7 Creative ways of education around the world

7 Creative ways of education around the world

Education, one of the routine works we do, seems to be boring but there are many people around the world who are thinking and trying to make it creative and interesting.

• Viktor Rydberg School, Sweden.

There are some important features to which parents are always concerned while they are going to choose a school for their child like building, Curriculum and the assessment criteria. Do these things really matter for a good education?
Viktor Rydberg School, Sweden is running with a revolutionary concept. There are no classrooms, no present subject and best of all no grades.

Mine craft is one of the tools they use; let us see what a teacher says about it.
"It is their world and they enjoy it," Said by Monica Ekman, a teacher at the Viktor Rydberg School, in her interview to a local newspaper. She further said,
"They learn about city planning, environmental issues, getting things done and even learn that how to plan for the future."
Around 180 students take part in the lessons for learning that how to build virtual worlds. They deal with electricity grids, water supply networks and indeed anything else that may come to mind.
The boys knew a lot about it before they started, but the girls were happy to create and build something too - it’s not anything different from arts or woodcraft.
“You got something to learn about how things work because you are actually trying to build something”, said by Ekman.

• Hole in the wall, India.

Here the words seem to be inappropriate for transferring their experience onto the page but somehow I try.
Dr. Sugata Mitra, from UK, the man behind the organization while showing his first experience of his project on his website, said;
“The acquisition of basic computing skills by any set of children can be achieved through incidental learning, provided the learners are given access to a suitable computing facility, with entertaining and motivating content and some minimal (human) guidance.”

They simply installed computers on the railway station or any other public place. So everyone can use it especially the children. They name it “Edutainment” because going to school and just siting for several hours in front of teacher, listening to basic roles is boring. While with their installed computers, children also have fun while learning something.
Rubina khan 17 years’ old girl a beneficiary of this project, said;
“I got enough confidence that I can use computer during my work and want to do further study in this field.”

• Rehan School, Pakistan

In Pakistan, some people despite of tough economic and social conditions are thinking and working for the betterment of education.

  rehanshool.com is one of the examples in this regard.
Rehan Allahwala, the man behind this school is running his school through mobiles. Anyone who has a mobile phone on which he can play mp4 videos and songs without internet connection can be a part of this network.
The mobile content (from Rehan School) is available almost in the entire local mobile market or in DVD & CD shops with a very low cost.
I think it a creative idea if one can’t bring kids to the school then bring school to the kids.

• A Floating Future, Bangladesh.

Just think of it!
The school bus which picks boys and girls from their homes, got transformed into a class room, computer lab or a school library.
Isn’t it crazy?
But this is happening in Bangladesh. Mohammed Rezwan created a floating school for the students of Bangladesh.
As the climate changes are occurring drastically in Bangladesh, scientists have said that in almost 10-20 years 20% of Bangladesh land will go under water. In the last flood of Bangladesh more than 300 schools were damaged.
In the northwest Bangladesh, students go to school until the flood comes and then they have no way to go to school.

So Mohammed Rezwan hit up this brilliant idea. He has made solar panel floating boat school which works on solar energy. It has a space for a proper class room also with few computers, laptops and internet facility. The boat picks students from their homes.
These kinds of efforts motivate us to fight with hard climate changes if we have passion to do it.

• School drops out, France.

She spent a whole week crying in her room because after leaving school she joined the college where she was ragged by 11 other students. She was so terrified that her parents decided not to send her college any more.
I heard of a lot of stories which tell us about the students after dropping out from schools who usually make wrong decisions like to never go to school again.
But Jennifer a week after leaving the school, decided to do something innovative because she believed that without struggle one cannot do anything. She contacted the French job agency. The agency asked about her interests. Then she went to a school where after 7 months of training, she got a diploma and now she works as a youth coordinator.

Now she is spending a confident life and suggests other students that one should continue his or her study and should never decide to leave the school.
The reason I add this story over here is that it is not necessary to have an institution or an organization to work with a creative idea .We can also bring the change working individually.

• Head, Hear and Hand, India

Do you believe on the story of “Taare Zameen Par” (an Indian movie)?
Someone has said that every child is born genius. There is only a need to give him or her suitable environment in which he or she can develop his or her God gifted abilities.
In one school of India, students are being taught using Hand, Heart and Head theory as a method. They said that they are teaching children with the experience of hand providing them with different materials like blocks, sand etc. and let them play. They touch, explore, feel and learn.

Sushant Menon father of Avnika (student) of this school said.
“My little daughter was antisocial. But after going to this school, she started taking part in different activities and she also socialized. I notice a huge change in the life of my daughter.”
Usually we ignore the children when they are not taking part in their studies properly by saying that they are naturally lacking of intelligence or they do not want to study and just want to play. But a few teachers play an important role in the life of a student. Despite of teaching in the schools, they are also fighting with their emotional difficulties and against the habits of the parents of making comparison of their child with other children.
So, today the biggest achievement that the education system must achieve is to understand their students.

• Brain Boosting, Singapore.

Parents in the Singapore believe that children start learning from the day they are born. So we should start stimulating their minds in very early age.
One school in Singapore is provided with such unique concept of teaching the children in very early age. The parents with their very young children go to the school. The school is set up with different activities for the students. Like kids are shown with two cards with slight difference then they are asked to point out the difference and they answer it with their gestures. They also have other similar activities. Parents of the students are happy because they believe that if they do not teach their children in a very young age then it might be too late.

But,
Some people have other point of view as well.
Katty Hirsh-Pasek, a child psychologist from Temple University, shared his thoughts about the education of children in a very young age. She said;
“I don’t think that these kinds of flash card activities are helpful in educating the children. If we involved our children in a very young age with different kinds of such activities, they will not have time enough to explore themselves.”
She believes that the nature is the best source to learn. So we should let them play and learn from the nature and give them an opportunity to discover themselves.