Let’s Ring This ‘School Ki Ghanti’ to Enjoy Educational Storytelling With Vedika

As a reminder that students are still connected to the school in the middle of a pandemic, Vedika Lall of Patna has decided to pick up her phone and teach children using story pedagogy. All kids have to do is pick up the phone and listen to the stories told by the volunteers of ‘School Ki Ghanti’ initiative. 

‘School Ki Ghanti’ was started by Vedika to cater to the underprivileged community youth who cannot afford gadgets or internet connectivity. Due to the lockdown, 1.5 billion children stopped going to school, where those who could afford online-learning continued, children from low-income background ended up suffering. What ‘School Ki Ghanti’ aims is for accessible learning for all, engaging the children with story-based lessons over a phone call and enable them to learn and grow by tapping into their curiosity and imagination.

On being asked what made Vedika think of story-based phone-learning, she replies, “It’s what I remembered about our childhood, parents/grandparents telling us stories with morals, good habits and lesson learning. Having a background in designing, I went for the traditional way of learning and designed it to suit the curriculum of the school."

This brilliant idea only took Vedika and her initial team of 4 members, which has now grown to 30+, about 10 days to commence their plan. The 30 volunteers, who are pro storytellers today, need only an amateur level of recording for it to work. “When new volunteers contact us, we explain to them how it works, ask for a small test recording and clear some basic points on how to record a story,” Vedika explains ScooNews.

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“We are pleased to share that we have partnered with some prestigious organisations and children welfare groups and have been sending out calls to around 415 children! We’re covering 5 cities including Patna, Delhi, Raipur, Ranchi, Jaipur and many districts.”

The ‘School Ki Ghanti’ calls go out at 4 PM and 8 PM daily and the stories are not more than 5 to 7-minutes-long to grab the children’s attention. Since the network situation is not stable throughout, Vedika says there are glitches but the calls go out 3 times in one go while they monitor the received calls and detect if/when they are dropped. “It’s a learn-as-we-go process,” she says.

About bringing a positive change into children’s lives, she says, “Our impact analysis has shown that;

• 91% of children wait for our call eagerly
• 92% are doing the exercises we recommend with each story
• Maximum number of listeners fall under the age group of 6-10 Year
• 94% who had heard the calls said they understood the stories being narrated.”

According to her, it’s soon going to be the 100th day & story for ‘School Ki Ghanti.’ “As a part of the ‘Hamaari 100 Story’ Campaign, we’re engaging in a week-long celebration to mark the milestone. The celebration includes exciting collaborations with an array of learning modules along with webinars, Instagram lives and workshops headed and moderated by various dignitaries working in the field of children’s education, storytelling, art education and mental health,” she tells us.

Eminent storytellers like Dr. Swati Popat Vats of Early Childhood Education shall be telling stories for ‘School Ki Ghanti.’

With such inspiring work afoot, Vedika has a message for all those hard-working teachers on Teacher’s Day. “My mother being a principal in a school, I understand firsthand the 180-degree change these educators had to endure and still coming through for their students. It is commendable what they are doing without worrying about job sustenance or regular salaries.” She continues, “I would like to remind the teachers one thing though, students are not in the same era anymore, exam/tests won’t cut this time for them; a new age complication will need a new age trouble-shooting. Be patient, creative and stay united, all of this shall be over soon.”

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ScooNews admires and applauds those who are working for the betterment of education of the little ones. Children who face the digital/economic divide are more susceptible to lagging behind in their well-deserved studies during these hard times.