Children enrolled with Dream A Dream. Photo: Special arrangement
As the pandemic forced schools to close, a bunch of organisations came to the fore to focus on social-emotional learning
Swati is a Class VIII student at a government school in Bengaluru. She was looking forward eagerly to the new school year with friends when the pandemic struck. Schools and colleges were the first to close, not just bringing to a halt curriculum learning, but also robbing children of the feeling of being connected, of collaborative learning, teamwork, and peer interaction.
But today, Swati is able to navigate this situation that nobody prepared her for, thanks to the vital skills she has been learning through an unlikely medium: football. She learns about relationships, self-awareness, teamwork, listening to instructions, goal setting and gender norms. Her two-hour session begins with an icebreaker. Swati then plays the game incorporating street football rules, such as small-sided games, mult