The Village School Project

This is an effort to empower the youth in rural India by exposing them to creative learning environments.

Project goal
The goal of this project is to introduce digital mediums, technology and educational resources to enable the local youth to create, explore and document.

Project structure
The curriculum was designed to add the values of critical thinking, exploration and analysis to the process of learning. The idea behind doing this is to facilitate a platform for the under privileged to nurture their interest and expose them to a creative learning environment where they can ideate and learn skills to support it.

The various mediums that are being introduced to support each facet [create + explore + share] of the proposed learning process are:

Camera culture
Photography, Film Appreciation & Production, Photo/Video editing

Documentation & blogging
Wordpress, Youtube, Wikipedia.

Sound & Music
Sound engineering, Local music, Folk music.

Mapping
Geographical locations & Biomes

Art & Craft
Textiles, Surface techniques, Tibetan Miniature paintings and local craft form.

Pilot phase, location and timeline
Engage with 6-8 young people of age 11 and above, around the village Rakkar, Himachal Pradesh, India. The project started on 5th December 2013 and is envisioned to be carried out till the second quarter of 2014.

About the location
Rakkar is an ecologically rich, agricultural hamlet in the foot of Dhauladhar range of Himalaya. It is inhabited by the shepherd community Gaddi, Pahadis and Nepalis and has a population of around 1500 people. The hamlet is still largely untouched by the invasion of modern life and is relatively self sustainable in terms of the local economy, also because many people grow their own food and have their own land. However, dropping farm yields, limited sources of income and rising living costs are forcing the locals to abandon their traditional way of living and embracing the world of real estate, consumerism and concrete.