Ahmedabad Chandranagar Bridge Free School: 350 Slum Children Learn Lessons, Dance, Drawing and Sports
Ahmedabad: For the past six years, an education drive run by the Manav Sadhna organisation has been operating beneath the Chandranagar Bridge, on the route from Anjali Cross Roads to Danilimda in Ahmedabad, for children from nearby slum areas. Around 350 students from Classes 1 to 9 currently attend, getting both academic instruction and activities in sports and the arts. Foundational teaching is pitched to each child’s learning level by local teachers, and the centre has become something many of the children enjoy more than their regular school.
Aim: improving lives of slum children and families
Dinesh Dabhani, who works as education coordinator at the centre, said Manav Sadhna was founded in 1989, while this particular branch was started after Covid and is now about six years old. He said the centre’s main purpose is to help slum-area children, women, elders and other beneficiaries as much as possible, improve their lives, work on children’s education and bring about a change in the community’s thinking.
Separate morning and afternoon batches
Because the community is large, children have been turning up in big numbers since the start. About 350 students from Classes 1 to 9 now attend. The morning batch has roughly 200 children from Classes 1 to 5, while the afternoon batch has about 150 children from Classes 6 to 9.
Dance, drawing and sports alongside core subjects
About 90 per cent of the children come from the municipal school “Berampura School No. 22” located opposite the centre. To help build a clear basic foundation, the centre focuses mainly on Gujarati, Mathematics, Science and English. For overall development, a sports activity session is held one day a week. Art classes cover dance, drawing, art and craft, as well as theatre and drama, and all major and minor festivals are celebrated as well.
Teachers are graduates, with PTC and B.Ed qualifications
Most teachers are from the surrounding local community. Recruitment prioritises people who can build a strong foundation in children, and graduates are given preference. Some teachers also hold PTC and B.Ed qualifications. Being local, the teachers understand the children and their circumstances better, which makes learning and development easier.
Curriculum based on each child’s learning level; teachers are trained
When children join, they first take an assessment test so their learning level can be identified. An education team of about 50 teachers designs the whole curriculum with these levels in mind. Teachers are trained on the basis of this curriculum and teach accordingly, keeping both the basic foundation and the school syllabus in view.
Parents satisfied; 90 per cent attend parent-teacher meetings
Parents are very happy with the work. About 90 per cent of parents attend the parent meetings held three times a year. They say their children are learning more here than at school and enjoy coming here more than going to school.