SCHOOL ASSEMBLIES

The day begins typically in schools with prayers. Many schools use this opportunity, of all students and staff being together, to provide enriching inputs of different kinds to the students. The duration of assemblies varies based on how many activities are planned and it also depends on how close to or how far away the examination of the school is!

At the beginning of the academic year, more interesting activities, over longer durations, may be planned by a school, to welcome the “new” students and to orient them. However, towards the end of the academic year, just before or during the examinations, the assembly may be reduced to just saying the prayers.

Experienced teachers would be able to notice that the format and content of assemblies of a school reflects not only its intent but also other characteristics like priorities of the school, its culture and the types of opportunities the students receive.

In the process of observing assemblies in different schools, we learnt that the reverse is also true, i.e. we could design the assemblies keeping our intent and objectives in mind. The ratio of the durations of different items can influence the nature of a school and bring in the kind of characteristics we wish. With a continuous review of the outcome of assemblies it is possible to calibrate the content of the assembly to work towards our intent.

We have been exploring and experimenting with the contents and duration of assemblies for several years, in different contexts, and encouraged to share that assemblies can metamorphose mediocre schools towards excellence. Of course, as it is always, there are other inter-connected and inter-related processes of the school which can provide greater impetus to this process.