Nurturing Self-Driven Reading Habits through Learning Corner

'What is this?' The children were asked to show them a picture of a book.

In unison, they replied, "Miss! Mother, and Baby,"

The teacher then inquired further, "And what are the mother and child doing? She asked.

The children were unable to guess the answer.

The teacher then explained, "In this story, the mother is going to fetch water with a water pot.

This passage is an extract from a book being showcased in the learning corner at a Dalit Utthan Basic School, Jaimini Municipality, Baglung. In recent times, learning corners have served as a space during leisure periods and help students recharge and refocus, potentially improving their overall attention and productivity.

With the support of SIKAI Project, a learning corner has been established in 60 schools providing children with a space for both study and play. The learning corners are equipped with hands-on activities, materials, and resources enabling children to improve their learning outcomes. The schools are provided with a wide genre of books, book racks, carpets, tables, chairs, and play materials. These educational materials have become useful resources for implementing a child-friendly teaching method that emphasizes hands-on learning and observation within the school. The learning corners are further enhanced by the implementation of visual aids (pictures), materials and interactive practices to capture the attention of children and actively engage them in the learning process.

The teachers at school believe that children cannot learn spontaneously through a pedagogy that is imposed on them. If there is a learning environment that incorporates audio-visual materials, they can grasp information even more quickly and retain it for a longer time. Putali Thapa, Shree Janata Secondary School in Jaimini Municipality has experience in effectively facilitating children's successful learning in the learning corner. Thapa who participated in a pedagogy related training organized by the SIKAI project, now realizes the importance of practical teaching methodology and makes her best effort to adopt it. She now regularly allocates time for her students to best utilize the materials of the learning corner. She encourages them to read books of their interest and engage in playful learning activities. Thapa noted, “Through play- based learning, I have realized that children become more enthusiastic, curious, and diligent.”

Other teachers at her school have also adopted this approach, bringing their students to the learning corner and teaching their respective subjects. The establishment of the learning Corner has developed a reading habit among the children, efficiently utilizing their free periods.

After receiving training on gender-sensitive and child-friendly education, Putali Thapa now prioritizes these methods in her teaching. She remarked "Initially, I was unaware that children should be taught through play-based learning, but after the training, I embraced these techniques and realized that these techniques are more effective.”

Putali has observed that the establishment of the learning corner has fostered self-driven learning among children. They read storybooks as per their own interest, develop questions and are more able to solve the answer of the question with the facilitation of their teacher. This kind of learning process has motivated them to become self-driven learners.

According to Putali Thapa, children engage in discussions with their teachers about the meaningful stories, poems, and messages they read in the learning corner, and they even share them with their parents at home. In the past, the students seemed to feel tired by early afternoon, simply flipping through books. However, the learning corners have helped them feel refreshed and children spontaneously show interest in reading. As a result, this helps them connect the knowledge gained from books to real-life practice.

The SIKAI Project has extended its support to 60 learning corners in 60 community schools in Jaimini Municipality and Kathekhola Rural Municipality and has benefited students from grade 1 to 5 from these learning corners, resulting in an increased participatory learning among the children and enhancing their learning achievements.