Kiddy Kingdom Academy Samiti

This Foundation Project titled Children as Citizens implemented by IFA will engage 35 students from the Kiddy Kingdom Academy Samiti, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, to explore the city they inhabit as a learning environment through its history, heritage, and culture. The project attempts to foster a sense of belonging among the children and equip and encourage them to participate in decision-making for their urban environment. For this project Lakshmi Kaul, Principal of the institution will act as the signatory. Rahul and Ridhi will be the Project Facilitators, who work on puppetry-based pedagogy of learning in six government schools of Lucknow and a rural after-school learning center in Sitapur. Kiddy Kingdom Academy Samiti, a state-recognised institution, was established in the year 1989, with five children. Today they accommodate over 200 students from different social strata. They believe that every child has some unique talent, and recognising and acknowledging it, raises their self-esteem and self-confidence. They also believe that love and personal involvement are the magic ingredients for the true growth of children, and planning, experimentation, problem-solving and decision-making form an integral part of the learning system. Given their experience the school is best placed to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.  

Educating the public on matters related to cultural heritage of the places they inhabit to build belonging and ownership is now a global endeavour. In recent times, efforts have been made to develop cultural heritage programmes for children and young people across regional and national levels. However this is often not appreciated within structured and curriculum-focused school education. This project is an attempt to address that gap. 

Lucknow is a fascinating city with a long and chequered history. Its streets are filled with stories of the people of this Awadh land, splendid buildings and monuments, the chime of temple bells, the call of the muezzin, the magical strains of thumri and the expressive grace of Kathak. It also boasts of exquisite crafts and a very distinct world-famous cuisine. The language, often referred to as Lucknowi Urdu, with very specific accents and inflections is used by many literary figures for writing poetry and novels. This project attempts to bring children close to these various aspects of the city as points of discovery and learning. This participatory process sees the places and people involved in the project both as educators and students. Also, right after the two-year break during the pandemic when children were cloistered in their homes, this project comes literally like a breath of fresh air taking the students across the length and breadth of their city. 

The depth of the project lies in its two important aspects: a) Understanding the cultural life of the city from children’s perspective; and b) Understanding the civic issues of the city. These will be explored across six themes; i) Lucknow through students’ eyes; ii) Mapping Lucknow; iii) Landmarks of Lucknow; iv) Art and culture of Lucknow; v) Monuments of Lucknow and vi) Project work through a series of site visits, workshops and discussions. These activities will not only enable students to connect with the artistic and cultural heritage of the city but also to understand their roles as citizens. They will explore the realities and problems of a city like Lucknow, and the hurdles in protecting its heritage. Each theme will run for two months.

In this project children are seen as active discoverers of knowledge by experiencing heritage and related issues in their own context and interactions with other urban residents. The method is not only the transfer of knowledge by educators, but also a participatory process with the children as well as the community as resources. It is actively shaped by children and their experiences and interactions. Some resource people will include Jeenath who specialises in chikankari art, Abhishek Das who is an illustrator, and Apurva Shah who is a historian.

Through this project it is hoped that the school will develop strong partnerships with relevant institutions and individuals like researchers, artists, libraries, local museums, the municipality, and the Regional Directorate of Culture and Tourism. The interaction of children with those responsible for our culture and heritage, one hopes, will enable the authorities to take note of their aspirations and make them part of some of the decision-making processes. 

The outcome of the project will be a public exhibition, performance, publication and a process document of the entire project. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs, the copies of the publication, the process document and video documentation of the entire project.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Education programme in the manner in which it attempts to connect students and schools to the cultural knowledge of the places they inhabit. 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company.