TGSB: fair to call it as a sustainable learning ecosystem
A walk through a school in Bangalore has indeed charmed me. You may wonder what’s so charming that I have started capturing the moments in my memory. Is it the BIG air conditioned campus, the hashy flashy corporate looks, the huge promises on all kinds of activities to be provided or is it the big display of 95 percentile in the boards??
Surprisingly, none of these. It is not about the big promises, it is all about the small meaningful baby footsteps taken up by the stakeholders to reach small milestones one by one. It is after all a school, not a fancy corporate glare! More than a school, I would live to call it a learning ecosystem.
As an education journalist, I always aspire my observations and analysis to chronicle the true story of a school journey, how its cultural ethos are being transformed through its mission, how genuine are its practices compared to its theoretical preaches in the admission brochure, how honest is its attempt in helping the students climb up the learning ladder, and above all how strong is the integration of its philosophical tenets. My aim is to provide a candid picture to the education fraternity which would eventually help them in making informed choices of the learning system they are seeking for the students.
What made me excited are its sustainable steps in creating learning journey aligned with taking care of the planet. It is about nurturing little minds with innovative strategies to conserve nature, planet, and the natural resources. You tell me, what will children do with scores, jobs, and money if they do not have the sense of direction to care for their own planet?
I must say that every parent should come and visit The Green School Bangalore to give their children an opportunity in exploring the meaning of real education, construct knowledge through perceptual learning, and simplify complex concepts through hands-on. Learning no longer will be a burden. Trust me, it is going to be super simple through this perceptual approach.
No wonders this learning hub is approached by a team of research scholars from M S Ramaiah School Of Architecture and Insight School of architecture. It is evident that for research scholars, the internship centre is kind of an incubation hub to research the brewing ideas and innovations in accomplishing a mission….and that’s the TGSB Incubation Hub.
The TGSB ecosystem cares for the world around us, the planet we live in, and bestows the onus on young minds in transforming them to responsible global citizens. In fact, the name captivated me to zoom into the infrastructure of the school- a building which balances its energy needs with energy produced from renewable, zero-emission sources. TGSB invests in its human assets over the cosmetic artificial aesthetics of the campus. The teachers are facilitators in the true sense who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own (Nikos Kazantzakis). The learning practices often happen in the cradle of nature whereby learning attains its real world fulfillment through children being aware of recycling, zero carbon, conservation of nature, and ecofriendly actions for which its endeavours are recognized for Green School Award 2022.
The mission of TGSB directs towards removal of negative barriers coming in the way of sustainable education such as gender disparity, culture bias, racial discrimination, lack of quality education to minority, and many more. TGSB’s mission messenger echoes on ensuring quality equitable education to all young minds so as to create lifelong skill based learning outcomes.
Student learning happens through personalization and increased autonomy which ensures lifelong learning opportunities for all students under the equitable inclusive learning roof. Well-being, peace of mind, power of expression, and safety for all are the key practices from the school effectiveness framework of supporting learning.
More than just scoring marks, writing exams, PTMs, and homework-TGSB learning ecosystem thrives with the consistent pulse beats of ensuring socio-emotional well-being, empathy, freedom of thinking, knowledge sharing, and healthy collaboration amongst all the stakeholders in its family.
In fact, mulling over how each school’s actions are made me rewire my understanding of education as ‘redefining tomorrow through sustainable change initiatives taken up today’. The meaning of education reaches its holistic state when it is used to shape up the surrounding.