Din ki shuruaat

Din ki shuruaat is the name given to the informal assembly organised every morning for the duration of 40 minutes. In the morning we all group ourselves in a circle in the courtyard of the school. Then we start counting, one by one. This is used for the activities of the day by the teacher who is responsible.In July we found children at many different levels with respect to their learning standards. The students were new and most of them had never gone to school as they were dropouts or have never been enrolled. We also were not at ease with them as we had not taught these many small children. It was decided that every teacher would introduce a poem or activity relevant to her subject to enhance learning for forty minutes at the start of school. Its duration was also fixed for a period of forty minutes at the beginning of the day. This was done according to a fixed timetable. As children come to school with lots of energy we decided to use it in a positive manner. As all teachers attended the “shuruaat” we thought that it would be easier for us to engage with them. We decided to do something different and explored the themes. As it was to be organised at the beginning of the school day, it was named din ki shuruaat