Strengthening of Sahodaya Movement

Sahodaya, a concept literally meaning ‘Rising Together’ came into being in the year 1986, to facilitate synergy of ideas among the schools of CBSE family aimed at excellence in education. A Sahodaya School complex is a group of neighbourhood schools voluntarily coming together to share their innovative practices in all aspects of school education including curriculum design, evaluation and pedagogy and also providing support services for teachers and shudents. It is indeed an interactive platrorm for schools to deliberate upon the different policies and guidelines of the CBSE Board and provide effective feedback on their implementation to establish new benchmarks of quality. There is no doubt that much more knowledge is generated when a team or group committed to a common goal undertakes the task of re-modelling and re-fashioning in a spirit of caring and sharing. Thus Sahodaya introduces the relevance of cooperative learning and collaborative networking. This is further facilitated by the annual Sahodaya Conference held every year to critically examine the relevant issues and evolve a viable and effective framework of action.

At present there are around 130 Sahodaya School Complexes active across the country with a network involving over 2500 schools. This unique movement has provided an opportunity to institutions to become proactive and enterprising in varied fields of school education.

The diverse array of activities carried out by SSC’s include the following:

(a) Orientation programmes, seminars and workshops for teachers/students/principals on various themes.

(b) Joint programmes for home examinations, sports and cultural activities, interschool competitions, exhibitions etc.

(c) Discussion on implementation of circulars and guidelines issued by the CBSE Board from time to time.

(d) Taking up community development projects on adolescence education progmmme, road safety, consumer awareness, peace education etc.

It is necessary to strengthen the Sahodaya Movement by taking it to remote and unrepresented areas. To facilitate the creation of new Sahodaya School Complexes the procedure to be followed is outlined below in easy steps:

STEP 1: 5-10 schools which are located geographically close to each other can come together. The Principal of any one school may convene a meeting of the Principals of all member schools to elect a President, Secretary, Treasurer and other office bearers on a rotation basis. They may give a name to their Sahodaya Cluster. In one district, there could be more than one Sahodaya Cluster depending on the number of schools and geogaphical locations.

STEP 2: The members may draw up a set of bye-laws for the Sahodaya School Complex delineating the aims of the voluntary body, the functions, duration of office etc. of office bearers, list of main activities, periodicity of meetings, subscription etc.

STEP 3: An account in a local bank may be opened in the name of the Sahodaya School Complex to be operated jointly by any two office bearers. The account should be audited annually and details circulated to all the members.

STEP 4: An action plan for the whole year may be prepared in consultation with all the members. Duties for carrying out different programmes may be allocated among members. The members should meet at least once a month to review the activities and to take up for discussion any issue of academic nature.

STEP 5: Once a Sahodaya Complex has been formed, the Secretary may send the details with names, addresses, phone numbers and E-mail IDs of the President and Secretary to EO (H&L), CBSE, Preet Vihar at the following email IDs:

manicbse@yahoo.co.in and sluliniy@gmail.com

The details may also be sent by post to:

Shri P. Mani Education Officer (H&L) Central CBSE Board of Secondary Education “Shiksha Kendra’’, 2, Community Centre Preet Vihar, Delhi-110092.

Reports and write ups on the activities conducted by SSC’s with photographs may also be sent to the above address for the information of the CBSE Board and for publication in CENBOSEC. All the SSCs that are already well established and functioning actively may also send details of their address, phone nos. etc. to the above address/ e-mail IDs so as to help the CBSE Board prepare a National Directory of Sahodaya School Complexes.