Prerna’s definition of a high-quality education takes a broader approach. There is a focus on girls’ lives, not just their learning. Using a feminist, rights-based approach and critical feminist pedagogy, Prerna makes the empowerment of its students its primary educational goal. Girls learn to examine gendered power structures, and challenge and transform existing social relations and social structures. While the girls are expected to attend regularly, learn and perform academically, and complete their schooling, Prerna understands that these necessary goals are by no means sufficient to ensure better life outcomes or achieve the larger societal objective of gender equality. A high-quality education for girls must include—and perhaps prioritize—a strong focus on their empowerment. It must enable them to develop self-esteem and see themselves as equal persons, worthy of respect, and possessing human dignity and the right to equal participation in society. Prerna focuses on developing girls’ capacity to aspire, to speak up for themselves with a strong voice, to challenge discriminatory structures, and to be capable agents and drivers of their own lives.
One of Prerna’s special features is the way it weaves together drama, reading, writing, and critical dialogues in its official academic curriculum. This helps the girls create a more empowering idea of themselves in the universe, so they feel more “at home” in an otherwise fairly hostile world. Drama is used to provide an interpersonal, social, and aesthetic context or platform for the girls to focus on themselves and each other. We often begin our critical dialogues around a topic with an improvised drama, devised by the girls using their own experiences. The teacher does this so she can see how her students situate their understanding of complex concepts like patriarchy in their daily lives. Imagination is an important mode of knowing and can be developed in all of us, teachers and learners. Critical literacy, critical dialogues, and drama offer countless possibilities for this. Drama provides a nonthreatening context for self-work where there is no fear of suffering actual consequences; it is a place to rehearse resistance.
The girls at Prerna are all developing what Gerda Lerner, in her book Creation of Patriarchy, defines as a feminist consciousness. They reflect on the condition of their own lives; they learn to recognize that they are being unfairly treated and that this is wrong. They also learn that structural conditions in society have been responsible for their subordination and opposed to their freedom and equality. In listening to their friends’ stories and problems, they help each other develop ways of changing their condition and express alternate visions of their future.
At the heart of teaching and learning in Prerna is dialogue. Each week, teachers conduct critical dialogues with their students, which are facilitated discussions on issues that affect and limit their lives. The approach is highly participatory, with students learning to question established traditions, practices and ‘naturalised’ social norms, learning to think about the issues independently, give voice to their thoughts, express their concerns and feelings, using their own experience and feelings as a valid source of knowledge. The teacher’s role is that of an adult, more experienced facilitator, asking probing questions and enabling the girls’ thinking and questioning. Role-play, improvised and performance drama are used to illustrate the key issues being discussed and to achieve experiential learning. The development and refinement of Prerna’s empowerment class has helped us understand the importance of creating official curricular space for girls to “read” their lives, not only so they can deconstruct and reconstruct them, but also so they are enabled to see themselves as active knowledge producers, not just knowledge consumers.
When asked how this transformation occurs, students often refer to “critical dialogue classes,” drama, writing of diaries and poems, and the fact that they were "listened to.” We channel feminist pedagogy and critical pedagogy into our official curriculum through weekly classes where teachers engage students in critical dialogues, drama, and critical literacy not just to make them aware that they have an inherent, constitutional right to equality, but also to enable them to determine the direction of their lives and to free them from the fetters of oppressive social definitions and expectations.
In addition to this Prerna imparts vocational training as well. 20 girls of Class XI have been trained and hired by Study Hall (a co-ed school for the privileged children)and Dosti (a school for the children with special needs) as interns. Their role is to assist the Computer teachers as well as the teachers in Dosti. Besides this the girls are learning tie and dye, embroidery and craftwork. The finished goods are exhibited and sold during festivals and at the Study Hall School fete. Girls have also learnt "Henna Application" and earn some extra money during the wedding season.
Regular health check-ups are conducted free of cost for Prerna Girls. Every year Dr Chawla at Prakash Netra Kendra facilitates free eye check ups for Prerna girls. He also operated a child who had a squint in the eye recently. On 8th February 2008, Help age India facilitated an "Eye Check-up". On 26th April 2008, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Dental College will be organizing a free dental checkup for all Prerna students.Regular health check-ups are conducted free of cost for Prerna Girls. Every year Dr Chawla at Prakash Netra Kendra facilitates free eye check ups for Prerna girls. He also operated a child who had a squint in the eye recently. On 8th February 2008, Help age India facilitated an "Eye Check-up". On 26th April 2008, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Dental College will be organizing a free dental checkup for all Prerna students.
Prerna has a dedicated staff of 16 teachers who work with girl children to overcome the obstacles that illiteracy, poverty, violence, and discrimination place in a child's path. These girls have access to the same infrastructure and facilities as the Study Hall children and the school believes in going a step further ie. to integrate activities such as theatre workshops, quizzes, creative writing, dramatics, singing, painting, dance, music, sports and yoga in the school curriculum, thus contributing towards the all round development of children. The school also organizes picnics, excursions and film shows. Prerna has a computer education programme and children enjoy their computer periods.
