Mimaansa

Vision: All Government Schools are meaningful and inclusive spaces for the learning and personal development of students with Learning Difficulties (LD) 

Mission: To strengthen Government Schools by providing exemplary remedial education and arts-based counselling services. Advocate systemic change to create an integrated environment for children with Learning Difficulties. 

Strategy: The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown has led to several mental health, stress, and anxiety-related issues amongst low-income communities. The geographical location of our 12 schools leads to Mimaansa being very active in these communities. Through our reach in the student, teacher, and parent community, Mimaansa is in a favorable position to support their mental health needs. For the first quarter, strategicall8y speaking, Mimaansa will work towards the improvement of mental health and alleviate stress and anxiety in our community. Every student will receive approximately 4-5 hours of counselling in the first quarter. 

Mimaansa will also carry out a counselling program to promote mental well-being amongst the kids on the school campus. Diagnostic tests like draw a man, house tree person test, and the like, are administered. 

To make counselling more impactful and interesting for the students Art Based Therapy will be used. Arts-based therapy involves the use of multiple art forms (music, drama, visual arts) in different permutations and combinations. It is suitable for students who have special needs. The program will facilitate their mental and emotional growth and well-being. Mimaansa also conducts school-wide workshops on issues such as personal hygiene, bullying, cleanliness, environment, and anger management.

Location and area of work

Mimaansa works in Thane Municipal Corporation Schools. Wipro supports Mimaansa across its 6 Schools to execute the 3 verticals of the Mimaansa Model. All the 6 schools are situated at Wagle Estate, Thane West. The central idea of the project is to address the issue of Learning Difficulties along with Mental Health Outreach. Our teacher-training program sits at the heart of our initiatives. Mimaansa is committed to the capacity building of the municipal corporation schoolteachers. Mimaansa executes the project on the mainstream municipal corporation school campuses parallelly with the school. Team Mimaansa works with all students from grades 2 to 8 under the mental health program while students identified with alternative learning needs are enrolled in the remedial education outreach program. 

Project updates

During the last academic year 2022-23, Mimaansa was focused on addressing the issue of ‘Learning Gaps’ due to COVID-19 along with mental health needs. Mimaansa floated the ‘Psychological First Aid’ program as an antidote to the augmenting dip in the mental well-being of all the primary stakeholders, not excluding students, teachers, and parents. 

Plan of action

In 2023-24, Mimaansa will focus on incorporating FLN into the remedial outreach program. The Psychological First Aid program will be incorporated into the main counselling program for the initial 3 months of the program. The Municipal School Teachers program will be rolled out as per the SOP of the program. We will also invest in building a second-line leadership during this period.