Let us take this opportunity to remember our pioneers Indubhai, Devchandbhai and Vallabhbhai on this day and all our brothers and sisters who have served and been a part of Shishukunj.

Find out more about the life and contributions of Indubhai, Devchandbhai and Vallabhbhai to Shishukunj and the larger society.

A young boy of 19 years had just shifted to Karachi (part of India before partition) from his hometown Limbdi (Saurashtra, India) with his uncle in 1939. He was inspired by Shri Harjivanbhai Somaiya (teacher in Sharda Mandir, Karachi), who used to tell interesting stories to children every Sunday. Enthused with this, on 23rd June, 1941, the second death anniversary of Gijubhai Badheka, this young boy, Indubhai Jivanlal Dave, started an activity centre in his own school campus in Karachi with the aim of imbibing human values among children and reduce misbehavior and use of foul language through activities like story-telling and group games. Thus was born Shishukunj, a garden of children.

Today, Shishukunj has completed 75 years and is spread across 5 continents in the world. What makes Shishukunj unique is the fact that the baalakos who have attended Shishukunj in their childhood have now become karyakars – volunteers, who are carrying forward the philosophy of Shishukunj and are instrumental in expanding the Shishukunj family, wherever they are based. At present, Shishukunj centres are active in Dar-es-Salam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya), Mombasa (Kenya), Limuru (Kenya), Croydon (London-UK), Finchley (London-UK), Kent (London-UK), Melbourne (Australia), Georgia (Atlanta-USA), Indore, Bangalore, Dhrangadhra, Mankuva, and Bhuj (India).

With an objective to extend support to child welfare activities through value based approach, based on Shishukunj philosophies to encourage Charity (Seva Pravruti), Education (Shikshan Pravruti) and Child Welfare (Baal Pravruti) activities for the upliftment of children, Shishukunj International Foundation (SIF) was established in 2010 in Ahmedabad. Since its’ inception, SIF has been involved in School infrastructure development, educational resources development, teachers’ training and exposure visits, school support programmes, library support, etc.

This year, to earmark the completion of 75th year of Shishukunj, SIF is organizing broadcast seeding on the site of Shishukunj International School, Bhuj and an educational kit distribution alongside a fun filled outing for slum children. Broadcast seeding will be done with a view to have a natural green boundary around the school maintaining the natural ecosystem of Kachchh. At the same time, a fun filled outing for children from an identified slum area has been organised so that some happy and memorable moments can be created on this special day.

Let us hope that Shishukunj – the garden of children – blossoms and spreads its fragrance to many more lives!

As a parent there is always a desire, a wish that your child becomes a doctor, a pilot, a lawyer, a scientist, in short an outstanding successful person as a grown up adult. The aspirations about child’s future are a natural thinking for any parent.

To become a successful professional, good education is often a passport to a good future and naturally you choose the best school and motivate and encourage the child to work hard and pass the examinations with flying colors. As a parent you would encourage the child to take extra tuition classes to achieve good results. Good exams results mean good chances of admission in a high school, followed by admission at a good college or a university. With a university qualification the job is almost now secure.

I am not a teacher or educationalist nor a psychologist and I will now state may seem counter intuitive. I think that this aspirations and actions and attitude might be doing more harm than good to your child. We need understand and re-examine our fundamental assumptions.

In the first place, and one must have seen time and again that living for some distant future goal also means you do not live in the present. The distant goal such as exams – means children are focused to succeed in passing the exams while forgetting what it means to be a child- to be curious, mischievous, sometimes naughty, exploring, falling, getting up, relating, discovering, inventing, playing.

Childhood is very precious, precious enough not to be wasted by the artificial pressures of competition by spending endless hours of bookish study and score cards of the school which, in the final analysis, is only the number, first class, second class.

Very often we are driven by an assumption that education is the road map to success. Whilst this may be true given the state of socio/economic of our nation – where there is a thirst for good education, coupled with the desire to ensure that the child is as good and at good school- like the child next door, to my mind is a very narrow view of good education. The basic aim and indeed purpose of the school is to help and guide the child to discover herself and her world and to identify and nurture child’s hidden potentials rather than lie dormant. Just as every seed contains the future tree, each child is born with infinite potential. This is where the role of a teacher becomes challenging, where the seed (child) is constantly looked after by the gardener (the teacher) which bring out the hidden potential of the child to the fore.

This is very different from the view which sees the child as clay to be molded – where the teachers and parents are potters deciding what shape the clay should take. There is an old Chinese saying “Give a seed unto a potter and you will get a bonsai”.

As a parent, my request to all parents is “Do not give up your child’s present to secure his or her future. Provide your child with a lot of love and affection and enabling environment to explore life and world around him or her let the child blossom. You will discover over a period of time your child flowers into a creative and sensitive human being and when this happens everything else money, career, social success security will fall into place automatically. Let your child be a child. Your child has only one childhood- make it a memorable one.

Since it’s inception in the early 1940’s in Karachi, Shishukunj has grown into an international organisation with centres in all the 5 continents. At its core it remains an institution dedicated to the welfare of the children. It has developed its own eclectic philosophy over the years. The child centred approach of Maria Montessori, which was modified by Gijubhai Badheka to meet the needs of the Indian context has been a strong guiding influence in the activities of Shishukunj. For values and ethics, Swami Vivekanand and Gandhiji, have been our beacon. As we now venture into the field of mainstream education, we draw upon people like J.Krishnamurti, Rudolf Steiner, Robert Dewey, for inspiration and ideas in this field.

The Shishukunj School

• The physical space:
  Anyone entering the school will get a sense of order and beauty. The school environs will be clean and tidy, and the physical spaces will have a good aesthetic sense. Children’s work will be displayed prominently. The furniture and equipment in the school will be child friendly. There will be open spaces for the children to play and sit around.
• The children:
  The children will be given more responsibilities as they grow older. In some areas children will contribute to discussions and help make decisions on various aspects of the school(A school council may be constituted). Spaces will be created where the older children can help the younger children with their work. Children will be given opportunities to organise various school events. The children should get a sense of belonging and feel ownership of the school. There will be forums for children to air their views.
• The teacher:
  The teacher plays a very crucial role in creating a shishukunj school. Therefore teachers will be chosen with great care. A teacher should first and foremost demonstrate a passion for wanting to work with children. A teacher should also have a learning mind, eager to learn new things and develop better ways of teaching. A teacher should be humble, without any sense of superiority, should be able to work together amicably with colleagues, be steeped in basic values like simplicity, be impartial in dealing with the children. The teacher will demonstrate a lot of patience in dealing with the children.
• The child teacher interaction:
  This lies at the core of a shishukunj school. The child – teacher interaction plays a key role in the nurturing of the child. It is only when the child feels at home in an affectionate environment can his/her true potential come through. Here the analogy of a gardener tending a plant is a potent one. If the plant is provided with the right environment, tended with care and affection, it will bloom into a strong and sturdy tree, reaching its full potential. The child has to grow in an environment that is free of fear, where threats or punishment is not used as a tool for behaviour modification. Instead, when a child makes a mistake, he is helped to face the consequence and learn from his mistakes.
• The curriculum:
  The curriculum should be holistic, developing the mind, body and spirit. Arts and Crafts, yoga, games, kawayat, value clarification, music,dance should be an integral part of the curriculum. The curriculum should be structured in a child friendly manner, allowing each child to progress at his own pace. The assessment procedures should be none obtrusive and there should be no comparison between children.
• The learning environment:
  Care will be taken to create an environment which is conducive for learning. There will be no use of physical punishment to discipline the children. The children will grow in an environment free of fear. Extra support will be given to children who require it. The ambience will be one of care and affection.
• Parents:
  Parents should also be made to feel part of the school. They could be involved in contributing to some aspects of the upkeep of the school. Various talks on child development and psychology should be arranged for parents at regular intervals. Regular feedback about their child’s progress should be communicated both orally and in writing.
• Teacher growth:
  A shishukunj school will have regular, training sessions for the teacher. It is only when the teacher is learning and growing that the children will grow.
• Working with the hands:
  In a shishukunj school, doing physical work like cleaning, gardening, maintenance, cooking will be part of the school day. This stems from Gandhiji’s view that there is dignity in manual labour.
• Nature and environment:
  There will be a strong emphasis on appreciating nature and understanding environmental concerns in a shishukunj school.