Creative gardens bring laurels to pupils

Aurangabad: The schools run by the civic administration have set the benchmark of teacher-student collaboration and breeding innovative solutions by setting up gardens in the school premises during the Diwali holidays, in response to municipal commissioner Nipun Vinayak’s Baludyan (children’s garden) programme.
The best out-of-waste and creative solutions were felicitated in a programme at Sant Tukaram Natyagruh on Thursday.
From the beginning of the academic year, various programmes have been introduced in the AMC schools to improve literacy levels, language development, encourage reading habit and improve the atmosphere of the schools.
Education counsellor Nidhi Vinayak told TOI that the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) pointed out that 42% Class 3 students in Marathwada could not read. “Based on the ASER findings and other ground-level surveys, we decided to work on early literacy among students from Classes I to V in all 72 AMC schools,” said Nidhi.
Subsequently, a three-day training workshop was held for 200 municipal teachers in four phases. “Various activities were held for teachers where they were taught how to help children identify letters, read words, develop sound awareness and construct sentences,” she said.
Thereafter, the teachers implemented the activities in their schools through Government of India’s Samagra Shiksha Yojna. Considering the need for documentation of the activities conducted, AMC published a book called ‘Shiku Anande’ in Marathi and Urdu. Mayor Nandkumar Ghodele inaugurated the activity book in Thursday’s programme.
The book also has QR codes for smartphone users which direct them to videos demonstrating the activities of the teachers and children in AMC schools.
Samgra Shiksha coordinator Dnyandev Sangle and AMC’s education officer are working closely with the school administration in ensuring sustainability of the programme.
In a bid to encourage reading habit among students, a compilation of the stories written by teachers was published and inaugurated on Teachers’ day. Around 61,000 copies of the book ‘Moothbhar Goshti’ have been distributed among children in AMC schools.