Musical Assembly by Conference Participants

Day 2 of the Pre-Conference began with a musical assembly. The conference delegates from Nepal began with a national song followed by a prayer song by delegates from Mumbai.

Metric Mela

Around 6:15 pm the preconference  participants trooped down to Ashokavanam, a satellite school very close to the Rishi Valley/RiVER campus.

We could hear music before we saw its source. Dressed in festive finery, a group of students was dancing to a vigorous beat. A gentleman was playing the flute outside the ring of dancers

At the entrance, three youngsters were filling out admit cards  (free) for each visitor. Entry cards were in Telugu with a chocolate pinned to it. The students helped us fill our names.

The idea was to take these cards around and try out different number related games and fun things at each counter. There was an abacus style game where you picked a number and put in the correct number of rubber rings in each of the units, tens and hundreds place.

Nose lengths, foot sizes, heights and weights were measured and entered in the guest profile section of the card. Walking blindfolded between two rows of meandering beer bottles, guessing heights and lengths in feet and meters etc.  were some of the games for which guests were tested and grades entered in the card.

There was also a food counter where food was sold and students had to calculate and return the exact change. All in all lots of participatory activities that kept everyone busy and involved. The Metric Mela was surely a great fun way to end the first day of the pre-conference.

Cultivating Confident Problem-Solvers

Valmikivanam is a satellite school with more children in the classrooms than Sundaravanam. There is also a nursery section in the school. The children in the primary section are seated in groups around tables. As we enter to observe math learning in progress, one is struck by the complete focus of the young learners on their work. Of course, our entry does create a small ripple of excitement but they get back almost immediately to their work. At the head of one table is a young girl wearing a cardboard crown with a crow symbol. ( I learn that she is like the assistant teacher for the day as she has reached/crossed a specific benchmark of learning in the MGML ladder.) One student at the same table is working with another child to solve a set of math problems on a card. They take turns in rolling a large dice to decide the number of the question that either she or he will answer. The answers are provided inside little, cloud shaped patterns and covers 3/4ths of the colourful work card with questions/problems at the bottom of the page. An interesting inversion: The challenge is to match the answers to the questions at the bottom of the page!

Items such as seeds, rubber rings, small stones, pieces of string etc. are part of learning kits. Little trays comprising various items of familiar, everyday use are used interestingly to learn concepts relating to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, factorization and so on.

At the end of the class, the students gather outside for a demo class (a whole group/class activity) introducing the concept of addition and the idea of the 'zero'. This part, the whole class activity, generally happens before the learning of the abstract and using the abstract concept begins.  The method of teaching is through a story that is enacted by a few children as the teacher begins to narrate the story. Here for example is a whole group/class activity.  (I will upload better pictures or a video later.)

Lessons in Progress

For those of us who have underwent conventional schooling during the recent decades, memories of lugging around bulging bags full of fat textbooks or memorizing the multiplication tables without really understanding what it's all about are not unfamiliar ones. At the session "Experiences of large scale implementation of methodologies in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka", moderated by Vimala Ramachandran, the presenters shared the lessons learned and trials faced in the implementation of MGML methodologies. Malathy Duraisamy, Professor at IIT Madras, gave a brief account of the study which evaluated the Activity Based Learning method and was able to confirm that ABL has been exceptionally successful in the 10 schools that were studied in the Chennai and Kanchipuram districts of Tamil Nadu. Pooja Kulkarni, IAS, took us over the success of the methodologies across Tamil Nadu where the project, which began with 13 schools in 2003-'04 covers 37,486 schools since 2007-'08. Ms. Kulkarni emphasized that the ABL is a continuously evolving method which needs to be constantly evaluated and updated in accordance with the feedback received from the teachers. The audience got a chance to hear about the Nali Kali or "Joyful Learning" programme in Karnataka from Geetha S., SSA, Government of Karnataka whose presentation commenced with a video of a Nali Kali classroom. In Karnataka, ABL was initiated in 1995, and is currently put to use in 44,101 schools. The triumphant mood continued as Anita Kaul, Director, Council for Social Development, pointed out that ABL classrooms have been successful in breaking cliques that tend to segregate a classroom on the basis of caste, learning abilities, gender or class differences. The audience when called upon to join in the discussion kept up the optimistic mood. The discussion indicated that right now is a great time to be a child, when learning seems to come naturally and creativity nurtured. One cannot help but be jealous of this young generation!

Visiting Sundaravanam

The first day of the conference also included a field visit by the delegates to Sundaravanam, one of the seven satellite schools of Rishi Valley. The school was funded by a private German foundation, built on the land donated by the local community and is sustained by their active participation in its running.

As the MGML World Conference delegation arrived, they found the students grouped around four tables busily pursuing their various activities. The delegation observed the learning sessions that were in progress and spend time exploring the place. The school is made up of 38 students belonging to grades 1 through 5, whose learning is facilitated by 2 teachers. Originally a one-room school, it was upgraded to include two more rooms to be used as classrooms, with the old room serving as storage space for the students' art projects. 

Later, an engaging set of discussions took place in the old classroom on subjects ranging from the introduction and implementation of the MGML method in Government schools in Gujarat to questions surrounding the administration of the Right To Education Act and the responsibility of the state in providing education. The role of the private schools in the present educational scenario and the use of technology to motivate learning by creating a database that would ensure the availability of offline reading material and the possibility of gauging it periodically online were also discussed in great detail. The discussion was deferred as the delegates were invited to watch a puppet show staged by some of the students of the school.

As the bus carrying the delegation pulled out of Sundaravanam, the mid-day meal for the children- rice and lentils with okra- was being prepared by a parent from the village nearby, a member of the community that helped build the school. The smell of this meal wafts around the school as a symbol of the wonderful relationship around learning blossoms and flowers, just as Thomas Mueller mentioned in his welcome address!

The MGML World Conference kicked off its pre-conference proceedings with a melodious performance by the sixth and seventh grade students at the Rishi Valley Rural Education Centre. The delegates, coming from all over the globe, were enchanted by the children's lively production of traditional songs. Dr. Kumaraswamy, Secretary of the Rishi Valley School, traced the evolution of the Multi-Grade Multi-Level Methodology from its inception to its current stage. Thomas  Müller introduced to the audience the long-term collaboration between the University of Regensburg, University of Wuerzburg and Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources (RIVER) in implementing the programme. With such a promising start, we look forward to the insightful and thought-provoking discussions of the coming days!

2015 book on MGML and its global significance

Available on amazon.com: e-book, print book, and free kindle edition

Available on amazon.com: e-book, print book, and free kindle edition
The Multi-GradeMulti-Level-Methodology (MGML) offers students and teachers a reliable learning framework for both individualized and community-oriented education. With “ladders of learning” guiding children through their tasks, MGML allows mixed-age groups to work together in one classroom (multi-grade) at various achievement levels (multi-level) according to a defined curriculum. MGML allows teachers to spend less time teaching and more time supporting their students individually and working with them personally.

In this publication the authors introduce MGML’s origin and international variations localizing them within scientific horizons. As a core result MGML’s significance stretches far beyond individual processes or single classrooms no matter if the school is in Germany or in Kenya, if the students are at primary or at university level. MGML has shown its potential to impact not only schools and students, but the global community.