By Ritesh Rawal, Founder, Dudes & Dolls – The Cosmic School, Adhyay School, and Ritesh Rawal Foundation
In India, pre-schooling has been recently organized as a sector or segment by the government of India, the new education policy launched by the Government of India in the year 2020 reflects the need for attention to the pre-schooling as a separate and specialized requirement for the development of the children rather than just looking at it as fulfillment or linking the child’s pre-schooling to a senior secondary school so that children can easily get admission in the higher classes and parents can be tension free for the rest of the years. In my opinion recognizing pre-schooling, as a segment is a very forward-thinking move and it will help in shaping up the future of education in a big way.
But there were some early movers in the pre-schooling segment who anticipated the need for pre-schooling as a separate and a specific need for the child development rather than mixing it with higher education.
One such individual is Ritesh Rawal who dreamt about making pre-schooling a different experience for the children and conceptualized Dudes and Dolls, The Cosmic School, in the year 2021 to dedicatedly work for children and parents related to the pre-schooling age group. Since its inception and launch in the year 2012, Dudes and Dolls, The Cosmic School, has been able to create a different niche for itself when it comes to pre-schooling in India. Located in Delhi NCR (Faridabad) following are the 5 ways in which Dudes and Dolls, The Cosmic School has been successful in changing the concept of pre-schooling in India.
1) The Castle of Dreams: Ritesh Rawal defines Dudes and Dolls, the Cosmic school as “The castle of my dreams”, according to him, children should be motivated and inspired to dream and they require a very different experience in the early years to experience life and its all aspect so while designing the school I never thought that I will be designing a typical school, I designed it the way I dreamt about it and it is “The Castle of my Dreams”
2) Its mantra, Its culture “ I am Different”: “I am Different” is the sole mantra of Dudes and Dolls and one can witness it in each and every element of the school, be it, its infrastructure, its teachers, the way activities and functions are celebrated in the school. I am different constantly inspires children and its team to do something differently, I am different reflects the culture of Dudes and Dolls, The Cosmic School.
3) Curriculum and learning method: The curriculum and learning methods have been designed so that children can focus on learning essential elements that contribute to their overall development and experience a lot of things in real-time which will contribute to their overall development, the learning outcomes are measured individually keeping in mind the uniqueness of each child, the parents-teacher meets are designed around a data-based discussion about the progress of the child, so that parents can also understand the complex development concepts in a simple way and contribute.
4) Experiential Activity area for Children: The school has a dedicated activity area which has been designed meticulously so that children at an early age can experience a lot of things and get a first-hand experience, for example, there is a model Aircraft in the activity area, which can actually accommodate close to 15 children and has a dedicated cabin crew area, business, and economy class sections and cabin space for the pilots. This experience allows children to get the inside out and detailed experience about an Aircraft at a very early stage, isn’t it amazing? Similarly, there is a dedicated 6 Sigma lab which has been created by Ritesh Rawal who himself is a certified professional in 6 sigma methods, this lab has been designed in a way so that children can get some basic orientation about quality in the early stages, there is a dedicated cooking studio for children to try hands in cooking and a dedicated news channel. And there are many more things to offer and all such things are directly linked to the curriculum so that children can do it under the guidance of educators.
5) Safety of Children as a center: In early childhood children should not be confined to compact spaces otherwise it will have an impact on their ability to express themselves, Children need big spaces to play, to learn to have fun but these spaces should be children friendly and safety should be given the first priority to the children. While designing Dudes and Dolls, the children and their safety has been kept as a center point, the school ensures that there are huge spaces but at the same time it is safely accessible for example, the activity area of the school is so big that it has a model aircraft, six sigma lab, a cooking studio, theatre area, it has been designed with the material which is safe for children, there are no sharp corners so that children can enjoy safely another example is the size of each step in the staircase has been designed as per the foot size of the children and the steps have an anti-skid rough coating, this ensures that children will never slip and will be able to access the areas comfortably, likewise there are many such things which have been designed meticulously keeping Children as a center.
