India’s leading public policy think tank, Centre for Civil Society (CCS) is all set to announce the winners of the second edition of EduDoc – International Short Film competition and Edudoc students’ painting competition at the School Choice National Conference 2016 (SCNC2016) to be hosted at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on December 3. Both competitions track the interesting innovations, and challenges of the education sector and bring out the children’s creativity highlighting ‘My Dream School’ of their choice. The winners will be felicitated by Dr Udit Raj, member of parliament, Lok Sabha and; Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister and education minister, New Delhi and Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, member of parliament, Lok Sabha will grace the occasion.

EduDoc International Short Film competition is an innovative idea to bring out the relenting grassroots’ stories of education to the fore. The jury had a tough task to sift through more than 2000 national and international films to shortlist 5 films which will be screened at the upcoming SCNC2016; out of which 3 will be awarded cash prizes. The first best film winner will receive INR 25,000, and the second best and third best film winners will receive INR 15,000 and INR 10,000 respectively. The competition witnessed a plethora of entries from Asian, European, African and American countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Russia, Canada, Finland, Argentina, among others. Some of the 5 minute films trace the innovative methodologies undertaken by organisations, individuals, groups and communities to ensure equitable access to education, rote learning vs. pros of practical learning, harnessing technology optimally and ensuring holistic development of a child.

The painting competition received around 200 entries from the students of classes 6-9 from government and budget private schools. All the paintings depicted one major idea on the theme – ‘My Dream School’ i.e. the kids looked through the prism of fun learning rather than the current disciplinary learning culture. The children painted their dream schools in space, on tree tops, fruits and plants where play based learning via music, sports, and science took precedence over rote based knowledge. The winners will be awarded with trophies, certificates and cash prizes. The first best painting winner will receive INR 5,000 and the second and third best painting winner will receive prizes worth INR 3,000 and INR 2,000 respectively. The paintings will be exhibited on December 3 at SCNC2016.

Complimenting the initiative, Nitesh Anand, convenor, EduDoc said, “Some of the films accentuate the on ground realities and struggles in the education space. For instance, a set of schools in Assam  drew our attention to the glaring fact that post the inception of RTE, more schools are shutting down owing to the faulty land norms as opposed to ensuring education to all children. Some films also celebrate and inspire like the one from Benares where the students study in the schools in the day time and teach the underprivileged children and women of their respective area in the evenings which has made a huge difference to the lifestyle of those particular women. Our painting competition draws synergies from this initiative and witnessed enthusiastic response from school children. The kids’ creativity is flowing on paper with the prominence on play based learning.”

New Delhi based Centre for Civil Society is India’s leading liberal think tank which strives to advance social change through public policy.