ShikshaSanskarSwavalamban

Shiksha Sopan

An Initiative of IIT Community for social upliftment

RegOffice: 391, Nankari, IIT, Kanpur208016

Newsletter October 2009

Shiksha Sopan continued its activities in all three sections of Shiksha, Sanskarand Swavalamban. There were contact programmesin Hostels, visit by eminentpersonalities, Special lectures, a Science workshop for teachersof local schoolsclose to IITK Campus etc., apart from regular activities of Evening LearningCenters, SopsanVidyalaya, GAK, SSK, PPY etc.

Visit of Information Commissioner MrShaileshGandhi

MrShaileshGandhi is one among the handful of people who have not detachedfrom thecommon masses after occupying high positions in the administration. Down to earth personhe is the Information Commissioner, in India's Central Information Commission (CIC) andconvener of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information. During his visit to IITKanpurin connection to setting up RTI cell in Kanpur, he came to know about ShikshaSopan and made it a point to personally visit centers and meet children and the workers. Hevisited Sopan Vidyalayaand SwavalambanKendra on 7

Sept, 2009. In very simple words,he addressed the children and gave the concept of social responsibilities and the relevanceof RTI for common people as individuals and as society. Dr. H.C.Vermadelivered apresentation to him in which he summarized about the various activities of Shiksha Sopan,and how Shiksha Sopan is striving hard for the upliftmentof the children of the weakersociety. All this impressed Mr. Gandhi immensely and he asked for Shiksha Sopan’ssupportfor the same cause in Delhi municipal schools.

On 17

September SopanSwavalambanKendra conductedVishvakarmapuja, dedicated tothe divine architect of theuniverse according to HinduScriptures. It is celebrated onBhadrasankranti, the day whenthe sun transits from Singha(Leo) to Kanya(Virgo) sign.Artisans, craftsmen, mechanic,

VishwakarmaPuja

smiths, welders, industrial workers, factory workers and workersof all kindperform the pujaon this day and pray for a better future, safe working conditionsand above all success in their respective fields. Dr. O. P. Mishraand Mrs. PoojaMishraalso participated in the ceremony. ‘

Prasad

’was distributed to everybodypresent there.

The workshop started with Lamp lightingand SarasawatiVandana. In the inauguralspeech Dr. KunalGhoshemphasisedtheneed of developing the culture of workingwith own hands together with theoreticalknowledge. It was followed by apresentation by Prof. H.C. Verma on thetheme ‘Science in Ancient India andinspiration for future’. He said that it is theresponsibility of the teachers to recognizethe inherent scientific aptitude of thestudent and provide him/her a strong initialbacking so that he/she is capable of carvinghis/her own niche in the world of science.The presentation was followed by sessions inwhich small experiments related to conceptslike centre of gravity, air pressure, light andheat were conducted. Using very low costmaterials like balloon, bottles, clips, scale,magnets etc., a large number of Physicsdemo experiments were demonstrated whichcan be performed in the classrooms in 2 to 5minutes while teaching a particular topic.The sessions were divided into three partsand each part was followed by a teabreak/lunch break. The experiments wereperformed by Mr. AmitBajpai, DeepakAgnihotri, Ranjitkumarand DeepakMishra. All these are students in KanpurUniversity and active Shiksha Sopanworkers in the Science Cell.

There are a large number of schools in the vicinity of IITK Campus, many of them havingminimal facilities and exposures. They cater to a large number of population but there is noarrangement for any empowerment of teachers in terms of subject knowledge or teachingmethodologies. Shiksha Sopan conducted a Science Teachers’workshop named ‘LocalWorkshop on Innovative Science Teaching (LWIST)’on 20

September 2009 in L13 atIITK in which 32 teachers from 22 nearby schools (up to 2km) participated.

LWIST(LocalWorkshop on Innovative Science Teaching )

Power Point Presentations were delivered by active members of the Sopanfamily at various halls of IITK in September, 2009. The presentations basicallywere aimed at providing the students of IITK the information regarding thevarious activities in which Shiksha Sopan was involved. They told the studentsabout the pathetic condition of the children who belong to the lower strata of the society, and also brought out the fact that there was extreme dearth of good schools for such children who can’t afford education in big and expensiveschools. Information about how the various Sopan centers supportthechildren in various ways was given through facts and photographs.These presentations were given in Hall 4, Hall 7and GH1 by Dr. H.C. Vermaand Mr. AshishBhatejawhile the same were given in GH2 and Hall 8 by Dr.SameerKhandekarand Mr. Chandra ShekharSharma. They also asked thestudents to support these activities by volunteering to work forShiksha Sopanand also by generating funds for the same cause. The team members receiveda good response from the IITK students who participated in the discussionactively. After the presentation MrSomeshwarPandeyof Hall-7 activelypersuaded a number of his friends to donate for Shiksha Sopan onMonthlybasis from their bank accounts.

SHIKSHA SOPAN CONTACT PROGRAMME AT VARIOUS HALLSGAK celebrates Teachers Day

GahanAdhyayanKendra celebrated the auspiciousoccasion of teacher’s day on 5

September, 2009.The children, the teachers and the volunteersinvolved in the management of GahanAdhyayanKendra dedicated this function to Dr H C vermawhom they all symbolized as their TEACHER. All of them promised that they will work harder to attainthe goals of Shiksha Sopan. The teachers of GAKpresented a beautiful Ganeshidol to Dr. H.C. Vermato pay respect and gratitude. The teachers alsoexpressed their commitment towards the noble cause of Shiksha Sopan. Thefeeling of belongingness to Shiksha Sopan could be sensed from the very facesof the students and the teachers on that day.During the sessions the teachers equally participated in performing theexperiments and at the same time they raised all kinds of queries which weresatisfactorily answered by the team members

It was heartening to see thatmany of the teachers of much less reputed schools also had a good amount of enthusiasm towards learning. The workshop proved to be a successas theteachers really got to know how they can use waste materials to teach theirstudents the basic concepts. These workshops make us all the moreenthusiastic and give us the encouragement to hold such activities on aregular basis.