Pragat Shikshan Sanstha

Every year Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan students make a project on an important topic. This year students made a project on the topic ‘Waste’. The first to the ninth grade students studied mainly the situation of waste management of Phaltan and put up an exhibition. Smt. Lakshmi Karhadkar, the mayor of Panchgani, the cleanest town in 2018, visited the exhibition and appreciated children’s work.

Along with this the sixth and the eighth performed a couple of street plays on the theme- Clean India of Clean Minds, in many parts of Phaltan.  Until now they have performed on the Phaltan bus stand, in Ambedkar chowk, Gajanan chowk, Deccan chowk, Mahatma Phule chowk, Shankar market, Jabareshwar temple and in the front of Municipal Corporation, Phaltan. One of the street plays is based on the problems of cleaning workers.

The PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists) International is a worldwide association of writers. The 84^th PEN International Congress was held in Pune from 25 to 28 September, 2018. Writers, poets, linguists, as well as language enthusiasts from various countries came to Pune to attend the Congress.

On 28 September a Bhasha Wari (language pilgrimage) was held. A large number of students from Pune participated in this singing rally, holding the placards representing six thousand languages ​​of the world.  

Ten students from Pragat Shikshan Sanstha’s Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan (KNB) joined the Wari, under the guidance of Shruthi Vishwanath, a Pune based musician, researching the works of women Warkari saint-poets.

Many Warkari troupes from Trimbakeshwar, Nagpur, Kolhapur and Alandi participated in the Wari but the KNB’s group was the only children’s group that sang Abhangas. Children sang the Abhagas by Sant Janabai, Bahinabai, Muktabai, along with the works of Sant Chokhamela and Sant Tukaram.

The Wari which began at the Savitribai Phule Pune University at around 2:30 pm ended at the Balgandharva Rangamandir at 5:00 pm, covering the distance of 4 kms.

After this, the singing troupes were felicitated. Tanmay More accepted the felicitation on the behalf of the children’s group. All the groups together sang an Abhang by Tukdoji Maharaj to mark the end of the Wari. The participation of this small group of from KNB received much appreciation by the organisers and the participants.

Hearty congratulations to all the successful students!

It is very proud thing to have 100% results in SSC Board exam for the 16^th consecutive year. The hard work of the teachers and students is continuing the tradition of this great achievement.

This year all the 31 students passed with good marks. 5 students got marks above 90% and 19 students passed with distinction. Shivani Prakash Lalge came first in Phaltan centre with 98.80 % marks. She got full marks each in mathematics and Sanskrit.

Manjutai and all the teachers played pivotal role in the success of the student. 

An international conference of ‘School in the Cloud (SinC)’ team was organized in PSS, Phaltan on 18 February 2016. It brought together grannies, teachers, educators and SOLE lab coordinators from all over the world.

Around 35 guests from about 10 different countries spend a week before the conference visiting the TED Prize research labs in Korakati, Chandrakona and Gocharan in West Bengal. Two of the SinC coordinators from PSS Madhura Rajvanshi and Sushama Pandit also joined these visits.

The conference was arranged in PSS’s Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan. On 18^th morning some of the grade 8 students took the guests on a Phaltan tour. The guests arrived on the conference venue at 10 am where they were greeted by the children dressed in costumes representing cultural diversity of India.

The informal interactions between the guests and children were followed by the main academic session. Director Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar explained the rationale behind setting up SOLE in the school. Chief guest Shrimant Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar expressed his views about the school and the lab.

During the conference There were presentations by Emma Crawley, the teacher who first tested SOLE in the UK, Katy Milne from the Greenfields and Sally Rix from George Stephenson High School about their experiences of running the SOLE labs.

SinC coordinators from India Madhura Rajvanshi, Moumita Dey and Ritu Dangwal and Project manager Ashis Biswas also narrated their experiences.  Sarah Schoengold of the TED Prize provided a global perspective on SOLE.


Dr. Suneeta Kulkarni shared the Granny Cloud perspective. Many children talked about their beloved grannies in between the sessions.

Prof. Sugata Mitra in his closing address told a story from each SinC lab.

Some of the parents and students had arranged food stalls for the guests. So the guests got to taste special Maharashrian food as well as delicious diwali snacks before they left for Pune.

All the children, teachers and parents worked hard to make this conference a big success.

What do books do for children? If we have to say it in one sentence, we would say, “Books free the mind and the spirit of children.”

In schools, the text books are prescribed. It is prescribed when and what the children will learn and what they must think and feel. However with books--fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose, there is no compulsion of any sorts, even of reading. Hence the experience of books frees the children.

Books are a window to the world, to different cultures, people and ideologies. When a child engages with a book and enjoys the story without worrying about exams, she starts thinking and wondering about all the things he has seen and read in the book. Books expand her mind. Enrich her life. Make her understand that people all over the world share the same emotions they experience. Make her think and become more tolerant of differences.

With this in mind we started libraries in 6 villages around Phaltan town—Wakhari, Dhawal, Tardhaph, Malawdi, Kurawali and Tathawada. We are running this programme with the financial help of the esteemed Black and Veatch engineering and construction company. 1020 children in the age group of 6-14 borrow books to take home. The six library volunteers, apart from maintaining the library and issuing out books, visit the local government schools every day to read to children and do some literacy activities. Some of them even have walk 3-4 kilometers to reach some of the wasti-shalas.  We have children borrowing up to 40 books within the span of 2 months.

The first library was inaugurated at Malawadi by a team from B&V office on 28^th January 2016. Mr. Tahirnakkash Maner, piping stress engineer B & V and former student of Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan was instrumental in getting this project to PSS.

Schools do have libraries of sorts but do children have access to books? What is the quality of books? How are the illustrations in the books? Do they interest children? Does a facilitator help them understand the book or carry out activities based on the book? We can guess the answers to these questions looking at the crowds in the B&V libraries.

Our dream for B&V libraries is that they should create joy in the lives of children-children from remote villages, children from tiny hamlets without roads, and children without any homes, whose admission in the schools only remains on paper.

On 24^th August 2015 Commander Dilip Donde gave a talk to the students of Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan. He is the first Indian to complete the Sagar Parikrama or circumnavigation of the globe on a sail boat.  4^th to 10^th standard students including and all teachers and interested parents were present for the talk.

Retired Vice Admiral Monohar Awati said that his dream to see an Indian complete this remarkable journey came true after 20 years.

Commander Donde took the audience through his journey of 276 days from August 2009 to May 2010, through a slide show and some videos. As he was the solo traveler on the boat he had to cook food, repair the broken parts and face the difficulties on his own. He said that he never felt lonely as his boat ‘Mhadehi’ had become his companion.

Students asked many questions to Commander Donde’s about his journey. The director of PSS, Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar thanked him for this wonderful interaction with children. 

The sixth school in the cloud in the world, fourth in India and the first in Maharashtra opened at Pragat Shikshan Sanstha’s Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan (KNB) on December 3, 2014. In a small informal programme organized at the school the newly constructed SOLE lab was inaugurated.

School in the Cloud project is a brain child of Prof. Sugata Mitra, 2013 TED Prize Winner and Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University, UK. The concept of SOLE (Self Organized Learning Environment) is central to this project. Children learn in groups with the help of internet. The teachers’ job is to pose intelligent questions. They also speak with the grannies and grandpas from Spain, UK, Germany, US and Australia in the granny cloud programme. This programme has helped improve children’s English speaking skills and self confidence.

In the inaugural programme on 3 December Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar, Director, PSS explained why PSS decided to be a part of this project. Dr. Suneeta Kulkarni, Research Director of the school in the cloud spoke about the cloud projects around the world. Prof Sugata Mitra shared his thoughts through Skype. KNB students spoke about their grannies and grandpas.

Mr. Ashis Biswas, Project Manager, School in the Cloud, India, Researcher Mrs. Prasanna Hullikavi and Mrs. Soma Sarkar from New Era School, Panchgani were honorable guests for the programme.

Pre-inauguration news at the Newcastle University website www.ncl.ac.uk/socialrenewal/newsandevents/news/item/school-in-the-cloud-allows-children-to-explore-the-world-at-their-fingertips

Mr. Anand Pawar from Pune based Samyak Communication Centre conducted a workshop on gender in Pragat Shikshan Sanstha on 18 and 19 August. On the first day the workshop was for the students from classes 8 to 10 and on the second day it was for the PSS staff.

Mr. Pawar has worked in India and internationally for gender equality, empowerment, self awareness and non violence. He regularly conducts trainings for teachers on gender socialization. He feels that teacher trainings are important for teaching children equality from an early age.

He showed through many examples how gender inequality still persists in our society. A boy and a girl are different only in their sexes at birth but society expects different things from them and raises them, labels them differently. A woman has to be tolerant, sacrificing and weak while a man has to be strong, brave and ambitious.

In today’s patriarchal society all the benefits are man centric. Men control women’s work, resources, freedom to roam, reproduction and sexuality. This won’t change immediately, however it is very important to take small steps towards it was the main take away of the workshop.

Mr. Pawar asked young boys and girls to make lists of the house work they do to make them aware of the descrimination while in the teachers’ workshop he encouraged teachers to think how they can incorporate the element of equality in their teaching.

He showed an animation film ‘Once upon a Boy’ depicting how the society affects children and the interview of Kamala Bhasin on gender from the TV show Satyamev Jayate.

The founder of the School in the Cloud project Prof. Sugata Mitra visited PSS again on 15 July, 2014 to discuss the ongoing construction of the SOLE (Self Organised Learning Environment) room in PSS. He was accompanied by his wife Sushmita Mitra.

Pragat Shikshan Sanstha's Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan is going to be the 7th School in the Cloud in the world and he first in Maharashtra, As the school in the cloud website describes, the aim of School in the Cloud is to spark creativity, curiosity and wonder in children and inspire them to take control of their own learning. Groups of children can learn almost anything by themselves given internet access and the ability to work as a community and the spaces that make this possible are called Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs).

The ‘Granny Cloud’ activity which was started in KNB a year ago will also be shifted to the new SOLE room and students will be able to see their loving grannies and grandpas on a big screen.

The class 7 presented Pitter Patter: A Rainy Programme. The programme inclused a puppet show, a dance and some songs written by children. Then Prof. Mitra had a chat with students about the concept of SOLE. Many questions came up—why the name granny cloud? Why do grannies volunteer to be grannies? What is ‘Hole in the wall?’ etc.

Dr. Maxine Berntsen, the founder of Pragat Shikshan Sanstha was honoured with the prestigious ABP Majha Sanman Puraskar 2014. In a ceremony organised in Mumabi on 26 June, this award was presented to Dr. Berntsen from the hands of Hon. Chief Minister, Maharashtra Shri. Prithviraj Chavan and Hon. Union Surface Transport Minister Shri. Nitin Gadkari.

Dr. Berntsen has done her Ph.D. in linguistics and Indian languages at the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was on social variation in the Marathi speech of Phaltan, a taluka town in Western Maharashtra.

In addition to doing her linguistic research Dr. Berntsen collaborated with her friend Jai Nimbkar in writing a series of nine books, including a reference grammar and a dictionary, to teach Marathi to adult non-Maharashtrians.

After starting the work of Pragat Shikshan Santha in 1978, Dr. Berntsen began advocating regional language as the medium of education through her articles and speeches. She is also one of the founder members of Marathi Abhyas Parishad.

ABP Majha, a renowned Marathi news channel has been giving this award since 2010 to distinguished people in the areas of art, sports, science, language, social work, economics and industry. This year along with Dr. Berntsen, Ramdas Padhye, Baba Kalyani, Ravindra and Smita Kolhe, Tanuja, Sachin Pilgaokar and Sandip Patil also got this award.

This award programme will be broadcasted on ABP Majha on Saturday, 5 July at 7 pm.

Vibhavari Deshpande, a well known psychologist and councelor was invited to Pragat Shikshan Sanstha (PSS) to guide the parents and teachers on how they can help children choose the right career. The lecture was organized at PSS’s Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan on 18 January, 2014.

Vibhavari Deshpande said that it was important to consider children’s interest, inclination as well as their personality while choosing a career for them. She said that parents should not force their ideas and views on their children but encourage and support them for the work they enjoy doing.

She emphasized the importance of an open communication between the adults and children and said that rather than just questioning the children parents can share ideas and experiences with them.

Some of the common problems arising at homes were discussed through role plays enacted by teachers. The two-hour programme ended with a question-answer session and a vote of thanks by Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar, Director of PSS.

Annual Project is the most significant activity among all the activities in Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan. All the students from first to ninth standard work for two-three weeks on the given subject. They collect information from the library as well as from the internet. They visit different places, interview people, take photos and write their observations. Back in the school they draw pictures, make charts and poems as well as models. An exhibition of children’s work is put up in the school.

The subject of this year’s annual project is ‘Public Places in Phaltan.’ Children have studied different public places in Phaltan extensively considering the availability of facilities there and problems arising because of the behavior of people.

The exhibition is open for all till 15 January 2014. The timings are- Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 5 pm and on Saturday, from 9 am to 2 pm. We invite you all to visit the exhibition.

The June 2013 issue of Palakneeti, a Marathi magazine published from Pune for parents and educators, is on Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan. The founder-editor of the magazine Dr. Sanjeevani Kulkarni is one of the Pragat Shikshan Sanstha’s trustees. It was decided to publish a special issue on KNB as this innovative school recently completed 25 years.

In this issue there are articles about how KNB started, how it developed and its philosophy. Some former students have written about their school experiences and there is also an article about Kamalabai Nimbkar. The issue also has some selected stories and poems from Navneet.

This special issue is available in the KNB library for reading as well as for purchasing. The e-copy can be seen on the following website.

http://palakneeti.org/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95/%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%A8-%E0%A5%A8%E0%A5%A6%E0%A5%A7%E0%A5%A9

All the tenth standard students from KNB passed the SSC exam with good marks this year. It is the 13^th consecutive year of 100% result in KNB. Akshata Magar got the highest marks, 96.73. 19 students out of 28got distinction and 6 out of them scored marks above 90. 

The fourth Homai Nariman Cooper Scholarship programme was held in Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan on 8 April 2013. The felicitation of the chief guests was followed by a short slide show presentation by Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar about the work of Cooper Corporation. Then senior journalist Jaywant Gujar, J. B. Patil, the director of Cooper Corporation, Corporate Head Mr. Deshpande and Dr. Nimbkar gave away the scholarship to 60 students from the classes first to tenth.

Every year this scholarship is given to two top scoring students from each class and four others who come from poor background but show hard work and creativity.

J.B Patil read out a piece of address Abdul Kalam had given to children while Mr. Gujar praised KNB for conserving and nurturing each child’s uniqueness. Mr. Deshpande appealed to the students to remove the fear of failure from their minds. Dr. Nimbkar explained the teachers’ significant role in the selection of students for the scholarship. The students of class 4 and 5 presented some songs. The anchoring of the programme was done by Vishal Andhalkar.

Principal Vishwas Jagdale gave a vote of thanks. The cooper corporation donated 45 books to the Nariman Cooper Vikas Granthalay of KNB and also a cheque of Rs. 1, 05,500 to the Pragat Shikshan Sanstha.

Phaltan Municipality’s eighth block meeting was held at KNB on 23 February 2013 from 11.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. A few teachers from KNB’s secondary school spoke as expert advisors while Mr. Shital Ahiwale was the external guide.

The meeting began with the prayer and news shared by the KNB students. Then Madhura Maner introduced Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar’s book ‘Mulanche Srujanatmak Likhan’ (Children’s creative Writing) in English.

Mrs. Manisha Bhosale of KNB demonstrated a Physical Education lesson with class 6 students doing yoga on her instructions. Under the third lesson on Life Skills Mr. Shital Ahiwale spoke about how students could achieve success and contribute to the society.

The afternoon session began with ice-breaking by Mr. Andhalkar where he conducted a game about the reducing natural resources. The participants appreciated this different kind of ice-breaking activity.

Then a short film on Pragat Shikshan Sanstha ‘A Chance to Dream’ was shown and the  meeting ended with Mrs. Sanjyot Unde’s talk on navopakram and action research by teachers.

Along with the Block supervisor Mr. Lalge, 52 secondary teachers attended the meeting.

Akshay Chavan, a student of J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai recently conducted a print making workshop for the students of KNB.

About 60 students interested in art activities participated in this 2-day workshop held at Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan. The workshop involved creating stamp-like structures with fevicol on the cardboard pieces and then using black ink to get an impression on the paper. Children made some beautiful and creative prints during the workshop.

Akshaydada also showed the animated movie ‘The Last Tiger’ created by him to the students and explained its making.

The annual gathering of KNB took place on 13 and 14 February 2013. The morning school performed on the first day while the afternoon school did it on the 14^th.

On the first day the balwadi children jumped and danced on the songs sung by their teachers. Balwadi’s ‘Chanda mavshichya Shetamadhye’, first standard’s ‘Nako tai rusu’, second’s ‘Dongar kathadi’, and the third standard’s ‘Tenalirama got good response from the audiences.

The second day of gathering was marked with a special mime performed by the seventh class girls. The subject of the mime was female infanticide. They also performed a beautiful candle dance ‘O ri chiraiyya’ on the same theme.

One more attraction of the programme was Pongo dance performed by class 8 students wearing gunny bags. The play by the seventh class ‘Nakta Rawal’ made everybody laugh hard. The programme ended with two impressive performances—ninth class girls' ‘Mast kalandar’ and boys’ ‘Khel Mandala.’

Many parents and former students were present in large numbers for both the programmes.

India’s 64^th Republic day was celebrated in Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan with usual enthusiasm. The flag hoisting ceremony was followed by various awards given to children, which included Yoga exam awards and scout-guide awards among others.

Three prizes were given to the students of the tenth class for their excellent environment projects. These awards were given on the basis of the quality of the project as well as its presentation. You can see all the three projects here. http://pragatshikshansanstha.org/blogreply.php?blogid=50fd056cbc626

The programme ended with some wonderful performances by children. These included yoga demonstrations, human pyramids and parade.

The annual school project has been an important part of the KNB program since 1995. Each year the entire school from standard one to nine spends two to three weeks working on a chosen theme. Students collect information from the library and the internet, interview people, visit places and make observations. Back in school, they collate the information and write it up, draw maps, charts and pictures, write poems and make models. All this material is assembled into an exhibition which is open in January each year for parents, teachers, students from other schools and the general public.

This year on the occasion of KNB’s silver jubilee celebrations the subject of the project is, ‘Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan: Not a school, a family!’ It will show the history of the school since 1987, interviews of former students, children’s parliament, innovative methods of teaching, problems in school etc. The children from all the classes are working hard on the project.

The exhibition will be open for all to see in KNB from 26.1.13 to 10.2.13 from 8 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. You are cordially invited to visit the exhibition and leave your feedback.

A ninth standard student from Kamala Nimbkar balbhavan, Eeshan Ranade secured a first position in the secondary section at the taluka level science exhibition held at Sakharwadi. He had displayed an airgun made from a bicycle pump.

Omkar Gaikwad and Archit Parulekar from the seventh standard got the third prize in primary section for their model of an opening-closing bridge on a river.

Both these instruments have been selected for the district level competition to be held on 10 January 2013 at Umbraj.

Fresh news: Eeshan Ranade's instrument won the fourth prize in the district level competition. 

Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan’s Anitatai Kulkarni received the first prize for her Navopakram on teaching Fractions in the primary section at the district level. The Navopakram competition for teachers is organized every year by Vistar Seva Kendra, Azad College of Education, Satara and the Satara Zilla Parishad.

Anitatai conducted the activities for this navopakram with the students of the third standard. Her object behind this project was to remove the fear of fractions from children’s minds and make them interested in the subject. She encouraged the use of children’s everyday experiences in the classroom to have them understand the meaning of fractions used in daily practices.

This is the sixth navopakram from KNB to win the first prize at the district level.

Should sexuality education be given to school children? If yes, then how should it be imparted? Do teachers know enough? To seek the answers to these and many such questions and empower our teachers, a workshop on sexuality was conducted for all the teachers and staff of Pragat Shikshan Sanstha (PSS) on 19 December 2012. Dr. Sanjeevani Kulkarni, the coordinator of Prayas Health Group, Pune, Editor of Palakneeti magazine and one of the trustees of PSS conducted this workshop.

Dr. Sanjeevani Kulkarni put everybody at ease through informal conversation. In the first session of the workshop teachers were given some statements to discuss in groups. They had to determine whether those statements were true or misconceptions and explain the reasons. This exercise brought about quite a thorough discussion accompanied with scientific explanations.

In the afternoon session the groups were given stories of different incidents based on child sexual abuses that could happen anywhere around us. Each group had to discuss the incident and present its views regarding the happenings in the story. They also had to discuss which of the characters were at fault and how they could help the abused. Teachers were made to realize how important it was to be always alert of things happening around as well as to instill in our children the courage to say no to unwanted touch.

All the teachers and office staff of PSS participated in this workshop that ran from 10 am to 6.30 pm. Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar, Director of PSS too guided participants along with Sanjeevanitai. All the teachers agreed to have an action plan in the form of a committee called sajag samiti. The members of this committee would work towards providing a free and safe environment not only in KNB but also other schools in Phaltan. 

On the occasion of Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan’s (KNB) completion of 25 years a reunion of all the past students and teachers was organized in the school on 11 November 2012.

The programme started with a slideshow on life of Kamalabai Nimbkar. Nadia Qureshi, a past KNB student who is also the great granddaughter of Kamalabai, unfolded Kamalabai’s life and work through a series of old photographs. Dr. Maxine Berntsen, the founder of Pragat Shikshan Sanstha and KNB narrated the history of the organisation and the school.

The afternoon session of the programme began with ‘Ek Sur Kavitecha’, a musical presentation of some of the poems written by former students. Former Language teacher Mrs. Swamini Rudrabhate compeered this programme. Kalpita Dandavate conducted a fun quiz with some very old photographs in which the location, persons and the occasions had to be identified.

In the last part of the programme a few students who have chosen some uncommon career paths spoke about their work and the contribution of school in choosing and taking forward that work.

In the end Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar thanked everyone and appealed the students to stay in touch with the school. Padmashri B. V. Nimbkar, Smt. Jai Nimbkar, Dr. Nandini Nimbkar, Shri Zia Qureshi and the trustees who have stood by Pragat Shikshan Sanstha since its inception were also present for the programme.

Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar was awarded with Shanatai Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar for her work in the field of education.

The award was given on the occassion of the sixth death anniversary of Late Smt. Shantabai Sidramapppa Alure to five accomplished women for their contribution in the political, social, educational, health and industrial fields.

Renowened author and social worker Smt. Pushpa Bhave presented this award to Dr. Nimbkar on 19 October 2012 at Jawahar College, Anadur in Tuljapur taluka.

‘Apan Sagle’ (We all), a group in Satara had organized a discussion for parents about the importance of free time for children. Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar, Director. Pragat Shikshan Sanstha was invited for this programme.

“For children’s development it is very important that they get free time and getting such time is their right. It’s the flaw in our education system that children don’t get any free time,” said Dr. Nimbkar while talking to the parents.

Please click on ‘Download’ to read the news that came in Marathi newspaper Sakal on 28 October 2012.

KNB celebrated the wildlife week from 1 October to 7 October, 2012. This year’s programme was organized by the seventh standard students. They had named this week Saat Divas Saatawiche (Seven days of the seventh standard). Every day at the assembly a group of students made a presentation on the wildlife of an ecosystem.

The students gathered the information about the wild animals and plants of five ecosystems: desert, forest, grassland, ocean and fresh water. This information and some interesting facts about the wildlife was presented every day along with a lot of pictures. Every presentation also had a short video clip about the ecosystem.

The last activity for the week was the wildlife quiz which had many puzzles and questions about wildlife authors, National parks and caring for the wildlife in our surroundings. The fifth standard students won the quiz.

With the help of their class teacher Kalpitatai, the seventh standard students worked hard for this programme. Everybody in the school enjoyed these informative and fun filled seven days.

Phaltan Taluka Mission inmyschool and Computer Literacy Training was held in Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan on 8 September 2012. The training was organized to familarise the school clerks from Phaltan taluka with the use of the website inmyschool.in. This particular website was started by Satara Zilla Parishad last year for aiding the school management in Maharashtra state.

During the training the participants were encouraged to use computers and write blogs on inmyschool.in. Many of them wrote about the ongoing training as well as the problems they face while using the website.

70 clerks from different schools in Phaltan taluka attended the training. The training was conducted by Mr. Prakash Anbhule of Pragat Shikshan Sanstha (PSS) with assistance of Ms. Aparna Taksalkar, Madhura Maner and Mr. Manoj Chavan.  The director of PSS Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar and Satara District Deputy Education Officers Mr. Babar, Mr. Jangam and Mr. Yadav were also present for the training and guided the clerks.

This year the Centre for Language, Literacy and Communication (CLLC) has begun an Elementary Language Programme (ELP) for 36 zilla parishad schools of Man (Dahiwadi) taluka. The first teacher education workshop for this programme was conducted on 17 August 2012 in Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan. 36 primary teachers attended the workshop.

Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar, the director of PSS and programme coordinator of CLLC discussed with the teachers the fundamentals of language teaching. It included discussion on the questions like ‘What is language’ and ‘How does a child learn language’. Dr. Nimbkar introduced the theories of language learning proposed by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky to the teachers and explained the relevant points from both the theories.

Discussion on the principles of language teaching and learning given in the National Curriculum Framework was also an important part of the workshop. The participants enjoyed playing different language games. They understood the importance of such games through this hands-on experience.

Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan (KNB) has always believed in being a resource centre for other schools and educational institutes. As a result many schools and teachers visit KNB throughout the year.

100 teachers from Daund Taluka visited KNB on 8 June, 2012.  Dr. Nimbkar, Director Pragat Shikshan Sanstha (PSS) first introduced them to the work of PSS. She talked about the philosophy behind the educational work, the admission process at KNB, the project method used in daily teaching and reasearch  by teachers.

All visitors interacted with the KNB teachers after this introduction and visited the library, classroom and computer laboratory. They were impressed with the work going on at KNB and expressed their wish to visit again when the school was in session. 

Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan celebrated this century’s last transit of Venus on the airfield of Phaltan. KNB had made arrangements to facilitate the viewing of this rare natural phenonmenon by providing solar filters and a telescope to take the iamges of sun. A small informative poster exhibition was organized as well.

People started gathering on the airfield from 6 in the morning but it was very cloudy. Although the sun was invisible, the KNB had made the phenomenon available on Stellarium software.    

Finally at around 8.30 the sun was out of the clouds and people could see the dot of the Venus on the face of the sun with the help of solar filters. The Venus was seen most clearly in the image taken with the help of the telescope.

The students, teachers and the residents of Phaltan enjoyed all the excitement of the event. People praised KNB’s attempts of arranging such unique activity.

13 students from Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan (KNB) took part in the National Adventure Programme organized by Bharat Scouts and Guides in Pachmarhi from 4 May to 10 May 2012. A total of 500 scouts and guides from all over India had participated in this programme. Satata represented Maharashtra with 81 students participating from the district.

KNB students shone in many adventure games like rock climbing, rappelling, horse riding, archery and rifle shooting. They also performed a beautiful dance on a farmers’ folk song.

KNB’s Scout Master Kashinath Sonwalkar and Guide Captain Neeta Saste guided the students.

Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar received an Exemplary Woman Award from Taradgao’s Matushri Nani Adsul Pratishthan on the occasion of Nani’s 13^th death anniversary on 13 May 2012.

Nani Adsul was a devoted social worker and was involved in selfless activities like feeding the freedom fighters and running a hostel for poor students. Every year the Pratishthan gives awards to people who are working in various areas to continue the legacy of Nani. This year Dr. Nimbkar was given an award for her work in the area of education. Prof. Deepa Mahanavar of Lonand received the Lifetime achievement award and Vishwas Kolekar Maharaj got the Adhyatmaseva award. The awards were presented at the hands of MLA Deepak Chavan.

Prof. Shrikrishna Adsul, grandson of Nani and secretary of the Pratishthan read out the testimonial for Dr. Nimbkar. Dr. Nimbkar in her speech said that the award was not merely hers but belonged to all her colleagues and the parents and students she has been working with.

To see the news published in Sakal, 15 May 2012 click below.

The day on 6 June 2012 will begin with a rare sight in the sky. The sun will rise with a round black dot of Venus, like a small bindi, on its face. This event called transit of Venus occurs only twice in 100 year duration, separated by 8 years. Its last occurrence was in June 2004 so whatever we will see on 6 June will not repeat for next 100 years!

We decided to inform about this to our children and parents so that they don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity. On 1 may, the day of the school result, we set up a small corner in Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan with some informative posters, a ball mirror solar projector to get the image of the sun and some solar filters. Our science teacher invited everyone to be present on 6 June on the Phaltan aerodrome. We also plan to put a few posters in Phaltan so that everyone can be a part of this festival of Venus.

A website by Navnirmiti, www.daytimeastronomy.com  is a very good source of information about how the transit of Venus takes place, its history and safe ways of viewing it.  

A workshop was organized for all KNB teachers on ‘constructivism’ on 12 and 13 April. Constructivist view believes that the knowledge cannot be ‘given’ or ‘taught’. All children are capable of constructing their own knowledge and a teacher’s role is only to create opportunities to learn. Even NCF 2005 emphasizes on this.

Dr. Neelima Gokhale guided teachers on this concept in the workshop. She has been working in the field of early childhood education with a constructivist approach since last 30 years. She explained the concept with examples based on her experience.

On the second day of the workshop, all the teachers presented a part of one lesson each in a constructivist approach. Each presentation was followed by active discussions by teachers and Dr. Gokhale’s analytical feedback.

In the end of the workshop the teachers reached a consensus about a constructivist definition of education.

“Education is a process that happens when directions and opportunities are provided to create a generation of healthy and happy people with capability of thinking independently, critically and creatively; having self control and an ability to take decisions; having a feeling of love, respect and responsibility towards family, community, cultural heritage and environment; and believing strongly in constitutional values and sustainable living.”

Pragat Shikshan Sanstha’s philosophy is clearly reflected from this definition.

Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan’s geometry teacher Varsha Lalge recently received the first prize for her Navopakram ‘Decorative Geometry’ at the district level. The Navopakram competition for teachers is organized every year by Vistar Seva Kendra, Azad College of Education, Satara and the Zilla Parishad. ‘Decorative Geometry’ also got selected at the state level for a consolation prize.

Every year on 27 February KNB students celebrate Marathi day in the memory of the great poet Kusumagraj. This year the ninth standard students had organized a programme on that day.

In the beginning of the programme they told about Kusumagraj and his work. They had also created a slideshow showing his life and the books and plays by him. For children a quiz about Marathi literature and grammar was organised.  Two students each from the fourth to the ninth standard participated in the quiz. The questions were on poems, synonyms, antonyms, Marathi authors and grammar. The students also had to generate a conversational situation on a given subject.  The fifth standard students won the quiz. 

To see the slideshow on the life of Kusumagraj please click the following link.

The students from the classes seven and eight are in the process of learning the quilt making. They have gathered old sarees and cloths of various colours and patterns. Once a week they all sit together and add to the big quilt they are making.

Sewing is regularly taught from first standard. Children try their hand at handkerchief making, bag making, sewing pillow cover, embroidery, patch work and quilt making. Some students sew curtains for the classrooms. Others sew table clothes for the balwadi. Some make sitting mats by embroidering gunny bags.

Work in education as advised by NCF 2005 was in practice for the past 20 years in KNB.

The annual school project has been an important part of the KNB programme for more than a decade. Each year the entire school from standard one to nine spends two to three weeks working on a given theme. Many of these projects have dealt with themes related to Phaltan, its environment or history.

Students collect information from the library and the computer lab, interview people, visit places and make observations. Back in school, they collate the information and write it up, draw maps, charts and pictures, write poems and make models. All this material is assembled into an exhibition which is open for a week or so to parents, teachers and students from other schools and the general public.

The topic of the project this year was the Development plan of Phaltan. The older children surveyed some parts of Phaltan while the younger talked to the residents trying to know people’s expectations about the living conditions.

KNB’s two girls from ninth and nine students from fourth standard visited the IUCAA (Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics), Pune on the Science Day. They saw many scientific experiments and learnt new things.

The students after this one-day visit decided to present a programme at the assembly for the other children in the school. They showed a slide show of their visit. The fourth standard students had made many science toys which they had seen at IUCAA. They gave the demonstration of about 10 different toys.

The school also invited Mr. Shivaji Mane who works on the science toys in IUCAA with Mr. Arvind Gupta. He introduced children to various toys has like paper caps, whirligigs, toys made from match sticks and straws.

Mr. Mane also showed two magic shows and after the show explained how he had done it. Following this session he conducted a workshop for interested students about making the toys.