Breaking away from the traditional rote learning, a new after-school programme called Think Stations was recently launched in Gurgaon. The programme has been designed to develop the minds of kids from seven to 14 years The students are given material with the help of which they find a way to learn in a fun way.
“I have two kids and I really wanted something different for them. Think Stations are something different from schools. We analyse and develop on the reasons why the students are not doing good in schools and what can be done to correct that,” says Gayatri Singh, Founder CEO, Think Stations. The first station has come up at South Point Mall, Gurgaon but Singh expects schools to incorporate it as part of their curriculum. “Sanskriti School, Chanakyapuri, has adapted the concept and has dedicated a period for the programme. For this the teachers are trained by the Think Stations,” says Singh.
Singh says to learn new things students need to attend only two to three classes a week after their school. The mentors of Think Stations are told not to answer questions but give the students a direction that helps them to find a way to solve their problem. “The children need to learn to find out the answers they are looking for. They can look for them on the Internet or anywhere else but the mentors are trained not to answer their questions directly,” says Singh.
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Think Stations use technology as a tool to develop the capacity of a student and focus on development of oral, visual and written comprehension. .
“We know that technology is important but we also understand its limitations . We try to tell the students that technology can be used more as a tool than a mode of entertainment,” says Singh.
“We have to keep in mind that we don’t spoon feed the students. We make sure that they learn to use online research more effectively. We make sure that they have a leader that they can follow. We also make sure that the students do not realise how we have categorised them.” says Meetali Kutty, one of the mentors at Think Stations.
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