August Activity – Rise & Speak

1. To understand how different groups of people raise their concerns regarding a situation which potentially affects everyone.   
2. To learn the importance of people engagement and participation for success of democracy. 

Critical thinking, Problem-solving, Active participation 

Empathy, Responsibility, Teamwork 

Notebooks and pens 

1. Ask President and Vice President to write down the dialogues on a page, given by the teacher from the Annexure 1.
2. Teacher will select 13 students and assign role as per the script. (Office bearer can become narrator who will invite the groups one by one to present after introducing the scene) 
3. Ask President and Vice President to distribute the dialogues to students and tell them to go through their dialogues before the main activity day. They also need to learn the narrator part.
4. Inform the President and Vice President the pre activity preparation is to be completed in 2 days, before the main activity. 

Estimated Time: 30 minutes. 

1. Today we are going to know about importance of people participation in democracy with help of roleplay. 

2. Teacher will ask Office bearers and selected students to present their roleplay one by one. 

3. Ask the following questions after all groups have presented their roleplay. 

• What did you observe in the roleplay about views shared by different stakeholders (groups of people)? 
• Should everyone’s view be taken into consideration while making decision? 
• Why is it important that different groups of people (Stakeholders) for an issue/decision that impact them get chance to share their views? What impact does it have on democracy? 
• What are some of examples that you remember where such participation is observed in our country? 

NOTE - If time permits, teacher can give Office Bearer opportunity to conclude the activity as mentioned below. Incase if time is short, invite the office bearer to ask the students – What did they learn from the activity?  

Office Bearer will conclude the session by asking everyone to discuss in pairs the viewpoints each stakeholder has about relocation of school for renovation period. How is it affecting each group and basis that decide the stand on the issue.  The stand can be For/neutral or Against (raise questions to School management committee/authorities, seek alterations, etc) 

Office Bearer will need to create on Board tally of vote. (Teacher to guide/support throughout the process) 

 Teacher will summarize key learnings:  

• In roleplay, we had different groups sharing different opinions based on how they saw the situation, and how their concerns are considered when discussing a crucial issue like school renovation and relocation.  
• People engagement, i.e. opportunity to present their view is important, and the participation i.e. play a part in shaping decisions that impact their lives and communities is important to make democracy successful. 

For this activity, the following can be updated by office bearers on the wall. 

• Key learning takeaways of the activity. (encourage different students to write on notebook page their learnings) 
• Script of the roleplay 

• Avoid lot of preparation for role play like 5-6 practice sessions. Office bearer can give script beforehand and limit practice to 1-2 times. 
• Script can be localized into local language for ease of execution for students but keep the essence of message similar. 

For activity photos to be shared to engagement officers, please share clear pictures of  

• Students doing the Roleplay (2 photos) 
• Office Bearer Conclude the activity (2 photos) 
• Desh Apnayen Wall (2 photos) 

Teacher Feedback Form (IVR response – Sample for Goa-Govt)

To collect the feedback of the activity, IVR call will be made to you, or you can make the call. The following script will be played for you. This is given here for your reference purpose, so you can choose the alternative as appropriate.

1) Which Grade activity feedback you want to give in this call? 

Press 1 – for Grade 6 

Press 2 – for Grade 7 

Press 3 – for Grade 8 

Press 4 – for Grade 9 

For incoming calls Q.2 will not be asked as teacher need to only call after activity completion 

For outgoing call, please ask Q.2  

2) Have you completed the activity of this month? 

Press 1 – If Yes 

Press 2 – if No 

3) How was the overall activity experience in the class? 

Press 1 – for Good 

Press 2 – for Average 

Press 3 – for Needs Improvement 

4) Have you submitted this activity’s pictures/videos to the respective engagement officer? 

Press 1 - for Yes  

Press 2 – for No 

5) Do you want to give feedback for any other grade? 

Press 1 - Yes, repeat the process from Question 1-5 

Press 2 – No, thank you for your time, your submission is recorded successfully. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdhb-1BbBABwkiQi8IPhYHXQpIqG1q60BThEpL4nGEPA3HA3A/viewform?usp=sf_link

​​Annexure 1 – Role play Scripts​

There is no need to practice together, every group comes and play their part. It is 1-2 dialogues per role.

Narrator (Office Bearer 1):  – In this roleplay scenario – school management committee, School HMs, Teachers, Panchayat representative, Parents, school staff are expressing their concerns regarding the Lajpat Nagar government school’s renovation plan. The renovation will take 7 months. Considering possible delays and school readiness checks, 9 months of time for renovation is taken so for entire one academic year school functioning will be impacted for Grade 6-8.

School Management shared a circular to all parents, teachers, staff before taking this decision to get their reactions.

Group 1 – Teachers' group - Two characters 

Narrator – (Office Bearer 1): Teachers are discussing their views in staff room. 

Teacher 1: While this move to Madhukar school will increase my travel time, it is good they are willing to help and provide us their school space in afternoon shift. Safety of students is crucial. 

Teacher 2: While safety is most important, but how will children travel further 2 kms from here. This will lead to increase in absent rates for students.

Teacher 1: This can lead to an increase in dropouts from our school. How will we ensure good results if drop out rate and absenteeism increase with this new shift.

Teacher 2: We will have to find some way to make sure everyone attends the school. Let’s talk to the School Management Committee. 

(Note – If the teacher wants to give opportunity to more students, it can be four teachers with one dialogue each)

Group 2- Family and Parents - 3 characters

Narrator – (Office Bearer 2): Some of the family members are discussing their view outside the school gate. 

Grandmother of a student: Daily Walk to school will be difficult with new location. I hope the school is thinking of arranging transport. As we will not be able to pay for bus service or public transport.

Father of one student: Also, more time will be spent travelling to school and school timings will also change. My wife and I, both are working, how will we manage this new timing is also concern. This will be very inconvenient. 

Mother of another student: It will be inconvenient, but school is thinking about our children’s safety, so we support them. Let’s talk to the School Management Committee. Hope they will find some convenient way for all of us.

Group 3 – Support staff - 3 characters

Narrator – (Office Bearer 1): School administrative staff is discussing renovation in their room.

Peon – I hear every other person talking about the upcoming renovations. My concern is whether this will be over in this given time.  Also, how will my work be divided with the other peons there. I might need to work in both schools and extra time will go.

Administrative Staff – Whatever is decided by school, it’s all for children’s future, but what about us. How will we manage afternoon shift there and also travel costs? Money for this will need to be allocated, will it be partly from parents, or school will bear it, etc. All these decisions will need to be discussed.

Midday meal preparation Staff – What about us? We will also need to take meals to other school, will we need to supply them in both places? How will we carry all the things required from here to there? Let’s talk to the School Management Committee. 

Narrator (Office Bearer 2) - All members raised their concerns to the school management and school management decided to call everyone for one meeting to satisfy their queries. Panchayat members were also called to answer some legal questions, if any

Group 4: 5 characters 

Lajpat Nagar School HM – As informed to all of you, our school requires major repair as the building's foundation is in poor condition. Earlier we didn’t have money for it, but now money is allocated to fix Grade 6-8 building. We are here to discuss the renovation process as per the approval by local authorities (Panchayat). We understand the concerns raised by each one of you and discuss the same today. Let us hear all one by one to find out solutions.

Panchayat representative – We have got permission for allocating building funds for renovation work to Lajpat Nagar school and approved the same to be allocated to school in next 15 days. You need to decide, for one academic year, where the school staff and students for Grade 6-8 students will shift ?We suggested option of Madhukar school as it is not more than 3 Kms from your school.

Madhukar School HM – We have received the circular about this development from the Panchayat office and school committee, and we are willing to support it. Due to space limitations, we can’t accommodate your students in morning time when our school runs, but we can offer you school premises in afternoon shift. According to Section 22 of the RTE (Right to Education), the School Management Committee must prepare a School Development Plan (SDP), and as per this renovation is of importance given the safety concerns. 

SMC Parent representative - Since Madhukar School is extending support, we parents will support the renovation work by shifting our children to that school, but we would request school to provide bus facility for these days and teachers should accompany them during travel for their safety. We will pick and drop them till Lajpat Nagar school.

School admin staff – Yes, we agree, and we will accompany children in the school time pick and drop. We should also request more fund to Panchayat for school bus facility.

Lajpat Nagar School HM – Great to have all your support. We decided that Mid-day meal will be provided in Madhukar school for these children, so no need to send the meal from here. Let us go ahead with the plan for safety of our children and ensure their education.