Seeing parents as partners in children’s holistic development.
Event Overview
- Prize Category: Community Collaboration
- Format: Panel discussion
- Country: India
- Languages: Streamed live in English with automated captions in Arabic, English, French, Filipino, Hindi, Japanese, Malay, Portuguese, Serbian, and Spanish.
- Learn more about the Top Ten Shortlisted Schools in the Community Collaboration category on the World’s Best School Prizes website.
Watch on-demand
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About the school
PCMC English Medium School, Bopkhel, a school in Pune, India has created a cultural dynamic centred on close ties within the community and with parents as partners in children’s holistic development.
The school resides in a small, remote village and is run as a Public-Private Partnership between NGO the Akanksha Foundation and the local government. Most of its students come from low-income families and many parents had little education and did not always see education as important for their child when earning a living is the biggest priority. With the knowledge that parents have a profound impact on children’s ability to learn and absorb information, the school makes home visits to better understand students’ home environments and build strong relationships with their parents, instilling in them the importance of education.
PCMC English Medium School, Bopkhel also works with local doctors, grocers and religious leaders to help create programmes that help parents in financial need. The school launched a programme of free medical check-ups in the community and ‘Master Chef’ style classes were launched that taught families about how to have a healthy and balanced diet. Students are also part of a daily fruit-eating initiative that keeps them on track for healthy eating and every week they have a set meal plan. The impact has trickled into their home lives as parents have started to follow the same nutrition plan.
To work on the emotional needs of its students and their families, social workers and counsellors scheduled meetings with parents, offering therapy for any distress caused by their background or financial status. For some parents, these talks worked to great effect, allowing them to become emotionally stable enough to help support not only their own children but others as well. Such schemes helped create a more vibrant and tight-knit community in the village, with parents becoming more actively involved in the management of the school and their children’s lives.
Join PCMC English Medium School, Bopkhel discussion on promoting community collaboration to improve children’s holistic development.
Speakers
Moderator: Sushma Pathare
Speaker 1: Priyanka Netake
Speaker 3: Nikhil Ekbote