Hello,

Here is the report of my social internship in Kunnathangadi, Kerala.

Entry no. : 2013BB50039
Contact no. : 9990467714
Hostel : ARAVALI
SLATE
A PENCIL group initiative
The Project SLATE Internship was floated by the NGO PENCIL.
ORGANIZATION PROFILE
PENCIL is a very young initiative, the first project of which was launched at two government primary
schools in Chengannur, Kerala on October 29, 2013 in the name of PROJECT FIREFLIES with 60
volunteers and two schools. The second project, I Begin Campaign was launched at St.Stephen's
College, Delhi in January 2014. Following this was a pan-Kerala survey named PROJECT QUEST
on government primary schools based on Right to Education (RTE) Act launched in Summer, 2014
which is still continuing in a couple of districts in Kerala. Our fourth project was PROJECT
PAPERBOATS launched by two volunteers of I Begin Campaign at Mata Jai Kaur Public School,
Ashok Vihar Phase II, Delhi in September, 2014. We launched a new project in October 2014 at
Govt.L.P School, Ponnurunni, Cochin, Kerala in the name of PROJECT KITES with volunteers from
both academic and professional backgrounds leading it. A new project, PROJECT WINGS has been
launched at A.O.M.M.L.P School, Mavelikara, Kerala run by students of Bishop Hodges Higher
Secondary School in December 2014.

The idea of PENCIL was born out of PROJECT AKSHARA which was initiated at the University of
Hyderabad in February, 2013. PROJECT AKSHARA was conceptualised by the founder of PENCIL
following a survey at government schools which she had to conduct as part of one of her courses as a
postgraduate student of Economics at the University. There were schools with ten computers but no
electricity or a computer trainer, there were schools where all subjects including English were taught
by the same teacher who could not even understand a word she was talking in English, there were
schools with 150 children and two teachers, there were schools which did not have functional
classrooms but just had a verandah where 120 children were randomly divided into two sides of the
verandah with the black painted walls of the two sides serving as their blackboards etc. This
motivated her and a couple of my friends to intervene in a small way possible in two schools near the
University. On realising that a set module would attract more volunteers and on publicising the project
across University as one where every volunteer needs to spare just one hour, helped scale up
PROJECT AKSHARA with 75 volunteers across 9 schools of study.
PENCIL began as an informal group of youngsters from across the country voluntarily working for the
upliftment of primary education and we are indeed happy of the help we could render in improving the
life of many children. Our projects bring together passionate youngsters and channelize their
interests, not forgetting their constraints towards improving the future of children from underprivileged
backgrounds in their immediate neighbourhood. Structure of each of our projects vary according to
the talent pool of the volunteers and needs of the children of the specific project. All our projects begin
with an assessment of the children and a discussion with parents and teachers to identify the kind of
intervention which the children require and the volunteers take it up from there accordingly. Even
though we have got teaching modules and mandatory house visits, get togethers, picnics, Grand
Finales etc., the volunteers run the show totally. Our teaching modules focus on extra curricular
activities which usually are ignored as a priority in government schools.

MY WORK PROFILE
A team of ten interns was required to stay in a village in Kerala and engage 35
children in the village during their 20 days' stay. Apart from teaching the
modules made by Module Revision Team, we were required to share our
suggestions on improving the modules to the team. This proved to be great
opportunity for us to explore a lot more about what makes Kerala different as a
state and how much impact education can cause and in-spite of all that, how
many shortfalls still exists in the system in the 'ideal' state
In addition to improving confidence, communication, awareness and interest in learning with our
classes, our intervention helped the schools (that we visited near to the village) to have many more
classrooms, more teacher posts, drinking water facility, separate toilets for girls and boys etc. This
was truly encouraging.. Now PROJECT SLATE has been taken up as a biannual project where in
addition to taking tuition classes to the children, the residents of the village are also taught daily life
useful thing like the computer.
DAILY REPORT
Day 1
Introduction
Today we had an introductory session. As most of the student were not so good at English, we
improvised their introductory skills so as that they could at least introduce themselves in English to a
complete stranger. We then gave them an assignment for writing down their introduction on paper and
to write down five lines about themselves.
Day 2

Sentence making
We assessed the homework they had done and asked them to write a word first,
then we asked them to find a word related with the first word and form a sentence
using these.
Day 3
Adjectives
We taught them a few adjectives, how to use them and played a little game of
describing each other using those adjectives. We then asked them to form a story
themselves. The catch was, one person says a few sentences by one's own thinking,
the second child adds his/her own few sentences and so on, hence the story
progresses.
Day 4

Story telling
We got a few story books for the children and asked a few students to read out loud
the stories and explained them line by line the meaning.
Day 5
Science
We taught them some basic sciences like Sound and the centrifugal force with the
help of some very interesting experiments.
Day 6
Test
We conducted a test on Mathematics to see upto what level are the kids prompt with
their basic understanding of the subject. For this we framed a question paper such
that it is one level easier than the current predicament of the child.
Day 7
Reading Clock
We taught both the LP and the UP kids how to read clock and how a day and night is
defined.
Day 8
Teamwork game
We provided the UP kids with some old newspapers and tape and asked them to
make a tower out of it using their own ideas. The LP kids were taught the song
Hickory-Dickory Dock.
Day 9
Noun game and Newspaper reading
We taught the UP kids some nouns with the help of a charades game and showed
them how to read newspapers. The LP kids continued learning Hickory-Dickory
Dock. This was the last practical teaching day for the students.
Day 10
House visits and Street Play practice.
Today we went to the houses of all the students through the village and introduced
kids to each other's parents. Also we called the students for the practice on the skit
on Child Abuse to be performed next day. Similarly, students also practiced for their
own singing and dance performances.
Day 11
Grand Finale
Today we hosted a Grand Finale at the Panchayat Hall of the village in which all the
kids took actively part. The event was a great success.

Day 12
School visits
Today we went to three schools in the village and asked a few questions to their
Headmasters regarding how the school functions, where does the school gets
funding from, the cultural and recreational activities taking place in the school and
many more.
Day 13
Parents Teaching
The sessions for the kids were concluded and with continued for one last time with
the parents teaching them computer skills. More like practising what all we taught.
Day 14
Parents Day and end of Session
We gathered the parents to share their thought about the camp and enlightened
them how they can help their children in their studies.

EXPERIENCE
Summer could not have been spent better. It was a wonderful experience while interacting with the
kids and teaching them. Also the interactions with their parent were pretty fruitful as everybody was
keen to listen to what we say and give and take suggestions. The sessions with the parents wherein
we taught them the use of computer and the internet were awesome too. The people were very kind
and the stay there was extremely pleasant. The students there saw us as their special mentors so it
was not hard to gather their attention, and we would share our knowledge with them as much as we
could apart from teaching them skills like Leadership, teamwork etc.
POSITIVES
The most highlighting change that we saw and was also intended was the opening up of the kids. It
was an amazing feeling to see the difference emerge in the children in a couple of days. They were
more extrovert now and actively took part in all of the activities as opposed to their former selves
when most of them were introverts and kept numb most of the time. Even the shyest child took part in
the Finale event that we organised. This made us feel relaxed and happy.
NEGATIVES
There were no negatives as such, but for the sake of it, the internship was not wholly and properly
planned, so we figured out ourselves as to how to handle the children and make maximum use of
time.
SUGGESTIONS
The internship process could have been improved by increasing the manpower and giving some more
clear directives as in how to do the work rather than just what to do.
Thanks & Regards

Shubham Chawla