New ways of learning

Nestling amidst rolling greens, Sela Qui World School (SQWS), Dehradun, boasts of being the first-ever International Baccalaureate school in the northern hills and the 11th IB diploma school in India. It aims at bringing a paradigm shift in the school education, as the chairman of the school, Om Pathak said: "The existing schools have not responded to the societal changes, they do not look at developing the intellectual, physical and emotional needs of the students.SelaQui is an attempt to provide students the best of global research in the area of learning while incorporating it in the school syllabus and curricula."
Amidst so many schools where each is trying to outdo the other with the most advanced technological classroom set-up and teaching aids, where does SelaQui stand? Can it really redefine schools and reinvent classrooms of the future? Situated away from the cacophony of the city of Dehhradun, on way to the quiet hill station of Chakrata, sprawling over 50 acres of land, the school reflects an incredibly serene look.
Apart from academics, the fully residential school examines the process of developing positive, behavioural attitudes in its students. The school''s headmaster S K Tripathi said: "The problem with India is that we see and use syllabus as an end in itself." According to him, the efficacy of the school''s pedagogy is enhanced by the use of the `dimension of learning'' model, which seeks to use the syllabus to develop dimensions of the thought process.
Tripathi said: "Using the latest research on developing the behavioural side of children, we have used the work done by Erik Erikson - stages of human development and David Goleman - emotional intelligence, to define the areas where students need support in order to develop into well-rounded and balanced personalities. This move has resulted in dramatic breakthroughs in certain cases, sometimes in the areas of academics and in some students in behavioural areas."
SelaQui World School is affiliated to Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE). After passing the 1Oth class exams, students at SQWS have a choice to either go for ISC examination or IB diploma.
According to the school''s IB coordinator, Rohit Pathak: "Being affiliated to CISCE or CBSE are like two sides of the same coin as both follow rote learning, which is actually the bane of education in India." Added Tripathi, "SQWS resolved to shift the focus to developing life skills in students. This doesn''t imply neglect of the syllabus. On the contrary, it means using syllabus to develop the skills."
Rohit said: "As we are not that much bound by the syllabus till class 8th, all our efforts go into instilling life skills in students by the time a student enters class ninth."
The students are subjected to a series of evaluation tests to assess the development levels of a child in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. Tripathi said: "Each tutor reports to me twice a month and gives me a record of their students'' performance. Side by side, I get regular feedback from the faculty, by virtue of which I am mindful of the progress and develop of each student in the school."
Comfortable with convergence technologies, as tools for learning and evaluation, the teachers at the school extensively use multi-media and audiovisual classroom aids. Tripathi remarked: "Keeping in view the rigorous demands of our curriculum and pedagogy, the school conducts faculty development programmes to update and continuously realign subject content and pedagogy." Being the only school to conduct by-annual FDPs, SQWS claims to have pioneered the use of lesson planning as well as syllabus planning as a valuable tool for imparting knowledge.
The pastoral life in the school is based on the `house'' system. Every student is assigned to a house. Each house has its own independent hostel supervised by a house mentor, usually a senior faculty member and a full-time house mother, who invariably is a female teacher.
Apart from academics the school encourages students to take part in a range of diverse activities such as sculpture, music, photography, theatre, dance, nature club, environmental protection, publishing in-house magazines, organising guest lectures and participating in inter and intra school competitions.
Speaking on the vision of SQWS, Tripathi said: "Schools shouldn''t be fossilised, they need to revamp themselves with passing time. To give students a mix of both India and West, SQWS intends to fuse technology with traditions to help children become lifelong learners."
www.selaqui.org or Email: selaqui@selaqui.org