classroom different from all that have come before it. (8) The shift comes from the widespread adoption of Collaborative Learning curriculum. Classrooms in the 21st Century must support it because it will be the dominant model of education for the foreseeable future. Collaborative Learning is different than traditional methods in two fundamental ways. First, Collaborative Learning is student centred, empowering the student to be an active participant in the learning process. Second, Collaborative learning revolves around solving openended problems or creating some sort of a “product” which could be anything from a report, a poster or a video. These projects give the students an opportunity to develop the widest range of learning skills.

(8) Designing the classroom around the curriculum.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedomlearn/200808/brief-history-education

The educational benefits of collaborative learning include: •

Producing higher group and individual achievement, higher-quality reasoning strategies, more and more new ideas and solutions to problems.

•

Developing higher-level thinking (not just recalling facts), oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills.

•

Learning to confidently present and defend ideas, which increases the student’s self-esteem and responsibility.

•

Fostering growth in maturity and confidence on the parts of the learners, because it promotes studenteducator interaction and exposes the student to diverse perspectives.

Flexibility, Collaboration and Making Learning Visible

computer-aided teaching programs stand alongside the traditional blackboard focussed.

Instead of filling classrooms with one-armed bandits, schools are increasingly populating their learning environments with flexible tables on castors, comfortable chairs and plentiful writing surfaces.

Schoolrooms become spaces that can be rearranged: A modern-day learning routine includes differentiation of learning and diversified rhythmization between working as a whole class, in a group or individually and between learning and recreation.

Educators have known for some time that when students are encouraged to show their work publicly in emotionally-safe environments, they move beyond a fear of failure and learn to iterate together in meaningful ways. Given the right tools and mindset, they become adept at problem-solving together in successful approximations. Building upon one another’s thinking, they learn to cultivate a culture of collaboration and the skills they will need for success in the 21st century. A few notable changes that we can anticipate in a modern day classroom environment are,

Alterability without too much effort: Classrooms that can be easily altered and rearranged provide diversity of didactic opportunities. Dynamic furniture that supports changes in sitting posture: When sitting on traditional school furniture no movement is possible. With a dynamic pupil chair, the seat surface inclination changes in all directions depending on the shift in body weight.

New Learning Environment: Classrooms are no longer organized for mono-functional use; they provide space for differentiation of learning. Spaces are alterable and can be quickly adapted for use by different groups with the aid of functional and easy-to-manage furniture. New, variable spatial ideas: It is not just the new didactic ideas for the 21st century school that demand spatial solutions. In traditional education as well the spectrum of educational activities has increased, these multifaceted forms of learning must be allowed their space. So the most important requirement is variability – the environment is to be multi-functional. Complementary to schoolbook and blackboard: For a long time now an office without computers has been unthinkable – in the 21st century school no less so. The use of PCs in school is firmly established, interactive whiteboards with A collaborative classroom. Image Source: Smith System website

Moving Forward With a fairly clear idea about evolution of education and the aspects of modern education systems, I started my primary research to understand the specifics of the education system in Sikkim. The plan was to visit 3 types of government schools in Gangtok: 1. Large scale (LKG to class 12) usually in the main parts of the city 2. Medium scale (classes 6 to 10) in the main city and slightly remote parts of the city 3. Small scale (LKG to class 5) usually in the remote parts of the city

Visit-1 West Point Senior Secondary School Place: Tathangchen Area, Ridge Road, Gangtok

View of West Pointâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ground from Ridge Road, Gangtok

Purpose of the visit Being the first field visit, the purpose I had in mind was to understand the functioning of a government school in Sikkim. Key reason’s to visit West Point School: • One of the most popular schools in Gangtok • A large scale school • Located in the main part of the city

About the school Being a senior secondary school, West Point had classes from LKG to class 12. About 1200 students were currently enrolled. It is also one of the higher ranking givernment schools in Gangtok.

Research Methodology & Tools These are the following research techniques used during this phase of research:

Fly On The Wall Fly On The wall is a traditional observational technique that allows a design researcher to collect data by seeing and listening. This method helps the researcher in secretly gaining an insight of the participantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behaviour in a certain scenario. It is the primary responsibility of the researcher to stay completely unnoticed during the observation so as to not bias the participant in any way.

Concurrent Probing Concurrent Probing can be seen as a variation or more accurately an extension of contextual inquiry.

Morning assembly on the school ground.

1. School assembly The morning assembly happens on the school grounds. The ground is mostly sand and does not have a shade. Due to changing weathers, the students face heat and rain each morning. 32

News highlights (local, national and international) is read every morning. This could possibly help students be aware of current affairs.

One of the main school buildings

2. The building The school is split into many wings/buildings (3 stories). This gave me a basic understanding of mountain architecture. Navigation and way finding within the campus was confusing and difficult as a first timer.

Classes and sections were jumbled on each floor and were not sequenced in a linear order. The lack of signage made it more challenging to move to particular classes and differentiate between staff, class, activity rooms etc. 33

BOYS WASH-ROOM

VOCATIONAL TRAINING CLASSROOM

Boys wash-room entrance

3. Wash-rooms The wash-rooms were at the lowest level, farther away from the main building. The entrance to the girls wash-room had clear signs and was easy to spot. The cubicles did not seem well maintained and did not have flush tanks or taps. A plastic barrel was filled with water, mostly for cleaning up after each use, but it did not appear to be clean. There was 34

no water in the hand wash area. Overall, there seemed to be a lack of water for the purpose of personal cleaning as well as wash-room maintenance. The boys wash-room was not as easily spotted as the girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. It was part of a classroom building and did not have a signage.

Top: Girls wash-room entrance; Bottom Left: Girls wash-room corridor; Bottom Right: Inside the cubicles (girls wash-room)

Mid-day meal shack next to the gallery of steps

4. Mid-day Meals (MDM) The school, like all government schools in Sikkim, provides Mid Day Meals for the students. The MDM shack is an arched building made with corrugated tin sheets. The shack is dimly lit and lacks ventilation. 2 women work from 07:30 AM till lunch time to cook and serve food for roughly 400 students. 36

Considering the size of the shack, not all students can be accommodated inside. Therefore, some students take their meal inside the shack, some on the gallery of steps outside the shack and others use their classrooms. Post lunch, leftovers and spilled food can be spotted in these areas.

Inside the MDM shack

Inside the shack, shelves, cupboards and surfaces are used to store cooking raw materials, large cooking utensils and the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; plates/bowls. Some tables are used to place vessels with the cooked food. A few tanks of stored water and a tap with running water ensure that the cooking process is not

hindered. A couple of chairs, spare gas canisters and grain sacks can also be found inside. The sides and the middle of the roof arch have cut outs for light and ventilation. Apart from these, there was no other artificial means of lighting or ventilation in the shack. 37

Storage for fresh supplies

One of the ladies who cooks and serves in the MDM kitchen

Primary and senior school have different lunch timings. Classes LKG to 6th have lunch from 12:30-01:00 PM; classes 6 to 12 have lunch from 01:00-01:30 PM. MDM is available in West Point School for students of classes LKG to 8th. Small canteens and snack shops can be found near the school

campus. Some of these shops are owned by the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; relatives. Many students from the senior classes go these shops to have lunch. Other students get their own packed lunch from home.

Senior students eating lunch at a snack shop near school

Children washing their lunch dishes at a leaking pipe along the steps

Since there arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough proper surfaces to place plates/ bowls on, children keep them on their laps or move around while eating. There is no designated wash area. Therefore, to clean the used dishes after lunch, students use water from a leaking pipe running along the gallery of steps or from a pipe 40

in the shack. This leaves behind a mess in the open drainage as well as the shack. The shack gets cleaned by the cooks and the classrooms are cleaned by the students. But the open areas like the steps gallery are left as is without cleaning.

5. Classrooms Classrooms in the school were mainly of 3 layout types. Tables and benches in the classrooms were made to accommodate 2 students on each set. Two of the sets (1 table+1 bench) were put together to accommodate 5 children in a row. Like in an airplane, students sitting in one row have to shift and adjust if one of them has to move out of their seat. The space was congested and the bags, books etc. took up more of the already limited space. Books of all the students on one row could not be accommodated on or under the tables. Layout-A was more square and accommodated 30-40

students and 1 teacher. This room had 1 main window and 3 ventilation windows. The blackboard was movable and was placed off-centre at the front of the room. Charts and other material was stacked on the sill along the wall. There was ample natural light at the time but, on rainy/cloudy days, the lighting would have been very dim. There was provision for artificial lighting, but there were no bulbs in place. The recognizing feature for this layout was a column in the middle of the room. It obstructs the view for students as well as teachers and subconsciously divides the class.

Classroom: Layout-A

Top: Standard seating arrangement in a classroom; Bottom: Storage under tables + space between table and bench

Main window + sill used to keep charts and bags

Cardboard bulletin board + school bags kept on benches

Ventilation wise, the doors and windows are always open, therefore there is enough circulation of fresh air. But, if students were to get wet in the rain, the classroom gets dirty and smelly with constant use. The blackboard is placed at the front of each classroom (centre or side). Considering the size of the rooms, anything written on the board was visible even from the back of the class. The only obstruction was the column in the middle. Movable blackboard + a few class decorations made by the students

Layout-B was wider and accommodated lesser rows of tables. The sides however had enough space to accommodate more. This room had 2 columns and the tables were usually placed between them. The blackboard of this room was painted on the front wall and was off-centre.

Classroom: Layout-B

Layout-C was found along the corridors of the school building. This classroom received the least amount of natural light was mostly dimly lit. Since the rooms were placed near a less open area, in a row and had shared walls, ventilation was also less.

Classroom: Layout-C

Computer / IT Classroom

6. Computer room

The room had single tables with individual monitors on each. The surface did not have much space to keep books/pens etc. Each table had individual plastic cast adjustable chairs. Children sit in front of their assigned monitors during class. Sometimes, when the student are more in number than available monitors, they share screens and learn together. The walls are covered with charts related to information about IT and computers. 3 tables in the centre with chairs around them was used for lessons that require taking notes.

3 other tables were used as teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; desks and for collecting homework notebooks. This classroom had limited natural light but had artificial lighting. Cupboards and shelves in the front of the room were used to store books and a few equipment. This room is used by students of classes 9-12, depending on which period is assigned as the computer lesson.

Herbal corner in West Point school

7. Herbal corner In front of the main building, the school had a herbal garden. Each plant placed here belonged to a student who was responsible for its care and nourishment. The garden consisted of herbal, medicinal and decorative plants. All the students were graded for the maintenance of their individual plants.

Vocational training classroom

8. Vocational classroom The vocational training classes were conducted in a separate building near the MDM kitchen and gallery of steps. The workshop was spacious and could easily accommodate the students. It had 3 large windows and 1 entrance door which ensured sufficient natural light and ventilation. However, 50

due to the tin sheet structure, the room heated up soon. White bulbs were fitted along the centre of the ceiling and were in good working condition. There were no fans in the workshop. A white board was hung at the centre of the entrance side wall. Vocational lessons included construction

Vocational training classroom

Stabilizer and MCB distribution box

Top: Hand tools mounted on ply-board; Bottom: Personal safety gear

basics and workshop skills. Therefore, the workshop stocked an exhaustive set of hand tools, basic power tools, personal safety gear, sand buckets and fire extinguishers. Posters with

warnings and safety instructions were stuck along all the walls of the workshop. At the centre of the room, 3 tables were put together around which the students and the teacher sat during theory. For the practicals, children moved to the tables fitted with bench vices at the end of the room. Drafting tables and benches were lined along the sides of the room. 2 wooden cupboards were used for storage. The room also had separate a voltage stabilizer and an MCB distribution box to ensure the smooth running of the power tools and to prevent electricity related accients. 51

Inside the staff room

9. Staff rooms The staff room was not very clearly labelled. The door was kept open for easy access/ventilation. Inside, it was a cluttered and small space with piles of books on tables. Storage seemed less and disorganized considering the amount of things to be accommodated in the space. 52

One corner of the room had a table with a stove and few utensils. Another table had basic cooking items. This is possibly used to make tea and snacks when required. Few paintings and small items (globe, pen stands etc.) were used to decorate the space a little.

Entrance to staff room

Makeshift kitchen in the staff room

Cleaning set; also seen in every classroom

Insights 1. If the school ground is where assembly is always held, children can tire easily in the morning and be lethargic through the day. Due to lack of protection from the different weathers, students possibly face heat and rain each morning. This could lead to students getting nose bleeds, catching colds etc. Classrooms having dustbins, brooms and dustpans indicates that the students are to be responsible for the cleanliness of the class. But the classes were overall quite dirty. This also includes the maintenance of furniture and other amenities (reduce vandalism, encourage personalization).

Is there a way in which we could make students maintain the cleanliness of the class of their own accord?

2. During the lunch break, the shack and gallery stairs are used as places to have lunch. The shack gets cleaned by the cooking staff. But, the stairs remain dirty after use each day.

Can there be a way for students to sit and have their lunch in a designated place which gets cleaned regularly?

3. Lunch time is also seen as time for play. It is likely that students sometimes skip food to go and play considering the short duration.

Is it possible to help them balance their time while giving equal importance to both the activities?

4. Since the school has many buildings, navigating from one to the other becomes confusing when the order is not linear.

Will re-ordering the classes help while maintaining the current layout? Can this be replicated or will it be specific to each school?

5. The lack of water in the school (wash-rooms and water points) would be a problem considering that the students spend at least 8 hours in school.

Is this a problem only in West Point school or in other schools as well? A solution to regulate water usage and supply will help in the long run.

6. Library of the senior section was under maintenance, therefore, each class had a reading corner with books contributed by the students and teachers. This idea works well for non-academic reading. But what about reference books and other academic reading material? Having a library helps as it is one common place for all classes to go to and read/issue/study etc. But the lack of, or even having a small one that restricts the number of books, becomes problematic.

9. Each classroom had a cleaning set: 2 dustbins, 1 dustpan, 1 broom. It was also compulsory for each student to grow and care for a plant of their choice in school. This was graded. Most of the plants were in maintained very well, but the same cannot be said for the classrooms.

Is there a way to understand the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; notion of responsibility and what it covers?

Can there be a common area-wise library? A moving library? What about a digital library?

7. Classrooms had ample natural light on clear days. On cloudy days however, the existing lights are not enough to light up the room.

Is it possible to make lighting systems that use less/no electricity which will provide sufficient lighting for the classrooms?

8. Students visit the staff rooms only if they are asked to submit books or they are called by teachers. Therefore, students hardly have a space in school that is exclusively theirs.

Will it help to have a space in the campus that belongs only to the students? Will it help them develop a sense of responsibility?

Initial Stakeholder Mapping Admin Primary Stakeholders

Panchayat/ Dist. Govt.

Sikkim HRDD

Parents

Secondary Stakeholders Tertiary Stakeholders

Counsellors (SAATHI)

Students Subject Teachers

Staff

SCERT

CBSE Co-curricular teachers Neighbours SMC 56

The stakeholder map on the left shows the degree of involvement by the different stakeholders. The innermost circle consists of the stakeholders who most affect and are most affected by a system. The 2nd and 3rd circles consist of stakeholders that have lesser proximity to the core of a system.

Moving Forward The insight about ‘responsibility’ brought up a question. “How does one become responsible for/about something?” In terms of a classroom, does responsibility ensure care and maintenance of the things in it? To understand students’ notions on cleanliness and responsibility, a workshop was conducted in West Point school.

Visit-2 West Point Senior Secondary School Place: Tathangchen Area, Ridge Road, Gangtok

Students of class 11 participating in the workshop

Purpose of the visit This visit was planned in order to conduct activities with a focused group of students from class 11. The purpose was to understand their notions on cleanliness and responsibility.

Why students from class 11? • Students would have chosen their streams of specialization • They are used to a schedule that includes activity/co curricular classes • Responsibilities extend beyond the classroom • Usage of more than one space (classroom, activity/co curricular class etc.) • Aware of choices and decisions to be made accordingly

Research Methodology & Tools These are the following research techniques used during this phase of research:

Workshop Workshops as research methodology focus on the study of domain-related cases using the workshop format as a research methodology. Conducting a workshop helps engage a larger group of audience.

Questionnaire A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Often a questionnaire uses both open and closed questions to collect data.

WORKSHOP QUESTIONS: 1. Why do you come to school?

6. Who cleans your classroom?

Intent: To understand the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; point of view/perspective about schooling. Is their motivation to come to school selfinitiated or instructed?

Intent: Understanding individual roles and responsibility towards collective objects and spaces. Perspectives and preference of work division.

2. Mention 5 things you like about your school.

7. When do you clean your classroom? What all do you clean?

Intent: To understand the multiple perspectives of individual interests and motivations. Finding common interest areas and potential work areas to focus on while creating a design intervention.

3. Mention 5 things you dislike about your school. Intent: To get an idea of the multiple perspectives of individual de-motivations. Finding common problem areas and scopes of improvements through design.

4. Do you like classes being conducted in a room? Intent: To familiarise myself with perspectives of students, towards the idea of a classroom/space.

5. If not a classroom, where would you prefer your classes to be conducted? (please draw) Intent: To know studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; alternate ideas to existing classroom spaces. Aspects of the suggested areas and if they are favourable. Relationship of space and learning from a the perspective of students. 62

Intent: To identify objects that hold importance to the students and their idea of maintenance. Ownership towards collective objects and spaces. Does maintaining an object increase its longevity or make it more efficient?

8. What are the 5 objects you hold dear to you and why? Intent: Individual roles and responsibility towards personal objects. Commonalities between their favourite things in school and their favourite personal objects.

Workshop results

The following images show what was drawn by the participating students to express what they would like to change about their current classroom. First, they drew what they see in the existing classroom. The second drawing shows how they would like to improve it, if given the opportunity.

Present Classroom This drawing is made by Sabina Subba, The key improvements that she stresses on are, a cleaner classroom and the removal of the pillar from the classroom.

Dream Classroom

Present Classroom

Dream Classroom

This drawing is made by Rithik Gupta, The key improvements that he stresses on are, removal of the pillar from the classroom and the seating arrangement to be more spaced out for a comfortable experience and easy accessibility

Present Classroom This drawing is made by Akash Pradhan, The key improvements that he stresses on are, single school building instead of multiple blocks

Dream Classroom

Present Classroom

Dream Classroom

This drawing is made by Reshma Chetri, The key improvements that she stresses on are, removal of the pillar from the classroom and the seating arrangement to be more spaced out for a comfortable experience and easy accessibility. She wanted larger windows for better ventilation.

Present Classroom This drawing is made by Sangita Jairu, The key improvements that she stresses on are, the idea of a classroom in the open with a better connect with nature.

Dream Classroom

Present Classroom

Dream Classroom

This drawing is made by Binita Basnett, The key improvements that she stresses on are, removal of the pillar from the classroom and the seating to more organised. The teacher to be seated in the centre and the blackboard to be centrally placed too.

Findings 1. Each class has a cleaning schedule that they follow everyday. Cleaning, especially post lunch, has to be done more than once as students consume packaged food and share lunches through the day in the class rooms. They expressed the desire of having a clean study environment. 2. They also mentioned the room with the pillar. All of them saw it as an obstruction and wished it could be removed. It seems that teachers tend to pull up the students seated behind the pillars as it is perceived as hiding or wanting to go unnoticed. 3. Ideas of having classes outdoors also came up. The reason was to be able to study in fresh air and not in closed spaces where infections spread easily. When asked about what makes them come to school, many mentioned that it was to get educated and move ahead in life. Some stated that they like to spend time with their friends. Others said that talking to friends helps them cheer up if they had a bad day at home. 4. While trying to understand their likes and dislikes, I tried to understand their associations to the objects. This proved challenging as most students mentioned food, people, even colours. 5. The vandalism of furniture was reasoned as a means to express themselves, whether it be due to boredom or just simply wanting to draw.

WORKSHOP PHOTOS

Discussing what students wrote and drew

2 of the participants: Sabina and Reshma

Students putting down their thoughts

A friend observing the workshop

Visit-3 Middle Syari Primary School Place: Tadong, Gangtok

Middle Syari Primary School: school building

A chance encounter with Pema Lingzepa, a teacher in Middle Syari School, lead to conversations about my project. After a few phone calls and permissions, I was allowed to visit the school for research!

Purpose of the visit To observe and understand the functioning of a small scale school in a slightly remote location. Key reasons for the visit: • • •

Small scale school Located in a slightly remote area School invests in providing quality education

About the school Being a primary school, classes range from 1-5. They have upper and lower KG as well, but in a separate building. It is one of the 40 schools in Sikkim that is testing the new government textbooks.

Research Methodology & Tools These are the following research techniques used during this phase of research:

Concurrent Probing Concurrent Probing can be seen as a variation or more accurately an extension of contextual inquiry.

Teachers and children gathered for the school assembly

1. School assembly The small concrete ground in front of the school building serves as the assembly area. A few school songs are sung followed by the national anthem. Before the students disperse, prefects and teachers check each studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s uniform and neatness in appearance. Considering the strength of 76

the school, teachers find it easier to take a quick attendance before classes commence. Official attendance is taken again in each class. The school assembles once again post the last period for important announcements and reminders.

The assembly ground doubles as a play area during lunch break and games period. The back and side of the ground was fitted with a high fence. This ensured that children did not slip down the forest while playing and kept balls/shuttlecocks on the inside. The two sides of the ground gave access to the school, MDM kitchen and washrooms. Wash-rooms are constructed on the neighbourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s land as they could not be accommodated in the land assigned for the school building.

Ground being used as play-ground during lunch break

Students of class 3 in a terrace classroom

2. Classrooms The school building consisted of 3 types of classrooms arranged linearly along the 3 floors. The top most floor was a tin-roofed terrace. Classrooms on this floor were open on two sides and did not require artificial ventilation or lighting. However, it was vulnerable to the weather. 78

Considering the number of students per class, the space was more than enough to accommodate the students and their belongings. The furniture was similar to the ones in West Point school, but made using different materials. These seemed more sturdy.

Classes were labelled clearly and therefore could be found with ease.

Classrooms along the 1st floor corridor

Classroom under the main staircase

This particular classroom was placed under the main staircase of the building. It could accommodate about 6-8 children and 1 teacher. From what was observed, it seemed like the class was for language lessons like Tamang, Bhutia, Lepcha, Limboo etc. To the front of this area was a table covered with cloth. 80

The moveable white-board was placed on this table and rested on a gate behind it. The walls were decorated and painted with charts related to science, environmental studies and languages.

Language class under the staircase

Pre-primary school building

3. School building

The school is split into 2 buildings. The first building accommodates classes 1-5, the second building is for lower and upper kindergarten. The second building is where children from all classes go to have their mid-day meals. 83

MDM kitchen

4. Mid-day meals Children from all the classes (LKG - class 5), go to the preprimary school building for their lunch. A woman from the school neighbourhood is employed by the government to cook meals for all the school children. One room in the kindergarten building is assigned and used 84

as the kitchen. Inside the kitchen, we can see a counter along one side, on which the cook places cooking material and a water tank. The floor has 3 large vessels, a gas canister+stove and 2 small stools.

The weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grains and pulses supply

MDM weekly menu and list of ingredients

The kitchen is partially divided by a wall. The weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supply of rice, grains, vegetables etc. is stored behind this wall. Information regarding the weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s menu and list of ingredients provided, can be found written on 2 chalkboards, resting against the wall. The kitchen is dimly lit by natural light from 2 windows and the door. These also provide ventilation. No artificial lighting or ventilation systems are provided. During lunch time, all the children from the primary school climb up to the pre-primary building where the cook serves the mid-day meal.

MDM cook serving lunch to the school children

Children having lunch

Children who take the mid-day meal eat their lunch on the porch or steps of the pre-primary building. They bring their own utensils, which they wash and take back home.

Children having lunch on the primary school porch

Children having lunch at a shed between the 2 school buildings

Children who bring their own packed lunches from home usually sit on the primary schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s porch or at the shed between the two school buildings.

After all the children have eaten, the cook packs all the leftovers inside two buckets. She then proceeds to clean the kitchen and utensils before heading home with her child. She takes the leftover food to feed the animals in her farm.

MDM cook going home with her child

Head Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office + staff room

5. Staff room The staff room in the primary school building was divided using cupboards. One enters through the door into the head masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s space. This portion has a table and chair toward the end of the room. Along the right wall, a row of chairs are placed for people visiting the head master.

The left of this portion has a row of 3 cupboards that divides the room. These cupboards have files, books, papers and documents related to the school.

Head Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office + staff room

The portion on the other side of the cupboards is where the rest of the staff is seated. This area has 3 tables, a few chairs and benches. The left wall has a shelf with a few books and notebooks as well as a small mirror. Teachers, including the head master, meet here during breaks for tea and snacks. Lesson plans and other school related 90

issues are also discussed in this space. In between lessons, teachers can be found here, correcting homework and test papers of the students. The room is spacious and has ample natural light and ventilation. Storage seems to be adequate taking into consideration regular clean up.

The weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grains and pulses supply

This part of the staff room also has a kitchen where teachers make tea and snacks during breaks. 2 tables act as the counter for the stove and utensils. All ingredients are stored on a shelf on the wall. A gas cannister, a few batteries and a floor fan can be seen here. To the left of the entrance, badminton rackets are kept on a bench and other sports supplies like balls and shuttlecocks are stored in the wooden cupboard. Student borrow these during lunch break and games period.

Bench and cupboard with sports supplies

Visit-4 Lower Syari Secondary School Place: Tadong, Gangtok

Lower Syari Secondary School: school building

Purpose of the visit To observe and understand the functioning of a medium scale government school. Key reasons for the visit: â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

Medium scale school Connected with other centrally located schools

About the school Initially, Lower Syari and Middle Syari were registered as the same achool and monitored by a common principal. Therefore the school had classes fro LKG - class 10. Due to distance related management issues, the 2 schools mutually decided to re-register and work as independent bodies. Lower Syari now has classes from 6-10. The school is also connected to other schools that offer higher secondary education. This is beneficial for students transitioning from class 10 to 11.

Research Methodology & Tools These are the following research techniques used during this phase of research:

Concurrent Probing Concurrent Probing can be seen as a variation or more accurately an extension of contextual inquiry.

Top (L-R): Building A, Building C and Building; Bottom (L-R): Building B, wash-rooms and a part of Building A

Building A: 3 storied with classrooms

Building B: 1 storied with classrooms

1. School building The school campus consists of 3 main buildings; 1 single storied and 2 triple storied. All three have tin roofs. Classes are conducted in 2 of these buildings and the staff rooms are in the third. Daily assembly takes place on the open school ground in the middle of these buildings.

Students of class 3 in a terrace classroom

2. Classrooms All classrooms had similar space but, the furniture layout in each varied. While most had the linear layout, a few classes had furniture arrange in an ‘U’ formation with a row in the middle of the ‘U’ Classrooms at the ends of the building had more windows 98

and hence, more natural light and ventilation. Windows had bars and mesh across them. Artificial lighting provided was not adequate and was not used. A classroom could accommodate up-to 20 students. Furniture were the same as the ones in Middle Syari School.

Students of class 3 in a terrace classroom

In the class rooms of Building A, the main windows were on one wall and the opposite wall had a ventilation window. This allowed natural light and ventilation but it could be dim on cloudy days. Artificial lighting was provided, but rarely used. A single wall mounted fan was placed on the wall with the main windows. This would have circulated air in the room, but the efficiency can be questioned.

The teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desk and chair was place at the front of the classroom. Behind this was a white board used by the teacher while giving lectures. A small shelf labelled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the reading cornerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; was mounted beside the white board. Books placed in this shelf are shared and read by the children.

Charts and project work done by the students decorated the walls of each class.

Hindi classroom

A separate classroom is assigned for each language. Some are in the regular classrooms, others are in new rooms. Students report to the assigned classrooms during the language period. The Hindi classroom was arranged differently and accommodated all the computers from the IT room, which was being renovated.

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Students wash-room

3. Wash-rooms The students wash-room was behind school building A. It had 5 cubicles; 2 for girls, 2 for boys and 1 wash area. The water tank on top of the wash-room building provided water for the wash basin as well as the cubicles. 101

Girls wash-room cubicle

a. Girls wash-room The girls cubicles had 1 wash basin, 2 Indian style toilets and were fitted with a pay and use sanitary pad dispenser. Electric fittings were provided for the dispenser. There were no flush tanks, taps, buckets or mugs that could be used to clean the toilets after use

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Sanitary pad dispenser

Boys wash-room cubicle

a. Boys wash-room The boys cubicles had 2 urinal points separated by a thin vertical slab. It had a tap with running water, a canister and a few mugs which could be used to clean up the cubicle after every use.

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4. Mid-day meals The school provides mid-day meals for students of all classes (6th to 10th). The kitchen is located on the lower floor of building C. Two women from the neighbouring area are employed to cook meals and clean the kitchen after lunch. The kitchen has multiple tables on which the utensils and cooking materials are placed. A gas cannister and gas burner are used to do most of the cooking. A wash area for the utensils is demarcated on the floor and fitted with taps for water.

List of ingredients

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MDM kitchen

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Snacks shop on school campus

5. Snacks shop 106

Children buying snacks from the small shop

Children also have the option of buying snacks during short and long break, from a small shop on the school campus. This shop can be found opposite the MDM kitchen. The shop sells packaged snacks like chips, juice etc. The lady at the shop also makes and sells aloo chewra and momos. 107

Staff room in Building C

6. Staff rooms There was about 3 staff rooms in use. Each one had a different arrangement of furniture. Teachers used the space to rest or relax between lessons and also correct the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; homework or assignments. They also used the staff room to have lunch. Few decoration items were used on the 108

walls. Apart from that, informational items like calendars, time tables, circulars etc. were put up. The room mostly received dim natural light as the building was slightly below the ground level.

Classroom Furniture The furniture sets in all three schools were 2 seater benches and tables. 2 of the sets were made with metal frame and ply-wood surfaces. These were attached sets. The third set was made with solid wood and ply-wood. This set had separable table and bench.

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Comparative Study of the schools visited Education & Strength School name West Point Senior Secondary School

Middle Syari Primary School

Lower Syari Secondary School

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School Type Senior Secondary School

Student Strength 1000-1200

Infrastructure and Facilities Teacher : Student 1:30

Campus 1 multi-story building (primary school)

C.B.S.E L.KG to Class 12

Many separate multi-story buildings (classes 6-12)

Primary School

1 multi-story building (primary school)

50-55

1:12

1 single story building (pre-primary school)

C.B.S.E L.KG to Class 5 Secondary School C.B.S.E Class 6 to Class 10

150-200

1:25

3-4 multi-story buildings 3 for classes 1 for staff

Water

Electricity

Connection provided; no running water

Connection provided

Army connection; running water available

Connection provided

Army connection; running water available

Connection provided

Demography

Sanitation

Furniture

MDM

Indian style; no flush

ply/particle board with metal frames; benches 2 seater

1 IT classroom with required machines

Provided class 1-8

Indian style; no flush

ply/particle board; benches 2 seater

N/A

Indian style; no flush; sanitary pad dispenser

ply/particle board with metal frames; benches 2 seater

required machinery available; IT room under renovation

Provided LKG-class 5

Provided class 6-10

Library primary sec: yes Senior sec: no (makeshift reading corner in each class) N/A

Under construction (makeshift reading corner in each class)

Parent Occupation

Neighbourhood

Shop Keepers Small business owners Government workers

Lal Market Tathanchen Raj Bhavan area Zero Point

Daily wage earners Labourers

Lower/Middle Syari

Small business owners Daily wage earners

Lower/Middle Syari Pani House Tadong

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Analysis of the study

Similarities

6. Mid-day meals: Staff were employed in all 3 schools to cook and serve afternoon meals. Even though MDM is for students of LKG to class 5, these schools include all extend the service to other students as well.

1. Students: Most of the students currently enrolled in government schools are 1st generation learners. This basically means that the parents would not have completed elementary education.

7. Library: The libraries either did not exist or were under renovation. The lack of a library was compensated by installing reading corners in each classroom which housed a small collection of books for the students.

2. Education board: All 3 schools are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. They are funded and run by the State Government of Sikkim.

Differences

Going through all the findings and insights of the school visits, I was able to notice many similarities and differences between each of the schools.

3. Wash-rooms: The wash-rooms were mostly fitted with Indian style toilets without flush tanks. The individual cubicles rarely had taps/stored water to clean up after each use. 4. Electricity: Even though electricity was provided, lighting and ventilation fittings were sparse and not maintained. 5. Furniture: The furniture structure was essentially the same but, the materials seemed to vary. The sizing too was the same across all classes. 112

1. Water: Connection for water was provided in the schools, but some did not have running water. 2. Scale of school: Depending on the type of school, the size and style of campus varied. Small schools had 1 or 2 multi storied buildings; bigger schools had many multi-storied buildings and a playground spread out across a vast area. 3. Parent occupation: Based on the location of the school, one could guess the occupation of the parents. Students of a school are usually from neighbourhoods within a small perimeter.

Problem Areas Defining the areas of work Based on the information gathered so far, 7 broad spaces which showed possibilities of problem solving through design interventions were speculated. Each space was further analysed to specify the desirable outcomes of the design solutions.

Studio discussion

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Problem Area 1 How might we create an inclusive environment for differently abled students, to ensure equality among all students?

1. Schools were not structurally equipped to allow physically limited students to move with ease.

How can we accommodate the physical limitations of a student so that they can access all areas of the campus? 2. Teachers mentioned that they do not have the practical knowledge to educate students who have speech and hearing difficulties. It is also possible that the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s way of communication at home is different from that in other areas.

How can we ensure clear communication between teachers and peers ?

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Problem Area 2 How might we bridge the gap between home and school to ensure continuity in the education gaining process?

1. Within school hours, students can approach peers and instructors who are instrumental in getting doubts cleared. Post school hours, parents/guardians (considering first generation learners) might be unable to help.

Could we come up with a way to encourage interactions that facilitate knowledge exchange in the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; post school surroundings? 2. Parents of school students are mostly daily wage earners or small business owners. It is a possibility that children have to dedicate time post school hours to help their parents and also do school work.

How could we help them balance their duties? 3. After a certain point in school, parents might not be able to help their children with their studies. They can however teach a lot from their experiences and skills that can help the children beyond academics.

How might we create a channel of knowledge sharing between parents/elders and children? 115

Problem Area 3 How can we ensure that the education system evolves on the basis of views/ suggestions of all the people who interact within that space?

1. In the case of students,

How might we inculcate responsibility through their involvement in a feedback system? 2. Schools have a hierarchy system (head of school, staff, students etc.) This is kept in mind while interactions among groups take place. It is possible that traces of this flows into the feedbacks and how it is received.

Could we democratize the feedback system to ensure that it sees all participants as equals? 3. Could we groom students to be active future participants in democracy by involving them in the process of their schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth?

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Problem Area 4 Could we ensure availability of clean water in schools for the purpose of consumption, cleaning and cooking?

1. The times when running water is unavailable, the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stored water runs short.

How might we maintain the cleanliness of the premises and personal hygiene during such times? 2. Water provided in schools is also filtered and consumed by people on campus. It is also used for cooking the lunch for students.

How could we ensure that shortage of water does not affect the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; nourishment?

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Problem Area 5 How might we educate students about the importance of nourishment while also accommodating their inclination towards recreation?

1. If the place where students receive their meals is far, it takes more time to go-eat-clean and get back. It so happens that students have a hasty meal so that they can play for longer.

How might we help students balance nutrition and play? 2. In the visited schools, there was no dedicated space where children could sit and eat their food. This also possibly adds to the haste. Considering the distance, sometimes children do not go to eat.

How could we hep students take their meal in a relaxed manner at a place convenient for them? 3. How might we ensure that the meals prepared remain of higher quality without compromising on quantity?

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Problem Area 6 How might we create an efficient knowledge bank that students can use for reference and gaining knowledge?

1. A library can be used for academics as well as recreation. In the absence of a library, each class had reading corners stocked with story books (recreation). Reference books however could not be divided.

How could we create a knowledge bank that students can easily access? 2. If the material in the libraries inspires leisure as well as discipline,

How could we translate these to the space so students may behave as per their purpose/usage?

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Problem Area 7 How can we create an encouraging environment for students to collaborate comfortably?

1. A child spends about 8 hours in school. The students around become the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social circle. The teachers can be seen as counsellors/guardians in the school space.

How might we encourage interactions between both beyond the academic context, so that teachers can be viewed as mentors and not just authority figures? 2. How might we inculcate interactions on varied levels so that students can understand the different roles they can take up simultaneously? E.g. while interacting with junior classes, students could play the role of mentors. At the same time, they could be mentees of their seniors.

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Chosen Problem Area How might we bridge the gap between home and school to ensure continuity in the education gaining process? Over discussions with my mentor and peers, I decided to move ahead with this particular problem area. The main reason was the various manifestations of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gapâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in the life of a student. These manifestations gave a wider scope for problem solving through design intervention.

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A student’s day can be divided between 2 environments/ ecosystems. School and Home. Therefore, the ‘gap’ can be defined in more ways than one. 1. Work space: At school, the environment is optimised to ensure that the students are gaining knowledge through elementary education. Students follow a strict schedule and attend classes in an orderly manner. This process does not stop once a student goes back home for the day. School studies continue in the form of home work and projects which need to be completed to practice lessons and perform well. However, the extreme orderly environment at school is not seen at home. Most students do not have a dedicated space at home which they can use to study. In this sense, the gap can be the difference in the work set-up. 2. Academic guidance: Students have access to teachers and seniors while at school. They can be approached for help in clearing lesson related doubts and guidance. Considering that most students currently in school are first generation learners, their parents can provide academic help only to a certain level. The gap here could be interpreted as the availability, or lack thereof, of academic support. 3. Responsibilities: The only responsibility of a student in school is to attend their classes, stick to the schedule and concentrate on their lessons. Students are expected to behave respectfully and dedicate all their attention to performing well in their academics.

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At home, their responsibilities move beyond themselves and extend to the rest of their family. They have daily chores that need completion. A lot of them help their parents at work or do extra chores when parents are unable to. Delivering farm produce, taking care of siblings, attending tuitions, tending to farm animals are just a few examples of their responsibilities beyond school. Therefore, students have to somehow balance their home responsibilities and their school work. In this situation, the gap could be seen between individual responsibility and extended responsibility. 4. Parent involvement: As mentioned before, most of the students are first generation learners. Due to this, most parents do not have a professional career. Occupations range from labourers or daily wage earners to small scale business owners. Due to their work, parents do not necessarily have the time to attend parent-teacher meetings arranged by the school. This is one way the school tries to update and involve parents in their child’s education. At the same time, children gain a lot of knowledge from their parents through their chores and other activities. Therefore, in some way, parents are involved in a child’s knowledge gaining process. This particular gap could be perceived as the one between academic knowledge and inherent knowledge. 5. Dropout students: There are various reasons for which many students drop out of school. These range from lack of monetary support to multiple failed attempts in exams. These children miss out on the access to elementary education but, that does not mean they lack knowledge. The gap here is the unavailability of access to a standardised education.

Moving Forward The workspace now moves out of school campuses, and into neighbourhoods and communities where students live with their families. This decision was taken in order to include stakeholders, such as parents/guardians and dropout students, as part of the design solution.

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Why drop-outs? A ‘drop-out’ is a pupil who leaves school before the completion of a school stage or leaving at some intermediate or non-terminal point of a given level of education (school stage). This term ‘drop-out’ has been used in two senses. It may mean either: 1. One who has discontinued education before completing the last level of education for which he/she was enrolled 2. One who has discontinued education before attaining a specific level. In the census of India (2011), Sikkim stood at the 7th rank after Maharashtra in literacy rate with a literacy rate of 82.2% with the increase in the literacy rate by 13.39% during 10 years period. Therefore, wastage involvements in education system in India turn out to be because of school dropout. In Sikkim, the possible reasons for students dropping out of school are: 1. The lack of teachers in rural areas, along with poor family support is a major cause of frequent drop-outs. 2. Many families in rural areas prefer to keep their children engaged in household chores or field work. 3. Frequent school changes by students was another reason for the drop-outs. 124

4. Sikkim has a low density population with numerous languages and a difficult terrain, all of which prove to be hurdles in the educational development. 5. For female students, lack of proper toilet facilities becomes a major reason.

Drop-outs may not be part of a school system but, they are a part of the society. Considering the knowledge bank that is the community, this could be a way for them to gain use-able knowledge.

Data courtesy: Failure Repeat drop report

http://sikkim-hrdd.gov.in/report/Student%20Information/2008/ failrepeatdropreport.pdf

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This shows a trend chart of the dropout rate amongst 6-11 year old girls in Sikkim for a period of 6 years

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Data courtesy: CEIC data for Department of Higher Education

https://www.ceicdata.com/en/india/school-drop-out-rate-611years-old/school-drop-out-rate-sikkim-611-years-old-girl

Moving Forward In order to understand the activities of students outside of school hours, I re-visited the schools to talk to students and teachers. Conversations with them helped me get an idea about a typical studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s day. A few students were open to letting me visit their homes and talk to the people they interact with on a daily basis. This includes their family, peers, neighbours etc. This gave me a more detailed picture as I was able to see the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; neighbourhoods and observe their activities first hand. Based on these experiences, I was able to chart out the following findings and insights.

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Sleep

Tuition

Play

Chores + Homework

Buﬀer

A Typical Student’s day School

Sleep

Tuition

Play

Chores + Homework

Buﬀer

Time in a day for a typical student in Sikkim is divided as shown in the pie chart. The maximum time of the day is spent attending school. All students spend roughly 7 hours in school. Some students, usually secondary school onwards, stay back post school hours for co-curricular activities, rehearsals or extra classes. The rest of the time is divided between tuitions, daily chores, homework, etc. A typical student’s day has very less time dedicated to play, approximately 2 hours per day. In mountain cities, a student usually walks to reach different destinations. The buffer time shown in the chart represents time taken to go from one place to the other.

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School: 6-8 hrs

Tuition: 1-3 hrs

Chores/Homework: 1-3 hrs

Sleep: 7-8 hrs

Play: 1-2 hrs

Buffer: 1-2 hrs

Snippets from their lives

Children walk to and from school everyday. The different routes have uphill and downhill stretches. The sketch above shows 2 children walking on a mountain road that is frequented by vehicles. The lack of a footpath makes these routes risky to walk on because of speeding cars and blind turns.

Often times, children take short-cuts in order to reach a destination. Unlike roads used by vehicles, these are narrow paths connecting 2 or more roads. Short-cuts ensure safety from road accidents, but are also good hiding spots for children.

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As walking is the most popular means of commuting, children have to bear the weather while going from one place to another. It takes about 1/2 an hour or more to travel. Therefore heavy rains and harsh sun take its toll on children by the time they reach school every morning. During the rains, children also get splashed with puddles by passing vehicles. 130

If one is caught unprepared for rainfall, they reach their destination drenched. Constant exposure to this weather damages their books, shoes & clothes. These do not get enough time to dry completely.

Walking uphill for long durations leaves the children tired before reaching school. They have to continue standing through the morning assembly also.

Chores like washing dishes, cooking (in case the parent is unwell) etc. is expected to be done by the children.

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Some children also go to nearby forest covers to cut firewood.

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Almost all houses have some amount of farm area. Children learn to attend to the farm and animals from parents and elders.

Products from the farm, like milk and eggs, are sold to neighbours. Children usually deliver these on their way to school or tuitions. They may or may not be accompanied by an adult.

In the evenings, children head out to play. To refresh themselves, they buy snacks and beverages from small shops in the neighbourhood.

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During lunch or on their way back home, school children stop at street stall with their friends to have snacks. After all, you can always find a vendor who sells favourites like jhalmuri and aloo chewra.

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The remoter areas of the city do not have developed playgrounds or community parks. The do however have fields and smaller pockets of open spaces every few meters. Children of the neighbourhood usually play here. The surroundings trigger their imagination and lets them get creative while playing. This illustration shows a group of children playing on an abandoned bulldozer. 135

Activities of a student outside school hours

Cooking

Cleaning

Helping in the farm

Collecting firewood

Delivering milk & eggs

These are primarily the range of activities that a child from classes 2nd to 10th would do outside of their school hours. Time spent in each activity varies from day to day. A few activities for some of the children could be replaced with helping out their parents at their work places.

Watching TV, Instagram

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Homework

Post School Surroundings Community / Neighbourhood

Shops (Small)

Most children tend to spend a lot of time in and around the neighbourhood during their post school hours as they would hang out with friends from that area.

Children frequently visit neighbourhood shops with their friends to buy snacks. Sometimes, they are also asked by their parents to buy groceries on their way back home from play.

Home

Farms

This could be considered the resting spot for most children. Home is the place they come back to after every outing; where they interact with their family.

Most houses have a small farm area where the family grows vegetables, herbs and also rear cattle, chickens etc. Children get to learn much from this space.

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Tuitions

Streets

Students attend tuitions in order to revise lessons, prepare for exams etc. These classes become another interactive zone where they meet peers outside of school.

While walking from point A to B, children stop at street side shops to grab a snack. Slow walks accompanied by conversations make streets an important area of interaction.

Outdoor spaces

Parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Workplace

These spaces are common open spaces such as fields, tree covers etc. where children from the neighbourhood meet to play. It is usually and undefined area.

Post school, few children visit their family at their workplaces e.g.. a shop in Lal Market. They either spend a part of their day to help out or stay for leisure.

Re-defined Stakeholder Mapping Panchayat/ Dist. Govt. Primary Stakeholders

Neighbouring Communities

Secondary Stakeholders

NGOs Welfare Committee

Tertiary Stakeholders

Community Children Parents/ Guardians Neighbours

Visitors/ Tourists

Policy Makers State Govt.

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Conversations with the children Throughout the research phase, I had the opportunity to talk to the stakeholders and truly understand the different aspects of their lives. A few parts of the conversations stood out and led me to ideas for the design brief. These dialogues are listed below:

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

School ke baad kya karne ka man hai? ...umm...shaayad tours and travels waala line try karega... Kyun? ..kyunki thik kamaa sakta hai. Maine suna ki tourism mein acha paisa hai.

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â&#x20AC;?

“

Bada hone par construction waala kaam kar sakta hai, baba ke jaise... Kyun? Kyunki jab unko contract milta hai, us time hum sab enjoy karta hai...baahar khaana khaane jaata hai

”“

College ke liye, I will go to ‘xyz’ college... Bangalore mein hai Wahan ka koi course pasand aaya kya? Nai. Meri cousin wahan padhti hai, bola ki acha college hai. Usne ye bhi bola ki Bangalore bohot acha shehar hai...ki mujhe udhar acha lagega...

”

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“

Vaise toh mujhe dance aur gaane mein bohot interest hai...performance ko interest hai! Par nahi kar sakti...school ka padhai karna hai Hobby ban sakta hai na? Shaam ko music ya dance class me seekh sakte ho... Mai TV me music video dekh ke film songs aur dance seekhti hoon...woh kaafi hai

”

“

Mujhe woh vocational wala class bohot pasand hai. Usme cooking, stitching, building construction...sab sikhaate hain. Bada hone par useful hoga Inme se kaunsa padhna chate ho? umm...shayad cooking, hotel ke liye. Baaki mein toh acha job nahi milga ...haina?

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”

Based on these recurring topics, it seemed like the aspirations of the children were limited in one way or another. I noticed that a lot of the children have a traditional perspective when it comes to choosing colleges and careers. Skills like cooking were viewed as something one could make a career out of but, in general, it was preferred to take up a professional course for getting a good job. Role models were usually people who were in close proximity. If the role model is seen to have a stable life with a family, his/her job seemed appealing. Considering that most of Sikkimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s income is through its tourism, a large number of people try their hand at a tours and travels business. This is a career noticed and desired by many children. Interests and aptitudes rarely came up in conversations about choosing colleges. The dream was to attend a college if it had a good reputation.

These insights further helped me shape an initial brief.

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Initial Brief

To create an environment where children see unlimited prospects in their interests which could become aspirations. 144

Aspiration & societal interpretation In humanities, literature proposes a wide range of definitions for the concept of “aspirations”. Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘an aspiration’ as “a strong desire to achieve something high or great” This definition a) stresses that an aspiration is, in its nature, a desire and b) fixes the socially acceptable goal as an object of desire. The researchers Quaglia and Cobb define aspirations as “an ability to identify and set goals for the future, which is conditioned by a present inspiration for work to attain those goals”. In the dictionary of social sciences the concept of ‘an aspiration’ is defined as “a standard, in relation to which one feels he has been a success or a failure” This definition emphasizes a) the activity of a social subject, and b) the role of present and future perceptions when setting goals. According to a number of estimates, the most widely spread conceptualization of ‘aspirations’ considers it as a phenomenon analogous with “the desired self”, which essentially comprises ideal goals to be attained in the future. (9) Another conceptualization of ‘an aspiration’ views it as a comprehension of the potential alternatives for future

(9) Article in UNDP National Youth Survey Report

https://www.undp.org/content/dam/armenia/docs/ Nationalyouthaspirationssurveyreport_ENG_editedfinal.pdf

results by the social subject. Along with the enrichment of experience the list of aspirations becomes limited, as a result of which one focuses on the character of the “future self” Concepts, related to ‘aspirations’, such as expectations, hopes, and dreams, are widely used in literature. Various authors emphasize the idealistic and pragmatic aspect of aspirations: the latter assumes a pursuit of predictable ‘realistic’ plans instead of the idealistic targets set The aspirations of a social subject are formed in the social context, and not in a vacuum. This means that society, with all of its social systems, significantly impacts the formation of aspirations. In this regard, individuals have a “window” of aspirations through which they consider present opportunities within their social environments. The concept of ‘aspirations’ is circulated in the context of its correlation with this or that field of activity in literature. Particularly, the emphasis is mostly laid on aspirations for education and employment. Combining these approaches and working within the framework of the study, we have defined ‘aspirations’ as an integrity of the future goals of a person, formed on the basis of present experience under the influence of social infrastructure.

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Are aspirations and expectations distinguishable? The answer is yes, they are distinguishable. According to Reynolds and Pemberton (2001), educational expectations and aspirations reflect a fundamental difference between what one wishes to achieve and what one realistically expects to achieve. Aspirations, as such, are abstract statements or values and beliefs regarding future plans (educational or/and employment plans) made by young people, i.e. the educational level a student wishes to achieve. (10)

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(10) Article in Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; aspirations, expectations and school achievement: what really matters? by Nabil Khatab

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/berj.3171

To understand aspiration better, I conducted a brainstorm session with my co-workers. The question was: â&#x20AC;&#x153;What do you think are the drivers or blockers of aspiration?â&#x20AC;? The image below shows our perspectives.

Brainstorm: The positive and negative influencers of aspirations

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Few factors that drive aspirations

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Few factors that block aspirations

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Analysis All the perspectives of the brainstorm could be put under the following categories:

Factors that influence aspirations

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Concept 1 The categories listed based on the brainstorm were essentially the factors that influence aspiration. Post this, the plan was to design and conduct workshops in a community. Each workshop would be designed around on influencer of aspiration. The hope through this intervention was to inform people about the ways in which aspirations could be supported and encouraged; to equip them to think of ways in which they could be realised.

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The trial workshop was designed around ‘Curiosity.’ The hypothesis: “Curiosity is triggered when there is something new and interesting to learn.” The questions were framed to know what is it that people in a community are curious to learn; and which of those can they teach. The workshop was conducted in a school while parents came to pick up their children after school. The 15 participants were divided into groups of 3 - 1 adult and 2 children. This was done to ensure that children could also feel like a part of a discussion rather than answering questions as instructed. The following questions were given to the participants (1 per group) in the form of a questionnaire that had to be filled out with answers of each group member. This way, each question is discussed and people learn about each other. The group was also given a mission to try and find some thing(s) common among them.

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Try to find something common between you and your partner/group members through this conversation.

अगर तपाई काइ छुट्टि मा जानु पायो भनि क़ा जानु हुन्छ ? कों लाई लानु हुन्छ ? एस्तो १० चीज लेख्नुहोस जो तपाई गर्नु हुन्छ।

हामिले जे कुरा गर्यो त्या बाट १ -२ ओटा सामान्य चीज़ खोजुनुहोस

- त्या बाट ५ एउटा चीज कत्नुहोस - तत्या दिखिन २ एउटा चीज कत्नुहोस - अबो तीन ओत चीज ज बाच्यो लेख्नुहोस।

1. What were your interests/dreams when you were 10-15 years old? (class 5-10)? तपाइ सानो हुँदा १० -१५ साल हुँदा तपाइको सप्ना हेरु के थियो?

2. Share the top 5 items on your bucket list. पांच एउटा चीज जो तपाइलाई पुरा गर्नु मन परि अको छ त्यो भनुहोस

3. If you were to plan your dream vacation, where would you go? Who will you take with you? List 10 things you would like to do. - Cross out 5 items from the list. - Cross out 2 more items. - What are your final 3 items?

4. The world is ending tomorrow!! What will you spend your time doing? What/who will you keep with you? List 10 items - Cross out 5 items from the list. - Cross out 2 more items. - What are your final 3 items? भुली संसार खतम हुन्देय्चा भनि तपाई अजु के गर्नु हुन्छ ? को लाई तपाई संघ लानु हुने ? के चीज हेरु लानु हुन्छ तपाई संग ? - त्या बाट ५ एउटा चीज कत्नुहोस - तत्या दिखिन २ एउटा चीज कत्नुहोस - अबो तीन ओत चीज ज बाच्यो लेख्नुहोस। 5. What are the 5 things you have always wanted to learn? If you were to choose one of those to learn immediately, what would it be? 153

पांच ओत चीज जो तपाइलाई सीख्नु मन लाग्छ त्यो लेख्नुहोस? पांच बात एउटा चीज सिख्नु पायो भनि के हो भनुहोस?

6. According to you, what are 5 things you are good at? If you were asked to teach one of those, what would you like teach? Why? पाँच ओत चीज लेख्नुहोस जस मा तपाई राम्रो छ? 7. Share the common things between you and your partner/group members. तपाई हेरु को बीच मा के चीज हेरु एउतै लाग्यो त्यो लेख्नुहोस

Key Takeaways: The answers were later analysed to select activities that could be taught and learnt from each other in the community.

The following 12 were the activities that the people found most interesting: • Football • Cooking • Farming/Gardening • Computer basics • Exam prep • Dance • Singing • Art • Basic home electronics • Knitting/Sewing • Swimming • Driving

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Moving Forward A space large enough to accommodate people of a neighbourhood was required for then next phase of the workshop. The space needed to be easily accessible and in a close proximity. In order to find a suitable space, I explored a remote neighbourhood of Gangtok.

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Remote neighbourhood The representative map shows the Chongay Tar neighbourhood. The remote neighbourhoods in Gangtok had similar characteristics. People of one community usually lived in one cluster of houses. A few meters ahead would be another cluster of a different community. The spaces between these clusters were open common areas, which were used when required. It is common to find forest covers in and around the neighbourhood.

Main Roads

Forests

Community settlement

Open areas Representative map of Chongay, a remote neighbourhood in Gangtok

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Parental occupations Adults living in this neighbourhood mostly undertake the following occupations: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Labourer Housewife Driver Mason Milkman Shopkeeper/help Small business owner Government employee

Milkman Labourer Govt. Employed

The size of a circle represents the number of people from the neighbourhood in each profession.

Mason

Driver

Housewife

Small Business

Shopkeeper/ Help

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Moving Forward The next step was to set up stalls for each activity in one of the identified community open space. Each activity needed to have an assigned instructor, adult or child, from the community. People interested in learning one of the activities had to visit the stalls to subscribe to the workshop.

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Moving Forward Through the workshop experience, I understood that within a community, knowledge exchange takes place all day, everyday! The key was to understand how, what, when and where.

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In a Community, Knowledge Exchange can happen through various Interactions

Interactions

Interactions What, Where, How

Transactional

An interaction model in which interactions in two directions are considered together. For example: from one person to another and back, or from one subsystem to another and back.

Collaborative

A type of interaction that allow people to work together in the resolution of a problem or act together for completing a task. People engaged in collaborative interaction capitalize on one anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resources and skills.

Conversational

Communication between two or more people. Conversations may be ideal when, for example, each party desires a relatively equal exchange of information, or when the parties desire to build social ties.

Community Who, Where

Knowledge Exchange What

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The quality or degree of Knowledge Exchange may vary based on the type of Interactions happening in the Community Examples of various interactions happening in the community:

Transactional Interaction

Hey Dawa, Did you deliver the eggs to Pemaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house in the morning?

Collaborative Interaction

Conversational Interaction

Do you want to take part in the clean up drive?

Did you know that Kaldenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son fell sick?

Yes, I heard that he was unwell since the past week. Is he allright?

Ya, I did it before going to school Sure! How are we doing it?

We are all meeting up to discuss the ideas. You can come join us.

Sure! I have a few interesting ideas myself

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He had to be taken to the government hospital. It is so far.

No, No, The government hospital shifted to a new and closer location

Based on this insight, I listed out interaction opportunities in a community.

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Final Brief

To create a product to be placed in the open spaces of a neighbourhood, that triggers interactions between adults and children in a community. The interactions triggered could lead to exchange of knowledge. 164

Brainstorm of product ideas

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Moving Forward A few ideas from these were then selected and developed into concepts.

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Concept 2 Geometric forms that can be used as a team to build anything. This could be viewed as a life-sized version of Lego blocks. The idea is that people of different age groups in a community could collectively put together structures using various blocks. The size of the blocks is such that small children would require each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s help to move and place them. They could either take help from older children or adults. The shapes of each block include the regular 5 solids and their variations. These could easily be combined to form many different structures which does or does not have a particular function.

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In the open spaces of a neighbourhood, large structures like these could attract the attention of people living there. Therefore, the curiosity to interact with it is triggered. The shapes are familiar enough for people to start using them without instruction. The rest is guided by their creativity and imagination. When people of different age groups interact through this activity, they open themselves up to understand many perspectives. This leads to knowledge exchange - especially about structure, volumes, capabilities and applications.

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Concept 3 An chair that helps you with mathematics and also relaxes your back. This particular chair incorporates an abacus in its backrest. The idea was that the moveable beads could attract attention and nudge people to interact with the chair. People could learn to use the counting frame and apply the concept to enjoy the process of mathematical calculations. They could also teach others what they have learnt.

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The seating position determines how a person interacts with the chair. The image on the left shows two people using the abacus to calculate or learn. Whereas, the image on the left shows a person using it as a regular chair. In this position, the beads could provide acupressure, as in the case of a beaded car seat.

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Concept 4 Hollow modules that let you create complex mazes and understand movement. The blocks seen in the image are essentially different pipes sections and pipe fittings. People could arrange the blocks using all the possible permutations and combinations to make a pattern or maze. Once the pattern is in place, a ball is rolled through it to see how it flows and exits the maze. This can be done many times over with new goals. One could try to block the other playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s way or test the limits by increasing the complexity of patterns.

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The ball rolling through the piping pattern basically shows movement and flow inside pipes. This game could teach people about water flow in plumbing, irrigation etc. It could also be a way to break down and understand complex real life structures like drainage systems.

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Concept 5 A scaled up public screen that helps people learn to use the many facets of the internet first-hand. A lot of the younger generation was aware of and very active on social media. Internet is perceived as a knowledge resource and also a source of entertainment/recreation. This knowledge could be useful even for the older generation. e.g. A small business owner or shopkeeper could advertise and promote using social media platforms. This installation in an open space has a screen embedded in it. The structure allows controlled access to the required internet dependent applications. The placement and size of the installation attracts attention of the people and so begins the knowledge exchange process.

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Since the screen is large, everything can be easily and clearly be seen on it as opposed to a small mobile screen. What people learn from this could be applied to other computer devices also. Controlled access ensures proper use of the installation. It could even have a social media page dedicated to documenting what people have learnt and experienced due to the installation. Considering the availability of a large screen in a public space, it could also be utilised for community movie screenings from time to time.

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Concept 6 An interactive news cart with information and updates about the neighbourhood. The community news cart functions as the stimulus that brings people out of their houses and away from their chores. The mobile nature of the product meets the people half way; rather than relying on people to take the first step, the cart takes the interaction to them. The purpose of the cart is to relay news and information about different aspects of the community, to the community. It could be about the flora & fauna, festivals, school programmes, relevant headlines etc. The information could be announced to the whole community. This could be a way for people to become aware of their surrounding, all of the different lives around them and learn more about it.

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People gather around the cart to have a closer look at all the information it provides. Information is shared via banners, posters, verbal announcements and visuals. The visuals could be viewed by looking through the circular cut-outs in the cart. This functions somewhat similarly to the retro film viewers found in melas. A session of tea & snacks could keep the conversations about all the new information going.

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Key drivers for final concept

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Inter-generation interactions:

Knowledge Exchange:

All programs, services and organizations that engage with families of young children have the opportunity to support childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s learning through facilitating the parent-child relationship, as well as, other primary caregiver relationships children are engaged in. Enhancing the adult-child relationship, through actively facilitating interactions, is a critical delivery of engaging with families, and supports the fundamental goal of improving outcomes for children.

Inter-generation interactions are important to understand the evolution of things. It helps individuals understand multiple perspectives to the surroundings and relations around them. Traditional and inherent knowledge are also a key areas that gets addressed through inter-generation interactions. It helps the younger generation get an insight to their roots and origins as well as the experiences of their past generations. It also instils a feeling of belonging and ownership towards their culture.

Public / Open space areas for interaction

Inclusive

When we watch a child play, we arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessarily thinking about the cognitive skills they are building or the social impact it will have on relationships later in life, but that is exactly what is happening.

By executing a design intervention within a neighbourhood/ community space, it ensures the inclusion of children who are not part of the elementary education system. In a community, children are seen as children of a family rather than students that belong to a particular school or class.

Playgrounds or open spaces areas are a key factor in enabling the different types of play that support a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development. The opportunity for free play is different from the structure of physical education classes or organized sports. The free play that intuitively happens in a free interactive space allowing users to choose how they play and explore according to their natural tendencies.

In another perspective, it could also mean inclusiveness of all knowledge - knowledge beyond what is taught in schools. Here, people of the community become the sources/ bearers of knowledge.

In public spaces this stimulus can be created by the selection and arrangement of furniture; for instance, if benches, rubbish bins and telephones are far apart, they may have the effect of drawing people apart, whereas if they are arranged closely linked with other amenities such as a coffee cart, they tend to bring people together quite naturally.

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Concept 7 An outdoor furniture system that supports long conversations while accommodating multiple people and their comfort postures Overview A furniture system placed in an open community space. The shape of the seating allows people to face each other while talking, as opposed to a linearly designed seating. The kinetic parasol was something I thought added a moving element to the space. The idea was to fit the spokes with different elements that people could recognize or even discover new things from.

Goals 1. Bring people out of their homes and into the community spaces. Extend interactions beyond people of the house. 2. A common meeting point for people of a neighbourhood. 3. Forms that accommodate and facilitate various leisure/ comfort postures. 4. Non-linear forms and arrangement that allows group conversations to occur.

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Responsibilities Since the system will be placed in a public space of a neighbourhood, it is possible for the people of that neighbourhood to ensure the maintenance. Alternatively, considering that open spaces come under government property, the district government could be responsible for the maintenance.

Users 1. People living in the neighbourhood 2. Travellers passing through 3. People visiting the neighbourhood

Specifications The form of the furniture could be further modified to accommodate comfortable leisure postures like lying down, half sit, lean, stretched out etc. Knock-down features could be added to the furniture if it requires seating adjustment or movability.

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Case study 1 Superbenches is a project of Kalejdohill, an urban development program in the Swedish municipality of Jarfalla. Leading designers were invited to reinterpret the traditional park bench at Jarfallaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kvarnbacken Park. (11)

Spring Break by Soft Baroque; Image source: Architectural Digest

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(11) Designing community: How park benches are paving the way for collective design; Article by Avantika Shankar

https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/designing-communitypark-benches-paving-way-collective-design/#s-cust0

Core by Philippe Malouin; Image source: Hangmen website

Cushy by Hagglund and Gripner; Image source: Hangmen website

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Case study 2 Gudgudee is a product and space design studio that creates innovative indoor and outdoor play areas that go beyond the typical swings and slides. It was started by Anjali Menon and Aditi Agrawal, alumnae of the National institute of Design, Ahmedabad, with a vision to transform public spaces in India.

Image source: Gudgudee website

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Image source: Gudgudee website

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Sketches

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The way forward

The project so far shows probable directions that the design interventions could take. In all the directions, there is still a long way to go before the solutions can be executed and tested. Depending on the chosen direction, the degree of challenges also vastly vary. The immediate next step would be to explore forms, materials and then to prototype them. The prototypes will then have to be tested in order to refine and perfect the product. The final solution(s) will need to be pitched to the right people and organisations that support service and community building oriented ventures. The state government of Sikkim and organisations like the Rotary Foundation, India (and associated clubs) could contribute to the project in many ways and help in its realisation. Considering that the research was done in Gangtok, the insights forming the structure of this project become very specific to the region. Therefore, the solutions work only in those specific conditions. That being said, because Gangtok is a mountain city, it is possible to find similar narratives in other mountain cities of India. At the same time, the idea of designing outdoor furniture to trigger conversations in neighbourhoods is an idea that could work in modern cities as well.

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Retrospection

The experience of doing my graduation project was sprinkled with many ‘first times.’ It was the first time my ‘plan’ only had one clear step - go to Gangtok! The first time I visited the North-East of India. The first time I lived in a mountain city for a long duration. The first time walking was an obvious and reasonable mode of commuting. And also the first time I undertook a guided thesis project in a design studio.

These are a few things that I would probably remind myself:

Through the project, I gained exposure to a place and culture that I didn’t know much about. Over time, I started noticing similarities between the city and other Indian cities but, learnt to appreciate the nuances and recognise that they give Gangtok its personality. Observing more such nuances led me to interact with the local communities and understand their way of life and the value of their experiences.

Decision: A project is always an amalgamation of perspectives, skills, guidance, knowledge and instincts. It is important to listen to and understand each of these but, the decision is always yours. Stay true to yourself and the project.

Before reaching Gangtok, I had no clue about what my project could be about. With a commitment to the institute, this situation had my nerves triggering every possible worst case scenario. But a sense of calm eventually took over when I recognised the first hint of direction. From that point onwards, the journey saw moments of clarity, ambiguity, confusion, frustration, lull, excitement, motivation and a lot more finally culminating in this document.

Ambiguity: Embrace ambiguity, but don’t let it swallow you. Research: Be thorough in your research, but know when to stop. Be open to learn but, accept that you cannot and need not know everything.

Support: Understand that asking for help is a step towards growth. Approach people without fear and involve them in your process. We are after all headed to a more collaborative future. Action: Don’t be afraid to try your ideas. It is the only way you can know whether it works and how much.

Looking back, I realise there are many takeaways from every phase of this experience and many that I am yet to realise. 193

References Articles A Brief History of Education

Article in UNDP National Youth Survey Report

Human Resource Development Department, a Glimpse of its Programmes and Initiatives

Students’ aspirations, expectations and school achievement: what really matters?

Importance of School Furniture

Brief History of Education in India

High Quality Preschool Furniture & Preschool Classroom Design Play a Pivotal Role in Children’s Acquisition of Knowledge

India’s Education System: History, current issues and major public initiatives

by Peter Gray, Ph.D.

Article by Bhim Thata, Director

Teacher Training, Mumbai

by Joyce Buckman

by Nabil Khattab by V.A.Ponmelil

by Helena Schropp

Designing the Classroom Around the Curriculum

Designing community: How park benches are paving the way for collective design

Failure Repeat drop report

First Generation Tribal Learners

Smith System website

Sikkim HRDD website

India School Drop Out Rate: Sikkim: 6-11 Years Old: Girl CEIC data for Department of Higher Education

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UNDP website

by Avantika Shankar, Architectural Digest by Joyeeta Banerjee

Web Links https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/ brief-history-education

http://sikkim-hrdd.gov.in/report/Student%20Information/2008/ failrepeatdropreport.pdf

https://education.newkerala.com/india-education/Brief-History-ofEducation-in-India.html

https://www.ceicdata.com/en/india/school-drop-out-rate-611years-old/school-drop-out-rate-sikkim-611-years-old-girl

https://www.grin.com/document/337943

https://www.undp.org/content/dam/armenia/docs/ Nationalyouthaspirationssurveyreport_ENG_editedfinal.pdf

http://www.sikkimhrdd.org/GeneralSection/UploadedFiles/HRDD_ Initiatives2017.pdf

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/berj.3171

http://sikkim-hrdd.gov.in/rti.htm#chapter%202

https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/designing-communitypark-benches-paving-way-collective-design/#s-cust0

http://teachertrainingindia.co.in/blog/teacher-training/importanceof-school-furniture/

https://www.academia.edu/14471924/First_generation_tribal_ learners

https://www.hertzfurniture.com/buying-guide/classroom-design/ preschool-furniture.html https://smithsystem.com/school-setting/classrooms/

https://www.umass.edu/studentlife/sites/default/files/documents/ pdf/The%20First%20Generation%20Student.pdf

Publications

Case Studies

The Little Book of Design Research Ethics

Hole in the Wall

Field Guide to Human-Centered Design

Website: http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/

IDEO

Education in Sikkim: An Historical Retrospect by Dr. Dick B. Dewan

Dr. Sugata Mitra

TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_kids_can_teach_ themselves?language=en

The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

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Annexure

This portion of the document consists of the concept statement, technical drawings, 3D models and details of the chosen concept. A plan for the implementation of the project - the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Product Blueprintâ&#x20AC;?- is also attached to this document. I would like to thank Anurag Tank, Christopher Richard, Kushagra Singh, Manikanta Polisetti, Raisa Umar and Swapnil Soni for helping me put this together.

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Concept Statement An outdoor furniture system that supports long conversations while accommodating multiple people and their comfort postures. The 4 module furniture is made using brick skeleton and IPS coating (for shape and form). Arrangements using permutation-combination of the 4 modules give multiple options for seating systems in any given open space. The modules were split in this way taking into consideration that larger area of flat land is not always available. Therefore, single modules can be arranged as per the contours of the site. The modules have 5 height levels that helps in equalising perceived hierarchy. It adds playful/interactive elements to the otherwise simple forms.

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In the local communities, people working as masons and labourers are well versed with building technology. This material combination and process is chosen as it incorporates a known skill and brings people of the community together to make products they will use in the future. The materials are also locally available and does not need transportation from neighbouring cities. In the future, the plan is to try and construct more hollow, light-weight and moveable form with Glass Reinforced Concrete (GRC).

3D MODEL: View of inner circle

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3D MODEL: View of outer circle

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MODULE-A

MODULE-B

MODULE-C

MODULE-D

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ASSEMBLY DRAWING

D B

00.0

R20

R80

R50

1200

R50

450

600

B 750

4000

ALL THE DIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETERS DO NOT SCALE DRAWING

TITLE:

COALITIō TAPLEY

SCALE: 1:20

6 202

REVISION

SHEET 5 OF 5

MODULE-A: TECHNICAL DRAWING

1 D

1200

C 30° 500

B 1300

600

1500

150

300

600

450

ALL THE DIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETERS DO NOT SCALE DRAWING

TITLE:

COALITIō TAPLEY

SCALE: 1:20

REVISION

SHEET 1 OF 5

1 203

MODULE-B: TECHNICAL DRAWING

1 D

300

450

B 450

750

1114

1105

948 1730

1510

ALL THE DIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETERS DO NOT SCALE DRAWING

TITLE:

COALITIō TAPLEY

SCALE: 1:20

ALL THE DIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETERS

204

REVISION

SHEET 2 OF 5

MODULE-C: TECHNICAL DRAWING

1114

D 60 °

552 1470

150

450

750

1730

ALL THE DIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETERS DO NOT SCALE DRAWING

TITLE:

COALITIō TAPLEY

SCALE: 1:20

REVISION

SHEET 3 OF 5

1 205

MODULE-D: TECHNICAL DRAWING

6 D

1 D

165

600

1200

150

30°

450

956

1496

1230 ALL THE DIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETERS DO NOT SCALE DRAWING

TITLE:

COALITIō TAPLEY

SCALE: 1:20

6 206

REVISION

SHEET 4 OF 5

Material & Construction Material: Indian Patent Stone Indian Patent Stone or IPS is a pourable composite material that can be grey or coloured. When red, it is also referred to commonly as "red oxide flooring" and was used extensively in old houses.

IPS

MORTAR

It is a basic but beautiful material which provides good wearing properties. It can be used for all types of floors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; industrial commercial or residential. The thickness of the IPS flooring can be decided as per the requirement of work. In residential floor 75 mm floor thickness is sufficient whereas industrial floor thickness should be kept 150 mm.

Construction BRICK BASE

Similar to floorings, the material can also be used to make furniture. Once the skeleton of the furniture is constructed with brick and mortar, IPS is moulded over it and moulded to the desired shape. IPS can be coloured and given either a wax coat or a sealer coat to help preserve the colour and prevent stains. The finish can either be smooth or rough .

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Costing BRICK Unit cost: Rs. 7 per brick Total Number: 990 (for all 4 modules) Labour: 110/sqft (brick & mortar) IPS Material+Labour: Rs. 150/sqft Surface area per module: 55 sqft TOTAL COSTING: Brick & Mortar : 55x110x4 IPS : + 55x150x4 Brick cost : + 990x7 TOTAL : = Rs. 64,130 Cost Per Module : Rs. 16,032.5

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Product Blueprint

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