How students can be empowered through new environments

Becoming self-reliant and independent are among the most integral parts of child development. When in the home or classroom environment, students sometimes miss out on experiencing the world beyond just four walls. For them, the scope to set foot outside and gain those important skills sometimes becomes limited, however children do need to get out of their comfort zone and learn to be self-reliant; and school excursions can play a pivotal role in this regard.

Children living in a big city like Dhaka rarely get the chance to enjoy all that nature brings; as activities like climbing trees, swimming in rivers, or playing in the mud are seldom seen or even available. Although these are very basic experiences, they take place among the children’s biggest takeaways from excursions.

Hence, especially in Bangladesh, these children need to learn from the real world and connect with their peers. Going forward, such experiences go a long way in shaping a child’s overall personality as a well-rounded individual.

Keeping these in mind, we at International School Dhaka (ISD) recently organised excursions to provide these very opportunities to our students, while also ensuring safety through the right supervision.

When our students reflected on their experiences after the trip, they emphasized how much they enjoyed spending time with their friends on their own, away from regularity. Being without their parents for this short while came as a chance to explore and learn more about themselves. These experiences start from Grade 3 in primary school and help in supporting students’ growth because when they then reach secondary school, they are expected to travel to different international locations with their peers in the school’s ‘Week Without Walls’ programme.

This year, we chose Gazipur and Sylhet as the excursion sites for Grades 4 and 5 respectively.

We wanted to take our younger students in Grade 4 to a place that is relatively nearer to Dhaka which has a lot of outdoor activities available. With our Grade 5’s we choose a destination a little further away to prepare them for a flight experience, familiarising themselves with all the flight-related nitty-gritty’s, such as handling passports, filling in paperwork, carrying their own luggage, and more. As opposed to orchestrated excursions where learning opportunities remain limited, these longer excursions have a lot to add to the children’s experiences.

During the trips, all students experienced hands-on learning and made deeper connections with peers. One of the most notable instances from the trip was when students of Grade 5 contributed stationery and clothing to a local school from Sylhet with the funds they raised in different ways, including selling popsicles during a sports day.

We believe that excursions and day trips should be meaningful with a purpose, and make way for valuable experiences. For example, further down the school, our Grade 3 students went to the ‘Friends of Basha’ organisation to see all of the good work they do. Inspired by this movement, our students organised their own craft fair where they sold their handicrafts to raise funds later donated to the Foundation. This exposure to another aspect of the community added great value to the experience of our learners.

Meaningful excursions are a fantastic way to create scopes for enlightenment and expose children to learning opportunities they might not otherwise experience. These are like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that must be effectively put together to create responsible, caring, and open-minded individuals.

The writer is Primary Principal, International School Dhaka.