"Bhaiya, I really want to have this music class, but next year I have to leave the school as I will clear my 5th class. Tuesday is my favourite day of the week. Can you come to my school next year? " ~ Sakina, SDMC School, Jangpura, New Delhi
Most Government/ Low Income schools in India face an issue of low student attendance, largely due to lack of interest in education. This leads to low educational outcomes and low student performance.
We believe that Music has immense potential to bring a transformative change. Various studies across the world show the critical role of music education in overall development of a Child.
Yet, most schools do not have access to Music Education. For instance, in Delhi, only ~20% schools have music teachers, of which many are inactive. Further, currently music is taught on a theoretical level in schools, failing to act as a catalyst for growth. Thus, we intend to impact classroom learning and enable life skills through our flagship programme ‘Learning through Music’ in schools.
" Music is the easiest and most engaging medium to talk about anything we want. I love how students are now more confident and melodies at the same time. " ~ Teacher, SDMC, N Block Sewa Nagar
We conduct interactive Music Workshops once/twice a week in Low income schools & disadvantaged communities. We teach how to sing, write and compose a song and design our activities in a way that we cover educational policies and skills. Through music classes the program is enabling Life skills, impacting Classroom learning, Gender equality and Sensitization to Social issues. Our programmes include :
Learning Through Music :
• Identify and collaborate with Schools/ NGOs/ Communities
• Plan & design customized curriculum and conduct pre-assessment
• Identify, Train and Place Music Facilitators in Schools / Centers, typically 2 to 3 facilitators assigned per school
• Conduct Interactive and Experiential Music Workshops over the Academic Year, typically once or twice in a week (40 to 80 sessions per year)
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact assessment
• A showcase or performance on stage by the children
• Curating professional choirs in low income schools
After running this project in several schools and NGOs we have seen students becoming leaders, improving their grade rates and becoming more sensitized to life skills. Our Music workshops help improve children’s happiness quotients, improve their mental health, bring out their confidence and creativity and create a sustainable impact by benefitting them in their foundation years and enable them to reach their true potential. The objective is to use Music as an initial magnet, improving attendance and triggering other elements of change and improve outcomes
We have executed the LTM program in 50 schools to-date in Delhi and 900 rural villages across India. Presently, we have curated 85 unique choirs in Delhi NCR in 35 schools with 3000 students come from low-income background.
Case Study
We Partnered with I Am A Teacher (Tech Mahindra Foundation) in 2017 for a programme to deliver music workshops in Government schools in Delhi
• Enrolment increased from 35 to 200+ in 2 years
• More than 95% Attendance on the day of music
• 11 unique Music performances by the students
• Children were more Confident, Creative, Happy and Sensitized to Social issues
Women Empowerment Programme (WeBhor):
"I didn’t realize that I was learning about Menstrual Hygiene. I really love that pregnancy song that you did." ~ Student, RPVV, INA, New Delhi
‘WeBhor’ is the Women Empowerment programme by Manzil Mystics, aimed at reaching out to adolescent girls and women especially those belonging to the disadvantaged or underprivileged sections of the society.
• The programme covers an Educational policy through music which covers Gender sensitization, Reproductive Health, Menstrual Hygiene, Career Orientation and Equality at Workplace and Home in low-income schools and communities
• They imbibe powerful messages conveyed through the compositions and knowledge sharing sessions
• Participants feel more aware, entitled and empowered at the end of the workshop.
• The programme is typically structured over Short term workshops (3 days) or Long term workshops (Once a week sessions over 4 months or 16 sessions).
• We have impacted 2500 women so far. Last year we reached out to 1500 Girls/women.
"The work is so noble and the medium is very close to everyone’s heart. I congratulate Manzil Mystics for launching such an innovative program successfully." ~ Jyotsna Davar (Teacher), RPVV, INA
Digital Content in Music to empower Communities: Manzil Mystics is creating a digital content library to reach out to larger communities.
• Collaborated with Pratham to create Digital content centered around the ‘Learning Through Music’ Project
• The videos cover the basics of Music and how Music can be used as a tool to bring out the potential of children, create happy spaces and empower communities.
• The objective is to take the programme to more and more children, especially in rural schools and communities, as we believe that happy children are the foundation of successful education and an empowered society.
• We have reached out to 60000 children through this programme, implemented in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Utter Pradesh. We intend to strengthen this programme and build on more such collaborations to take this idea to scale.
Developing Careers in Music: As part of the LTM Programme, we identify, train, place music facilitators from target communities in schools to propagate music education.
• We have developed a comprehensive curriculum covering Music education and professional skills required to deliver the Music workshops
• Our endeavor is to enable music as a sustainable source of livelihood for talented musicians
• Our aim is to create an inherent demand for music teachers in low-income schools, so that Music becomes an important and inherent part of the curriculum
