A school called KARVE
Asma held the crying boy in her lap, patting him with one hand. With her other hand she fed another boy his pasta. She also supervised four other children. Across the room, Sadhana was cutting up a dosa into small pieces for “N” to eat, while she ensured that the other children ate their snacks properly.
I was at KARVE preschool in Electronic City, observing their playgroup children of ages between 1 yr 10 months to 2 yrs 10 months. It was 10 am and hence their snack time. Over the next 30 minutes I would marvel at the patience and care that both teachers took to ensure that each child ate his/her snack. Deepika was assisting them, leading children to the washroom to wash their hands, whilst also carrying “A”, a new child who was still settling down.
The playgroup children spend 3 hours at KARVE — from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. This is their first foray outside the home and the main objective here is to help them settle down in a new environment, learn to be independent and build social skills. Each child has his own idiosyncrasies, that the teachers come to recognize and deal with. For example, the boy “S” was crying today because his father had dropped him off at school, instead of his mother, as was the norm. This was enough to disrupt his schedule and make him wail in indignation.
KARVE was founded in 2015 by Swati and Srinivas Prabhu, who had careers in the corporate world before this. Swati used to work as a financial analyst until their son was born. As a premature baby, he needed a lot of time and care to reach his developmental milestones.
Swati spent these years learning about child development and educational methodologies, reading the ideas of Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore and Vivekananda. She also worked at Treamis World School for some time. Gradually, all of this crystallized into the vision for KARVE. Today, KARVE has children from playgroup to UKG and they plan to expand to primary grades next year.
Of the 75 children at KARVE, 7 are neurodiverse. They participate in the regular classes based on their abilities, and also spend time separately with the special educator, Anuradha.
Math, Geography and Conversation
At 10:30 am, I went over to the UKG classroom. Swati was taking this class, assisted by Netra. There were 8 children in the classroom, aged 5 to 6 years.
First, each of the children spoke a bit about themselves. They had done this at a recent event which parents had attended.
“My name is ______, my mother’s name is ________, my father’s name is _____. My school’s name is KARVE. My mother/father works at _____. My favourite colour is ___. My favourite fruits are ______ and my favourite vegetables are ______.”
Apples, mangoes, cucumber, palak (which another child corrected to spinach) were common favourites. One child mentioned kiwi fruit and Swati asked him to describe how it looks. Another child added his parents’ mobile numbers to his introduction! Some mentioned their native place, others mentioned where they had gone on vacation (leading to some confusion between Goa and guava!)
Swati started the class. She called “R” and “H” to the front of the class. In an earlier class the children had learnt to count by fives and tens. Now, she gave “R” a bunch of pencils and said that each pencil represents ‘5’. She asked him to set aside ‘50’. He counted by fives (5, 10, 15, 20…) and set aside 10 pencils.
Next, she gave “H” some stones and said each stone represents ‘10’. She asked him to set aside ‘100’. He counted by 10’s and set aside 10 stones to represent 100. Two other children also came up and did the same.
Swati wrote the numbers in 10’s on the board: 10, 30 (the children corrected her and say it should be 20), and so on, up to 90, which she wrote as 60. Most of the children corrected her, but one child said that this is correct. Netra and Swati discussed that he is still confused between 6 and 9, and made a note to give him some practice sheets for homework.
Next, Swati used coloured building blocks to illustrate the same concept. A yellow block with 4 knobs represents 40, if each knob is 10. A red block with a single knob is a unit’s piece. So putting the two together we make the number 40 + 1 = 41. Adding another red unit’s piece will make it 42.
Then they applied the same concept to people standing in a row: if each person represents ‘10’ , how many people need to stand in a row to make 60? The children counted in 10’s to get the answer. They did different variations of this.
One boy “A” is a slow learner. I had noticed him counting by one’s and referring to a number chart on the wall when the other children were counting by ten’s. Swati did a couple of exercises with him using the blocks to count by one’s. Later in the day, I would see the special educator Anuradha work with him separately, threading beads through a string and counting them out.
In the middle of the Math class, Swati created an interlude where the children went up to a world map on the wall and spoke about one continent at a time.
“V” spoke about Australia — surrounded by water, it has kangaroos and koalas. He added that Australians eat kangaroos and he wished they wouldn’t!
“A” spoke about South America — very wet, with big forests, the Amazon rainforest.
“Z” spoke about Antarctica — it has snow and penguins.
Two boys spoke about Asia — the highest mountains, the Himalayas, which protect India. Then they talked about India — many languages, our natural (sic) bird is the peacock and natural (sic) animal is the tiger.
All the children were eager to talk, to express what they knew. In fact, one boy asked for a second turn and was given the chance to speak again.
Later, Swati told me that every month the children are exposed to one topic that they explore and then talk about. The goal is to build familiarity with new concepts and learn to express themselves with confidence.
Bend and stretch
The children at KARVE are practicing some yoga exercises for their upcoming Sports day. The exercises are at a different difficulty level for each age group.
At 11:30 am, the playgroup and nursery children are led by Asma and Tharani to do the Level 1 exercises. The children sit on the floor with their legs criss-crossed, close their eyes and chant “Aum”.
They start with the Namaste pose: bringing their hands together high above their heads and then lowering them.
Then the butterfly pose: sitting cross-legged with the soles of their feet touching, raising and lowering their legs the way a butterfly flaps its wings.
Then the peacock pose: stretching their legs apart, stretching and fanning out their arms like a peacock’s tail.
A child with delayed motor skills is assisted by the KARVE special educator, Anuradha.
Thirty minutes later, I observe the Level 3 yoga session: comprising LKG and UKG children. They start with the same exercises but do them with more deliberated, controlled movements.
The children pair up to form different shapes of alphabets using their bodies. They do full body stretches, and end with the closing prayer of yoga. The children request that they want to sing “Hum ko man ki shakti dena”, so they are allowed to end with that song. They sing with eyes closed, earnest expressions on their faces, their voices rising and falling in unison.
One boy “B” is hyper-active. He does not sit still during the yoga session but keeps darting about the room happily. Every once in a while, he comes up to me, takes my hand and places his palm on mine. This gesture of friendship is repeated every few minutes!
In the jungle, the mighty jungle
At 12:30 pm, I went to spend some time with the nursery class. Tharani was discussing different animals and their habitats with the children.
“Where does a gorilla live?” “In the forest. It’s a wild animal.”
“Where does a camel live?” That was also slotted in the forest, but she explained that it lives in the desert.
The lion, the tiger, the elephant …. were all discussed and their sounds imitated by the children. The classroom erupted with roars and trumpeting.
The discussion moved to their diets. One child said the elephant eats peacocks! Someone else said it is vegetarian, so finally they settled on leaves.
Another child had seen a tortoise and described how it has a round, hard shell.
Finally, one girl said her favourite animal is the cow. From there, the discussion moved on to how the cow gives us milk, from which we make butter, curd, cheese.
“What is a baby cow called?” “Calf”
“What is a baby lion called?” “Simba!”
At this point Swati had entered the classroom and explained that a baby lion is a cub. In the movie “Lion King” that particular cub is called Simba, just as each child here has his own name.
Outdoors
KARVE is housed in two duplex buildings beside a grove of silver oak trees in a layout of Electronic City. So the children have plenty of opportunity to observe Nature. They also get to move around a lot, because Swati makes it point to have different classes in different spaces. Different age-groups are combined for physical, art or music related activities so that the children get to interact and learn from each other. Individual children sometimes attend classes with older/younger ones based on their interests and abilities.
The LKG and UKG children had their P.E. class, and were taking turns in groups to do a frog-jump race. One child didn’t feel like participating today and was sitting and watching the others.
There is a garden patch where the UKG children have planted vegetables. Recycled cans have been painted by the younger ones and planted with herbs that they will take home to observe.
An outside wall is splashed with vibrant colours. Swati explains that certain walls are designated for this purpose. The children are encouraged to come out and paint whatever they like on these.
Pencils and crayons
At 1 pm, I go upstairs to observe the LKG children in the writing room. Tharani and Asma are each seated at a low table with 5–6 children. The children have been given their workbooks, crayons and pencils. The task is to write the number on the page by joining the dots and then practice writing the number a few times.
One boy hums to himself as he writes. A little girl “P” wants a star on her hand because she has completed her work. Asma draws it on her hand. There is a bit of negotiation because “P” also wants a smiley along with the star!
Then she finds a twig with dried leaves on it, and starts sweeping and dusting the room busily. She takes this quite seriously and dusts every surface she can find!
After writing, the children are asked to colour the pictures on the page. But one boy flatly refuses to do so, and Asma collects his workbook and crayons.
Birds and Music
After lunch, the children spend the last 30 minutes exploring some new topic.
Today, they continue to learn about Birds. Swati shows them some slides depicting the parts of a bird’s body — eye, beak, wing, feathers, claws, tail. Priyanka discusses what each part is used for. They look at different types of birds — a hen, parrot, goose, eagle, owl. They discuss which birds are herbivorous and which ones are carnivorous, and how the latter have hooked beaks and claws to help them hunt. They end with a video of parrots.
Then the teachers bring out a guitar and a piano (keyboard). They play the tune of “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” and explain that these are string instruments. In an earlier class, the children had seen wind instruments and they described them now.
I spend the rest of the afternoon with Swati, Srinivas, Rose Scaria (their PRO) and Sadhana (their Principal). Swati describes how she had wanted to create a school that would be based on Indian tradition and ethos, integrating music, art and nature studies into the curriculum. They tell me how the school started, their dreams and plans, the day-to-day challenges and what keeps them going every day.
What I find inspiring about these small, independent schools is how the philosophy of the founders shapes the character of the school. Their belief system is apparent in the way the children are respected as individuals and encouraged to chart their own course in their educational journey.
Photo credit: KARVE team
