Sitting on the floor around low tables, 10-year-old Prarthna and her classmates look around with pride. After all, most of the objects that decorate their classroom have been made by them.

In the winding bylanes of Shakurpur resettlement colony, a new approach to studies is unfolding. Started 10 years ago by Usha Menon, a former research scientist with the National Institute for Science Technology and Development Studies, (NISTADS), and former journalist

AK Shaji, Jodo Gyan Educational Services is taking the concept of learn-while-you-play to a new level.

The kendra run by Jodo Gyan is divided into groups and the students here are those who dropped out of government schools or never went to formal school. At the kendra, they learn concepts through interactions with their immediate environment. The classroom tables, for instance, becomes an exercise in measurement and decision making.

A self- funded organisation with 52 members, Jodo Gyan, develops educational curriculum as well as teaching learning material that allows students to learn mathematical and scientific concepts though games and toys. Many of the members are residents of Shakurpur and the students of the kendra are completely involved in the day-to-day decisions on studies in the school. The teaching learning material is manufactured at two production centres in Shakurpur.

“We wanted to design a system which could bridge the gap between education and socio-economic status,” says Menon. Using stories and toys such as a string of beads for counting, additions and subtraction, different shapes for learning colours, angles and fractions, straw toys and small microscopes, the focus is on letting children understand concepts instead of memorising them.

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