Vismaya Kalike and School

Vismaya Kalike (ViKa) learning centres are community spaces where children come together to explore, play, create, question, and build relationships. Children do not come here to complete homework or prepare for exams. They come to spend time in an environment where they are taken seriously as learners and as people. Activities range from games and storytelling to art, science exploration, reading, building projects, and collective discussions. Over time, the centre becomes a familiar and welcoming space in the community where children feel safe to express themselves, experiment, and learn with others.

ViKa centres emerged from a simple but important question: What kind of spaces do children need to grow as thinking, feeling, capable human beings? While schools play a critical role in providing formal education, children also need environments where learning is not rushed, evaluated, or driven only by performance.

Many education thinkers have pointed out that schooling systems, over time, have become increasingly focused on instruction, measurement, and performance. Paulo Freire described how education can sometimes reduce learners to passive receivers of information, a process he called the banking model of education, where knowledge is deposited into students rather than constructed with them (Freire, 1970). Critiques of schooling across the world have also pointed out that when learning spaces become overly structured around discipline, control, and standardized performance, children often learn to comply rather than to question or think independently. Works such as Danger School vividly capture how schooling environments can unintentionally suppress curiosity and participation when obedience and routine take priority over dialogue and exploration. In such situations, learning risks becoming something children submit to rather than something they actively shape (Claudius, 1970/1984). When success becomes narrowly defined by marks or competition, learning can lose its connection to joy and meaning.

ViKa learning centres were created in response to this gap. They are not tuition centres and not alternative schools. They are community learning spaces where children gather to explore, play, question, build friendships, and discover their own capabilities. Learning here grows through participation, relationships, and curiosity rather than syllabus completion.

Purpose: Coverage versus Development

Schools are largely designed to deliver curriculum within fixed timelines, preparing children for examinations and standardized benchmarks. This structure serves an important function in providing academic access and certification. However, such systems often struggle to accommodate individual pace, curiosity, and diverse ways of learning.

ViKa centres exist to support children’s overall development rather than curriculum coverage. The focus is on nurturing curiosity, confidence, relationships, and the ability to think and act independently. Education researchers increasingly argue that education must support learners as active subjects capable of participating meaningfully in the world, not merely as performers within measurement systems (Biesta, 2015).

ViKa attempts to create such environments where development matters as much as achievement.

Structure: Instruction versus Participation

School learning is often structured around instruction. Teachers carry the responsibility of covering prescribed content, and classroom decisions are usually made by adults. Time is tightly scheduled, and learning progresses through lessons designed for large groups.

At ViKa, learning emerges through participation. Children choose activities, initiate games, negotiate group decisions, and shape how time unfolds. Facilitators guide and support exploration rather than directing every step. Research shows that agency develops when learners actively participate in shaping their experiences rather than merely following instructions (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Rogoff, 2003).

Children learn not only content but also how to collaborate, decide, reflect, and take responsibility.

Motivation: Compliance versus Intrinsic Engagement

In many school contexts, motivation is driven by marks, rewards, or fear of failure. Learning becomes something children do to satisfy expectations or avoid punishment.

ViKa centres aim to nurture intrinsic motivation—learning driven by curiosity and interest. Self-Determination Theory shows that when autonomy, competence, and relatedness are supported, learners engage more deeply and develop sustained motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2020). When children feel emotionally safe and capable, learning becomes joyful rather than compulsory.

Agency: Passive Learning versus Active Participation

A major difference lies in how children are positioned within learning. In many classrooms, children are expected to listen and produce correct answers. Opportunities to question or influence learning are limited.

ViKa centres consciously nurture agency—the sense that one can act meaningfully in the world. Agency grows when children experience that their ideas matter and their actions influence outcomes (Kucirkova, 2024). Children initiate activities, negotiate, make decisions, and reflect on consequences.

As Biesta (2015) argues, agency is not something educators give; it emerges when environments invite learners to participate responsibly in shared life. ViKa centres intentionally design such environments.

Relationships: Authority versus Care and Community

School relationships often operate within formal authority structures. While many teachers create caring classrooms, systemic pressures sometimes limit relational depth.

ViKa centres operate as community spaces where relationships are central. Facilitators often belong to the same communities as children, creating familiarity and trust. Learning happens within relationships of care, conversation, and mutual respect. Nel Noddings emphasizes that care is foundational to education—learning thrives where children feel seen and valued (Noddings, 2005).

Evaluation: Marks versus Growth

School success is commonly measured through grades and exams, which capture only a narrow part of learning.

At ViKa, growth is observed through participation, confidence, collaboration, curiosity, and responsibility. Progress appears when children ask questions, take initiative, persist through challenges, support peers, and express ideas freely. These qualities are harder to quantify but essential for lifelong learning.

What Children Experience Differently?

• For a child moving from school to a ViKa centre, the shift often feels like:
• from instruction to exploration
• from silence to conversation
• from competition to collaboration
• from performance pressure to playful curiosity
• from passive listening to active participation
• Children begin to experience learning as something they do, not something done to them.

Why ViKa Matters

In a rapidly changing world, children need more than academic knowledge. They need curiosity, empathy, confidence, adaptability, and the ability to participate responsibly in their communities.

ViKa centres nurture these qualities through joyful, community-rooted, participatory learning environments. They create spaces where children experience belonging, freedom to explore, and opportunities to act with confidence.

The question, therefore, is not whether children need schools or spaces like ViKa. Rather, it is how children can experience education not only as instruction, but as growth, participation, and possibility.

References :

Institute for Cultural Action (IDAC) & Claudius. (1970/1984). Danger: School! (Illustrated edition). Other India Press.

Biesta, G. (2015). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy. Routledge.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.

Kucirkova, N. (2024). What does child empowerment mean today? OECD.

Noddings, N. (2005). The challenge to care in schools: An alternative approach to education. Teachers College Press.

Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford University Press.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860.