Awakening is based on Swami Vivekananda’s idea of the goal of education- ‘We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand by one’s own feet.’
It aims to prepare young minds to adopt certain noble values in their lives voluntarily and thereby respond to life’s challenges better. Awakening empowers a child to develop self-belief, self-reliance, self-control and good character. Unless these traits are well developed, mere book-learning can cause more harm than good. Every child has these qualities in a ‘seed’ form and gardeners, in the form of trained facilitators and parents can lovingly enable the seed to sprout, take root and grow into a powerful tree of loving and harmonious human being.
After successful piloting of The Awakening program in 126 schools, the program was launched nationwide by honorable Union Minister of Education, Skill development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan:
This unique initiative is a step towards ensuring complete personality development of a child aligned with the philosophy of NEP 2020.
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Values are introduced through relatable stories where children of the same age deal with real life situations.
Gentle probing questions in a non-judgmental way encourages engagement of children with the ideas through peer and personal learning.
Classroom activities help children understand their emotions better and enable acceptance of the value through individual and group action.
Home activities enable bonding with parents and other family members and result in greater re-enforcement of the value.
Each year the children engage more deeply with the Value till it becomes a part of their character.
Schools that register for Awakening will need to nominate primary school teachers to attend a half-a–day Facilitator’s Training Workshop. The dates for training workshops will be intimated to schools in advance. After training, each school will be provided two set of kits (in English or Hindi depending on need).
Enrolled Schools will need to allot 20 periods of 40-45 minutes each in the time table for each class (1 to 5). For a value to be understood through a story and related activities, 5 periods of 40-45 minutes each, are required. Hence for 4 values, a total of 20 periods per class is required.
While the maximum impact will be felt by a child who starts the program in Class 1 and continues till Class 5, Awakening is designed in such a way that children will benefit even if they have one year’s exposure. Hence, any school which registers may run the program simultaneously for all the 5 classes (1 to 5). Awakening will be initially available in Hindi and English.
Ramakrishna Mission Resource persons will provide training and continuous support to the school to conduct the program. Schools are requested to extend cooperation to conduct the assessment survey for the program from time to time. Since parental engagement is a significant aspect of the program, parental support and involvement is solicited.
