Moving on from standard education

For many parents, standard education just isn’t cutting it anymore. The curriculum is fragmented and skills are weak when applied to the real world.

iLeap, an after-school programme for kids, offers a holistic approach to learning, believing that a synthesis of material helps to develop children’s mental skills in a fun, stress-free environment. It is essentially a skill development school.

“When a child comes to us, they should walk away with a complete perspective,” says Shruti Singhal, co-founder of the programme.  The core iLeap program takes place three times a week for younger students, once a week for the older ones and runs for an entire school year. The aim of the program is to develop the seven facets of intelligence: logical, musical, spatial, linguistic, kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal.

“We don’t touch on academic topics, that’s already being done at schools,” says Shruti. The majority of topics are real  world and are taught in a way to promote synthesis. For example, by showing the kids that there are multiple ways to approach a map, such as the geographical terrain, the circumference and the cultures of its inhabitants, students will approach word affairs holistically. This skill is one that traditional schooling doesn’t offer.

“Students feel like they’re coming here to have fun and they’re ready to learn so much more,” she adds.

This fun in learning is a result of a lack of pressure placed on the students. There are no marks, no grades. The improvement is not calculated, it is observation based.

Smaller class sizes allow more individualised attention from the teachers. Students are challenged according to their skill level. The program leaders will never allow more than 12 students in one class.

Co-founder Noopur Kanchan, who brings 12 years of experience in traditional education to the programme, as well as the experience of raising her own daughter, says, “The program was founded on my belief that children lack the skills necessary to succeed, not only academically, but in life as a whole. The program also offers summer and weekend workshops for students who can’t combine standard school and extracurricular activities on the weekdays.”

Not just iLeap, Avida Educational Ventures, an IIM/ISB alumni venture, has also launched their special workshop for children called Sparkling Mindz, where they have a thinking skills programme for children between eight to 13 years of age. The program is based on the multiple intelligence framework and is delivered in an activity-based format. From critical thinking to communication and inter-personal skills, kids can even learn how to make decisions and understand the values of life.  
In fact, it was to develop the creative faculty in students that would give younger people the ability to develop lateral thinking, that HP launched their Write&Read programme, partnering with famous lyricist Prasoon Joshi.

“Writing is a liberating creative process that I hold dear to my heart. I started writing from a young age and published my first book when I was 17 years old. This workshop will help children discover the joy of writing and reading at a young age,” says Prasoon. In fact, Geetha Dharmarajan, founder and executive director of Katha, who’s working hand-in-hand with Prasoon believes the same. “Creative writing can help children not only in writing skills, but in life skills as well. It helps them to prepare for the future because that way, children can think for themselves; I strongly believe that creative writing produces leaders and not followers,” she signs off.