PROJECT PARIVARTAN
A Soft Skills Training Programme for the Underprivileged
The process of acquisition of knowledge, learning skills, creating habits, and self-development are just a few words that can give a brief of the huge umbrella that education covers under it. Education is treated as the first priority of every government, as it provides the base to the society, region, and in the end, to the nation.
PARIMAL PATHSHALA
‘Parimal Pathshala’ is an NGO that has been started by a group of housewives living in nearby societies. It’s an initiative to provide educational support to underprivileged children.
SymSeva – The ISR Club of SCMS NOIDA started working with Parimal Pathshala in the last week of January 2020 for the Soft Skill Training. The student trainers went there on weekdays and contributed by teaching those children.
The initial sessions were dedicated to ice-breaking and interaction with children to know about what they expect from us, how they wanted us to teach them, and where they all individually stand intellectually.
Our main aim was to develop the soft skills of the children so that they can be ready for the challenges as well as for the opportunities that await them. It was an initiative for their overall personality development and understanding.
NEED FOR THE INITIATIVE
Children were always coming in Parimal Pathshala, but there was no planned structure being followed earlier.
Children were sitting distortedly.
There were no class batches.
There was no timetable for the subjects to study.
Absence of regular homework and follow through.
Lack of soft skill development.
Lack of awareness of the surrounding environment.
OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECT
Soft Skills that we have covered till now are:
How to present oneself
Public speaking
Awareness about the environment, climate, and conservation
We’ve asked teachers for feedback and this was their response: “They have become the energy of the class. Children are happy. I wish them to continue” – Mrs. Rupam Singh.
So far, it’s been one and a half months and all the children have their favorites amongst us. They are now connected to us and share their academic problems as well as other areas where they want to develop themselves.
One of the Children, Sahil, says that he wants to study because he wants to become an engineer. Also, they are so happy with our presence that they await our next arrival.
FUTURE PROSPECTS
Thedevelopment of these children gives us enormous joy no matter if the development comes within academic criteria or in their personality in the form of soft skills and to continue with this feeling of joy, we will be adding more inputs from our side.
Some of the additions that we have thought to apply in the future are:
One set of whiteboard and marker for each batch to improvise in-class environment.
Better amenities to provide a comfortable environment to learn.
More structured and planned scheduling.
Fully assist them in the school’s academic and additional knowledge to get an edge over others.
Introduce more extracurricular activities related to soft skills and other fields of study for their personality development.
LEARNING OUTCOMES – By Student Trainers
This project was very helpful in getting insights into ourselves. We could all know our capabilities in management and communication and build new skills. We grew a lot in the process by teaching these students. We were awestruck when we got an opportunity to delve deep into their lives and could only thank god for blessing us with such beautiful opportunities to test our abilities. We could improve our skills in planning, communication, and management. Also, a lot of patience is required in the process, so dealing with it was also a challenge and we could test our boundaries. In the process of teaching them, we got to know about a lot of things as we were questioned at every sentence that made us think deeply about the topic.
Also, we were able to draw some meaningful insights into the world around us. We were exposed to a society that we otherwise would not have taken into account of exploring. It not only helped us academically but also personally. As every experience shapes us into what we are, this experience had a great role to play in the process.
