Learning from large campuses

Walking Education Campuses

Nimesh Ved and Sanjay Dwivedi

Published at The Hindu Education Plus. We thank the team there. 

We also thank Pawandeep Kaur for the image. 

 

Learning during the schooling years warrants moving beyond the conventional classroom set-up as well. This is all the more crucial in a society like ours that seldom invest time and thought towards expanding the child’s horizons. Exposure visits can help meet this need. They enable learning in a non-formal and fun-filled environment.

Multi-day trips to mountainous and forested landscapes are, of course, a wonderful option. Financial and logistical challenges however ensure that these trips are out of bounds for majority of our schools. Many schools are then left with the option of going out, with children, for some hours in and around their towns and cities. Some schools visit spaces like museums and events like book-fairs. A few also venture to the banks and factories.

One option we have explored during recent months and found of great utility has been visits to large education campuses.

Most of these campuses are safe and clean havens, islands of sorts, amidst the chaos of our towns. Many of them occupy large areas and are generously sprinkled with open spaces. Spaces where one can rest for some time or do nothing. There are also walking paths where students can walk without hindrance. Some of these paths are dotted with food-stalls that can provide food – food which the students prefer. All this put together allows us to focus on the interactions with students as we walk and more importantly to give them space to just be and observe a new environment.

Over multiple visits we have realized that these campuses harbour far more potential as learning spaces than we had envisaged. Many of these campuses are dotted with trees - trees that make them affable. Students could look at the trees with awe, discuss names and characteristics of some species and end up touching a few as well. Then there are the fire safety paraphernalia installed or the sports infrastructure – far more elaborate than at most schools. These walks in the campuses also make students aware of options for further academic engagements.

Each of these campuses also have their distinct features that present opportunities for observations and interactions. Let us look at a few examples.

The Aligarh Muslim University and the Forest Research Institute at Dehradun are home to museums. The specimen on display here – with their range and exclusivity – have few parallels.

The Maharaja Sayajirao University at Vadodara houses within its precincts architectural creations of a very high quality – including the second largest dome in the country.

The Banaras Hindu University has put up some of the better signage in town. This acts as fodder for conversations on language, units and departments on the campus and a lot more. Also at Banaras the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University boasts of a sun dial, an Ashokan pillar and arguably the best specimen of Gothic architecture in northern India.

The Hyderabad University and the Osmania University, also in Hyderabad, campuses bear remnants of the landscape that the city was once associated with.

Many of our towns have these large campuses – a megapolis like Delhi too is home to a few including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indian Institute of Technology and Delhi University. Exposure visits to these campuses could play a crucial role. They could make the students aware of worlds beyond the one they inhabit. Worlds they can be a part of tomorrow.

Previously published articles on actions at the school

Book room ~ The beginning ~ The story ahead
Gender ~ The beginning ~ The story ahead 
Poetry 
Book Fairs 
Attendance 
Teachers' challenges
Pushing agendas 
Music