Talk to students at IB programs across the world and they will tell you about CAS. Creativity, Action and Service. The 150 hour commitment that every Diploma student has to complete in order to graduate. Not content with challenging students in more traditional academic disciplines, the IB has immense focus on a wholesome approach to education. It is not sufficient to solve equations and analyze market behaviour if you cannot, simultaneously, appreciate the instinct of creativity, the rigor of physical exercise and the intricacies of community service.
This year, we are embarking on a new phase in MGIS’s CAS journey. While students have participated autonomously in a variety of activities in the past, this year, we are putting modules in place that will engage the school as an entity. Our diploma students recently compiled a “needs assessment” for Mithakali Gam, the area that surrounds our school. Understanding the comparative privilege that they have, MGIS CAS members are organizing a series of community interactions based on which we will be launching an in house education program in July, for English and computer skills. Our students will learn how to teach their peers from Mithakali, disciplines that they currently do not have access to.
Our service program operates on two guiding principles. One, service is not something to be thrust on people – you have to understand what the needs are and how your skills could be used to address those needs. And second, service is not about being a martyr- it is simply an undertaking that has to be assumed by the more privileged to address the gross inequalities that exist in our nation today.
By having such a consistent program in the school, we want our students to also grasp that long term thinking needs to be part of any service project. That their work now, fortifying the links of the school with the community around it, should be done in a manner that will allow these activities to carry on even after the current group graduates. To establish in a sense, a legacy- a legacy that ensures a sustained effort to be the change that we want to see in the world around us.
Article by Nandita Dinesh, CAS Coordinator