India's No.1 Educational Blog: British Council’s arts education programme brings the World Voice Project and Drama in Classroom to Mumbai

Bringing the Arts into the curriculum

The British Council’s arts education programme brings the World Voice Project and Drama in Classroom to Mumbai from 16 to 18 March 2015

As part of a three-year project in arts education, the British Council, UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities will host the first series of workshops with school teachers in Mumbai to help nurture the use of music and drama to teach the curriculum. The workshops, including the World Voice Project (WVP) and an introduction to the Drama in Classroom Project (DCP), will be held at the British Council office in Mumbai from 16 - 18 March 2015.

The 3-day training aims at promoting an art-integrated learning approach through music and drama with the World Voice Project (WVP) and the Drama in Classroom Project (DCP) respectively. It will present singing and drama as additional pedagogical tools in the resource kit for teachers to facilitate wider-curriculum learning; in addition to, re-introducing arts into the everyday lives of students. The training aims at nurturing more teachers to promote Arts Education and Art Integrated Learning (AIL) approach in their respective educational institutions and the state (at large).

The workshop is being organised in collaboration with the Kendriya Vidyala Sangathan and will be attended by 50 teachers from KVS and another 10 independent teachers and trainers, further about 60 students (class 3-5) from the KVS schools will attend a special session on 17^th March 2015.

The workshop will also be attended by well-known musician and singer Mohit Chauhan who has been championing the World Voice Project in India on the second day of the workshop on 17^th March 2015. A widely acknowledged singing icon, Mohit will be singing WVP songs with the students and speaking about his WVP journey since its launch in March 2013. He will be joined by well-known singer - musician and the World Voice Champion from Senegal Metzo Djatah.

The World Voice Project, launched in 2013 in the UK, is the British Council’s pilot arts education programme which nurtures cultural understanding through a sharing of folk music. The project supports young people to develop musicality and contributes to wider learning through singing as a fundamental global expressive art. The Project is currently being implemented in 12 countries across the globe and is championed by well-known musicians and singers in each country.

So far, around 1500 teachers have been trained across India in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Sikkim and Meghalaya. The states have further cascaded the programme to another 500 teachers and integrated the training module with their own state’s early learning (reading, writing and arithmetic) campaigns. An estimated 200,000 children have been exposed to the programme through their teachers. This is the first time the workshop is being conducted in Mumbai, with the aim to expand the programme in West India.

The Arts Education programme of the British Council through the WVP and the DCP, is a pioneering endeavour of the organisation to support the government in its efforts to promote education for all, in the most creative and effective manner; especially with reference to the RTE Act and NCF 2005.

Through this programme the British Council along with its partners NCERT, SCERT, RMSA and SSA encourage children to enjoy their school with more opportunity for engaging with the arts. Arts provide the opportunity to children to build skills such as communication, leadership, confidence and team builiding. In today's competitive world arts brings about a well rounded personality of a child and are as important as English, Math or Science. The three- year project hopes to reach out to ten states in India and to about 20 countires across the world including in Africa, Asia and America.

Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-OAJdtMUeM for a peek into the project.

Media queries on the project and workshop may please be directed to

Renuka Reuben, Senior Manager Marketing & Communications, West India British Council at renuka.reuben@in.britishcouncil.org or on 098208 43608

Vandana M, Senior Manager, LinOpinion GH on vandana.m@linopiniongh.com or on +91 9999479947

Notes to the editor

About the Workshop Leaders:

Shubhangi Tewari, the Lead Trainer for World Voice Project India, is an independent music trainer and performer. Shubhangi is a vocal instructor at the Bridge Music Academy and Rthymicity School of Music. In the past, she has been a vocal instructor at Gargi College (University of Delhi) and Blue Bells School, New Delhi. She is a vocalist, lyricist and co-composer with Stereo Buddha (an electronic, experimental, electro-acoustic music band).

Shubhangi has been associated with the WVP since its launch in March 2013 and has undergone intensive trainings with resource persons from United Kindgom (UK), Mr Richard Frostick and Dr Ian Thomas Young. She has conducted trainings across all our partner states in India. Her understanding of our Arts Education programme through the World Voice Project (WVP) together with her music training as well as, experience in teaching music makes the workshop sessions interesting and lively. Shubhangi holds masters in Political Science from the University of Delhi and a diploma in popular music performance (vocals) from the University of West London. In addition to this, she is trained in Hindustani classical music (vocal) with a senior Diploma (five years) from the Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad and a training in Piano (Associated Schools of Royal Schools of Music [ABRSM] London - grade five).

Kimberley Rodrigues, Assistant Trainer for World Voice Project India, is an independent music performer, with a keen interest in sociological evolution and community development. A vibrant young singer and a student of Sociology (LSR College, University of Delhi), Kimberley was a member of the Western Music Society of LSR College during her bachelors and is a founding member of a music group, The Balcony Harmony (gospel genre). She has conducted field research in Delhi and Gangtok (Sikkim) as a part of an assignment from the Department of Sociology, LSR College. In addition to this, she has worked as a volunteer with an NGO, Four Steps and is experienced at handling special children (age group 4 - 13 years).

Kimberley joined the WVP in August 2014 after attending a workshop conducted by Dr Ian Thomas Young and has been further supervised by Ms Shubhangi Tewari [ Lead Trainer, WVP India ]. She has assisted Shubhangi in conducting WVP sessions and has recently conducted training in Shillong, Meghalaya independently (December 2014). She is a promising and dynamic young professional with a vision to use music and singing to bring communities closer.

Regards,

BENJAMIN BAMNOLKAR