Infrastructure Diaries - 3
Learning elements
It may seem so, but I am not obsessed with walls. I like to observe them (and floors, blackboards, charts, solar panels, etc.) as they tell stories of their stakeholders, past and current programmes, and the organizations that work with them.
Wall painting
“हमारे दीवारों पर और जगह नहीं है। (There’s no more room on our walls.)”, A head teacher commented when I asked which wall we could use to paint some learning elements. Several organizations were vying for space with messages for nutrition, WASH, FLN, SEL, etc. Primary schools and Anganwadi centres (AWCs) also provide information to the community through wall paintings of schemes and development programmes. The results are sometimes bizarre. I visited an AWC where all learning charts developed by the NGO team and teacher were pasted above, some near the ceiling. Spaces below at the child's eyeline had posters about nutrition, WASH, TB and other themes targeting adolescents and adults.
“बच्चों को रंगीन पसंद है। (Children love colourful things.)” While a colourful wall is better than a sparse environment, too much colour can be overstimulating for children. Earlier national symbols were common; walls now have popular cartoon characters like Chhota Bheem, Pokemon, Mickey Mouse, etc., with a similar logic of “children love cartoons”. How do these contribute to playful learning?
The most distressing aspect, however, is the misalignment with curricular outcomes and how walls send the wrong signals to teachers and parents. Let’s take one FLN target for Balvatika or age 5-6, corresponding to the last year in Anganwadi / pre-school – ‘Recognizes and reads numerals up to 10’. So, why do we paint a 1-100 number chart inside an Anganwadi? Similarly, do we need murals of trees with the entire Hindi वर्णमाला (alphabet), including ङ - the fifth letter after क ख ग घ?
Let’s focus on function and not just the form. Better designs exist that help children understand one-to-one correspondence and develop number sense within 10, or link pictures with their first sounds like क or ब. I saw this (image below) in a government school; though it is an old design and not colourful, I loved how the teacher and children used it.
We also need to be aware of the quality of the paint. Many paints contain toxic lead, and a recent paper suggests a link between lead exposure and reduced learning outcomes.
Playgrounds
“घास लगाना चाहिए - अच्छा भी दिखेगा। (Plant grass. It looks nice too.) ”
“रेत से बहुत परेशानी हो रही है। क्लास गन्दा हो जाता है, हमें साफ़ करना पड़ता है। (Sand is causing problems. The class gets dirty and we have to clean it up!)”
“Who is going to maintain the grass? We need something that is more durable and low maintenance.”
Grass or sand or synthetic rubber? I could never imagine how a decision about a playground surface could lead to such varied opinions or user experiences. EPDM surfaces (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer, synthetic rubber) are durable and shock-absorbing, protecting children from falls. However, these surfaces get very hot without shade. One can touch and feel the difference in surface temperatures of synthetic rubber versus grass, especially when the temperature outdoors is 40 degrees. But sand, grass, recycled rubber mulch - every material has some challenge and opinion attached to it. Apart from cost, the key consideration here is context.
Singeing metal slides were part of my childhood, and I continued playing on them. Some schools in other countries are now also adopting risky play. Children will find play opportunities everywhere; they will fall and bruise. But if we are actively changing their built environment, let us be more intentional with our design decisions.
Furniture
A well-meaning organization donated furniture to a school. A few months later, the furniture was lying unused.
I am not against furniture in classrooms. I understand the arguments in favour, which include dignity, parents’ aspirations, comparison with private schools and the importance of posture.
But before filling classrooms with furniture, we should understand the constraints. Anganwadi guidelines suggest a main classroom area of 25 square metres or 269 square feet (guidelines mention an area of 600 square feet including kitchen, store, toilet, etc.). Furniture for 30 children would take up at least a third of this space. But Anganwadis, especially in urban areas, are not this big, and other items like a cupboard, teacher's chair and table take up more space. So, the result is furniture closely arranged in rows and columns, reinforcing the idea of one-way teaching and restricting space for movement and play. Some states have included kidney-shaped tables for their Saksham or model Anganwadis that are great for collaborative learning, but need 30-40% more space.
So, what more can we do?
Before doing more, first, we should assess our practices and stop doing what is not developmentally appropriate or unsuited to playful pedagogy. And then, we move ahead to -
Align learning infrastructure with the curriculum and expected learning outcomes for the class or age group.
Make it interactive. Some old ideas like low-height wall blackboards, labelling and play corners are relevant and work.
Make it dynamic. Install soft boards on which teachers can change charts depending on the story or concept, use them for word walls, display children’s work, etc.
Design with the context in mind. How much space do we have per child? How does the weather vary in the area? How easy will it be to maintain?
Learn from research and experts. The concept of ‘Building as learning aid (Bala)’ goes much beyond wall painting. This document from 2005 by the pioneering organization Vinyās remains inspirational and idea-provoking.
Readings and references
Fisher AV, Godwin KE, Seltman H. Visual environment, attention allocation, and learning in young children: when too much of a good thing may be bad. Psychol Sci. 2014 Jul;25(7):1362-70. doi: 10.1177/0956797614533801. Epub 2014 May 21. PMID: 24855019. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24855019/
Stern-Ellran K, Zilcha-Mano S, Sebba R, Levit Binnun N. Disruptive Effects of Colorful vs. Non-colorful Play Area on Structured Play-A Pilot Study with Preschoolers. Front Psychol. 2016 Oct 28;7:1661. Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01661. PMID: 27840614; PMCID: PMC5083879. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5083879/
NIPUN Bharat Guidelines for Implementation - 2021, Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India
Lead in Solvent-Based Paints for Home Use in India. Toxic Links and IPEN. 2023
Lee Crawfurd, Rory Todd, Susannah Hares, Justin Sandefur, Rachel Silverman Bonnifield, The Effect of Lead Exposure on Children’s Learning in the Developing World: A Meta-Analysis, The World Bank Research Observer, 2024, lkae010, https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lkae010
Sebastian Pfautsch, Agnieszka Wujeska-Klause, Judi Walters, Outdoor playgrounds and climate change: Importance of surface materials and shade to extend play time and prevent burn injuries, Building and Environment, Volume 22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109500
Eliminate barriers to risk taking in outdoor play, Teaching Young Children, NAEYC, 2023
Great stuff. You should try making a video of this. Would drive greater impact.