PRAXIS® LEARNING CENTRE

PRAXIS^® LEARNING CENTRE

BLUE VALLEY SCHOOL

PRAXIS^® is a registered voluntary, non-profit organization, established in1981. Praxis has been   conducting supplementary education classes for the children, after school hours, in 120 villages of Devanahalli taluk.

WHY DO WE START A SCHOOL?

v  The education policy makers have flawed assumption about education.  They perceive Education from a utilitarian perspective.  They ignore the social purpose of education for emancipation.

v  Education should not aim at just getting employment.  It should aim at building character, integrity and a capacity to be responsible citizens, developing cognitive ability, thinking capacity and problem-solving skill.

v  The present-day education system has created a social differentiation. There is a great disparity in the quality of education the rural children get and the quality of education the urban children of the elite get. Good quality education for the children of the poor is a key to overcome inequality in the society.

v  The school education has to be seen as a public good outside the logic of the market.

v  Education should enable all round development of individuals.  Emotional wellbeing of the students is paramount important.  Emotional wellbeing of the learners is linked to their successful life. Education should shift from teacher centeredness to learner centeredness; teaching for learning; text book based learning to experiential learning; unhealthy competition to happy collaboration; teacher domination to learner participation; rote learning to activity based intelligent learning.

The eight core-competencies that education should develop in students are: 1. Creativity, 2. Curiosity, 3. Critical thinking, 4. Ability for communication, 5. Collaboration, 6.  Compassion, 7.  Composure, and 8. Citizenship.

A.      Praxis Learning Centre will provide the children from remote rural areas a guarantee of excellent quality education in English medium and overcome the injustice in the education system.

B.      Our school will be run on ‘NO PROFIT NO LOSS’ basis. We will be transparent in all our operations including our finances.

C.      We will provide residential facilities for children from distance places, again at charges based on ‘NO PROFIT NO LOSS’.

D.     We will conduct summer camps to upgrade the learning standard of the children. 

E.      There will be a parents’ association. All parents of the children who study in our school will be part of this association.

F.       We will promote philosophical thinking and intelligent enquiry leading to VISION for life. 

G.     In our school, there will be a strong emphasis on subjects like history, social science, literature, and geography, to make the children acquire sense of history, looking at the society from a historical perspective, social consciousness leading to social commitment; being aware of inequality, oppression and exploitation.

H.     Having a scientific approach to the society, never accepting things as given, the students and the teachers will become agents of change.  Change is a constant reality of the society.

I.        Promoting understanding of different cultural, religious diversities. Recognizing that these diversities and differences are a wealth of the society.

J.   We learn together.  A teacher cannot teach if he/she is not learning at the same time.  A teacher becomes a learner and the learners also become teachers.”  Our school will be a community of children and teachers living, sharing and learning together. It will promote learning as a collaborative and cooperative life together rather than competitive business venture.

K.      “Our school is based on the philosophy, simply put, “A person is an individual with others in the world”.  We arrive in the world created by people before us.  We cannot live unless we recreate this world for us and for our future generation. If a person is important, the world is equally important and others are integral part of us.  We cannot become ourselves without others and we in turn make others.  We cannot grow without others.  We cannot grow as human persons at the expense of others.  A real growth of our person is achieved only through growing together.  We cannot receive without giving.  Receiving and giving are two sides of the coin called life.

L.       We place ourselves in the history of our people.  We learn from the people who have gone before us, who have contributed for the creation of this wonderful world. We resolve to contribute our best so that the world and the history moves forward and all experience a good quality of life.

M.   We are citizens of this world with “an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part . . . and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.” (Robert A. Heilein)

“THE NEW SOURCE OF POWER IS NOT MONEY IN THE HANDS OF A FEW. BUT INFORMATION IN THE HANDS OF MANY’. (John Naisbitt)

Director: Alex Tuscano, Mob: 9448386968 / 9449066968

Praxis Learning Centre

PRAXIS LEARNING CENTRE

Policy and procedure on Child Protection

We, in Praxis Learning Centre, have a primary responsibility for the care, welfare and safety of the pupils in our charge. We will carry out this duty through our pastoral care policy, which aims to provide a caring, supportive and safe environment, valuing individuals for their unique talents and abilities, in which all our young people can learn and develop to their full potential.

One way in which we seek to protect our pupils is by helping them learn about the risks of possible abuse, helping them to recognize unwelcome behaviour in others, and acquire the confidence and skills they need to keep themselves safe.

All our staff and volunteers have been subject to appropriate background checks.  The staff of our school have also adopted a Code of Practice for our behaviour towards our pupils.  In our work with our younger pupils, or with children whose statement of Special Education Needs requires it, certain caring personal tasks may present themselves from time to time.  These tasks will always be carried out in an appropriate manner.  Close liaison with parent ensures that there is trust and understanding of such situations.  Our school Prospectus and Code of Good Practice includes guidance for parents on how to make known to our staff any concerns they may have about the safety of their child or any other child in their care.

The purpose of the following procedures on Child Protection is to protect our pupils by ensuring that every one who works in our school – teachers, non-teaching staff and volunteers – has clear guidance on the action which is required where abuse or neglect of a child is suspected.  The overriding concern of all caring adults must be the care, welfare and safety of a child, and the welfare of each child is our paramount consideration.  The problem of child abuses will not be ignored by anyone who works in our school, and we know that some forms of child abut are also a criminal offence.

What is child abuse?

We use the following definitions:

NEGLECT – the persistent or significant neglect of a child, or the failure to protect a child from exposure to any kind of danger, including cold or starvation, or persistent failure to carry out important aspects of care, resulting in the significant impairment of the child’s health or development including non-organic failure to thrive.

PHYSICAL – physical injury to a child, whether deliberately inflicted or knowingly not prevented.

Procedures for reporting suspected (or disclosed) child abuse

The designated teacher for child protection is MS Yashoda. In her absence, MS Poornima will assume responsibility for child protection matters.

If a child makes a disclosure to a teacher or other member of staff which gives rise to concerns about possible abuse, or if a member of staff has concerns about a child, the member of staff must act promptly.

N.B. He/she should not investigate this matter, but should report these concerns immediately to the designated teacher, discuss the matter with her, and make full notes.

The designated teacher will as a matter of urgency plan a course of action, and ensure that a written record is made. The designated teacher will decide whether, in the best interests of the child, the matter needs to be referred to the expert counsellor.

Globalization Gone Awkward

Globalization in an awkward mode:

India started globalization in 1991. It opened its borders to foreign investors and its markets for foreign goods. The fortune of India changed for good. Indians were hankering for foreign goods. Foreign goods were attractive. I remember a joke. A dentist was inspecting a tooth of his patient. He saw some unusual thing stuck between the two teeth. He asked the patient, “there is some foreign object between your teeth. Do you really want me to remove it?” The moment the patient heard ‘foreign object’ he jumped from the chair and went away, though with a lot of pain.

With Globalization the Indians’ craze for foreign goods is over. Even if people go to foreign countries, they hardly bring any thing foreign. They say oh, we can get that in India. A lot of foreign companies came to India. Educated youth from middle class got jobs. Young people became engineers and went to foreign countries for work. There are far more white colour workers working in different parts of the highly developed world.

The world became one global market and an integrated production platform. Division of social labour took place across the world. There was no need for any nation to produce all it needs on its own soil. It can import goods from outside much cheaper and of unmatched quality. Countries produced goods they were best in. They use the raw material available in their country. Life became much better and luxuries came to the houses of the middleclass people.
Export import became the life line of all the economies in the world. The world cannot go back on Globalization.

But since late different wind has been blowing across the globalized world. European Economic Community began to develop cracks. Greece was toing with the idea of coming out of the European Economic Community. In UK there was a referendum on whether to remain as part of the European Economic Community or not. And the citizens of United Kingdom voted to come out of the European Economic Community. It is a matter of time and UK will sever the 40 odd years of relationship with European Economic Community.
After the election of Trump America started talking about ‘America first’. There is a big trade war between America and China.

The intensity of globalization has reflected in the manner in which Covid19 virus rapidly spread across the world. There is no country that has remained free from the impact of the virus. This deadly virus has forced the world to shut down at the fastest way, hundreds and thousands time faster than the globalization spread.

How is the world dealing with the situation? America blames China for the virus. Trump calls it ‘China virus’. America is threatening China that it would take action against China. On social media some have called it a Chinese conspiracy to destroy the economies of different countries and gain control of the world economy for itself. There are people divided along the religious lines. Israel blaming the Palestinians for spreading the virus in Israel. Pakistan is blaming Israel for the spread of virus. In India the Muslims are accused of using virus to
carry out Corona jehad on the Indians. This absurd position is only dividing the world and making the fight against Corona weak.

The world was never so divided in the recent past. There is a need for the world to unitedly wage war on the virus. But world is caught up in the blame game. If this continues in this way there will be a huge problem in the international relationship between nations and between different communities. No one will know how they would remedy the disruption of international relations and relationship between different communities.

In times of world wide crisis like this it should have stood united to fight against Covid 19. All the experts from all over the world should have come together. The UN institution like World Health Organization should have taken a lead to facilitate this process. The world has all the resources it needs to put an end of the virus. It has enough knowledge and know-how and expertise to find solution and put an end to the virus. There is already a United Nation’s institution, World Health Organization, instituted in 1948 which could have taken a lead in bringing all together.

But you see what has happened to WHO. America has blamed WHO for the crisis in America which has gone beyond its control. For America it is a matter of humiliation since the biggest economy, strongest nation has found itself in an awkward situation. America has stopped payment of their share of contribution to WHO. It is 15 percent of the WHO fund. Loosing such a large sum puts WHO in further weak spot.

It is clear that America is trying to find a scapegoat for their failure. But what choice WHO has. It is indeed in a weak position. The member nations are more powerful and WHO does not have independence visa vis the powerful nations like China or America.
China did not come out clear about Corona virus affecting their country. They did a lot of cover up operation. They were not frank about the number of people died. Now they have revised their numbers.

What comes out clearly about globalization, and even about UN institutions, is every member country tries use these solely for their selfish advantage. If it is not convenient they will undermine UN and it’s institutions.

The motive for globalization is maximizing profit. Common good and welfare of all people of all nation is totally absent from the agenda of globalization There is hardly any interest to help weaker nations or even come together to work for overall progress of all the members. Nations do not have trust in each other. China did not think she needed help from the fraternity of the nations. If WHO had independence it could have brought together the experts and put an end to the virus while it was at the initial stage in China.

Globalization does not help to create solidarity among nations and work for common good. Globalization is a fragile when it comes to its subjective role for common good is concerned.