Pratham India in Holland

Visit to HI School in Holland It was not very easy to plan our visit to a school in Holland because of the spring holidays. But thanks to the efforts of Petra, a school far away in South Holland was working and the best part was that it was part of the Holland – India project undertaken by Pratham and Oxfam.

Our journey from Leiden to Eindhoven with Mr. Piet from Oxfam, gave us complete idea of this wonderful project as well as an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful countryside of Holland.

Mrs. Anneke of the Palet School welcomed us and soon we were engaged in discussing about the education system in Holland and India . We found a vast difference in the way of teaching science. In The Netherlands, emphasis was more on application of science while in India children were taught the basic concepts first.

After the delicious lunch, lovingly arranged by Mrs. Anneke, we were all set to meet the children in the class which was decorated with pictures and photos from India. A properly

Ganesh idol was also placed

near

the

blackboard. This was from the collection of Mrs. Anneke, who, to our surprise, had visited India thrice and was planning for fourth visit this summer.

Soon, we were face to face with our young friends, 2025 beaming and anxious lot, curious to know as much as possible about India. The cosmo-vision activity, about which we had learned during the “Universe Awareness Workshop”, required a LCD projector which was readily made available by the school.

Children had to draw pictures regarding universe, before and after the film and they participated wholeheartedly in this activity.

The question and answer session started with bindi on my (Jayshree’s) forehead and soon all the girls wanted to have a bindi on their forehead too.

The questions which followed ranged from

size

of

country,

musical

instruments, animals, Mumbai, food habits , national heroes, to the number of children in each class and size of classrooms. They were surprised to know about the multigrade classrooms which are so common in Indian villages. The fact that, most of the schools in Mumbai were cramped with 70 to 80 children in one classroom was very difficult for them to even imagine. One after the other, the chain of interesting questions kept on coming, promptly translated by Mrs. Anneke, for whom, it was quite exhaustive because she had to translate the answers as well. When it came to festivals, we were astonished to know that Mrs. Anneke had already made plans of making a Rangoli and wearing a Saree for the Diwali. We promised to send some rangoli books and stickers.

The session ended in a very interesting way, as one kid asked about the games which are popular among the Indian children. After telling about the most popular game “cricket “, we demonstrated some local games like “Langadi” and “Kombda” which do not requires any material but still are very popular.

Soon after the group photograph, we were thoroughly amused to find the children

enjoying

the

“Kombda�

game, it seemed they were waiting to go outside the class and try it !

With fond memories we left the Palet school but not before receiving a wonderful

bag

souvenirs.

Jayshree Mane, Neel Pathak Science Program Team, Pratham Mumbai Education Initiative

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