The academic year 2018-19 comes to its end in this March, so we conducted the last of Let's Start Art workshops for the session in the month of February. The students of class 3rd, 4th, and 5th belong to the age group of children who spend a lot of their time playing indoor and outdoor. So, in this session, we asked the students to draw their experiences about playing with dogs and received amazing stories.

The 15th Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas Convention was held on 21-23 January 2019 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Before the convention, all the primary schools of Varanasi were assigned with different countries and the students were supposed to learn about the country and present a rally during the commencement of the event. We conducted the Let's Start Art sessions around the same theme.

Let's Start Art sessions this month were conducted under the theme of The Winter Season and Family Pictures. The first set of workshops started in the first week of the month and we asked the students to draw their family photo. 

A number of 162 students from 10 schools attended these workshops.

What do you know about an agricultural farm?

The first set of Let's Start Art sessions for the month of August started with this question. Around 130 students from 5 Govt. Primary Schools in Varanasi attended the workshops. 

All the students had their own element of fascination from the farms. Some of the students were fascinated by the scarecrows, while others couldn't get over the tube wells, sowing, and techniques of planting rice. It was surprising that the students, who have never been introduced to the methods of crop production and management, have observed such details on their own. 

Mayank is a student of class- 3rd at Govt. Primary School, Orderly Bazaar. He's a silent student in class but his work reflects his observation. Not just the stories, but also the diagrams from the science book, he confidently draws all these in his drawing book and this has definitely made learning easier for him.

Nandini is a student of 5th standard at Govt. Primary School, Nagwa in Varanasi. 95% of students like Nandini are enrolled in Govt. Primary Schools. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014 published by Pratham NGO, the overall picture of basic reading is sick. In 2014, only a quarter in standard III, only a half in standard V and around 75% in standard VIII, of all children respectively can read a standard II text accurately.

Shiva is a student of 4th standard at Bhadaini Primary School in Varanasi. 95% of students like Shiva are enrolled in Govt. Primary Schools.

Shuruart strongly believes that introducing art into the curriculum of these children can greatly affect their learning.