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We have been running the Yellow Rooms - Community based programme (https://dollardonationclub.com/campaigns/yellow-rooms) for over a decade, working closely with children from highly marginalised communities. Through this journey, we observed a critical gap, children attending government schools often had very low learning levels and little motivation to attend school. While Yellow Rooms became spaces of active learning, confidence, and growth, the school environment continued to reinforce fear-based learning, rote methods, and visible gender stereotypes.
In government schools, corporal punishment, passive classrooms, and limited engagement are common. In contrast, Yellow Rooms offered a safe, nurturing, and gender-neutral environment with interactive and digitally enabled learning. This created a daily contrast for children, where learning and unlearning happened simultaneously.
Recognising this disconnect, we felt the need to take the essence of Yellow Rooms into the school system itself. The idea was to create a bridge, bringing engaging pedagogy, safe spaces, child-centric and digitally aided learning directly into government classrooms.
This led to the creation of Yellow SLATEs (Science Languages Art Theatre Ethics)- a “mini Yellow Rooms” model within schools. Yellow SLATEs aims to transform classroom experiences by making learning interactive, inclusive, and digitally aided, ensuring that children not only attend school but truly engage, learn, and thrive.
Yellow SLATEs is an intervention within government schools, transforming a classroom into a safe, engaging, and child-centric learning space. Yellow SLATEs classroom is designed, drawing inspiration from the “The Little Book of Lykke”, with walls that reflect happiness and learning, including Naitik(Moral Value)Wall using Warli, a traditional Indian Art. These elements create an inclusive, and stimulating environment for children.
Yellow SLATEs includes a library with 600+ books and digital infrastructure such as smart TVs and tablets, enabling interactive and technology-enabled learning even during mid-day breaks, fostering continuous engagement.
Children participate in daily structured sessions focused on foundational literacy and numeracy, using a blend of digital tools, theatre, and value-based curriculum aligned with prescribed government curriculum. Learning is not rote, but experiential, through storytelling, role play, and interactive exercises that build confidence, communication and conceptual understanding.
A key component is Naitik Shiksha, our in-house curriculum that integrates communication, theatre and values. Through theatre and storytelling, children develop confidence and self-awareness, creating a shift from passive learning to active participation. The programme is led by trained educators who work closely with school staff, ensuring integration into the school system. Regular assessments track progress and guide interventions.
Yellow SLATEs began in 2023 with just two government schools. As the programme demonstrated early impact, both our CSR partners and government authorities showed strong interest and encouraged us to expand to additional schools within the same district.
The work has since been widely appreciated and recognised by the government. Notably, one of the Yellow SLATEs-supported schools was selected as a PM SHRI School, receiving national recognition for excellence.
Within just three years, the programme has expanded to 13 government schools, reaching a significantly larger number of children and strengthening learning outcomes at scale.
Building on this momentum, we are now in active discussions with government authorities to explore scaling Yellow SLATEs at the state level, with the aim of transforming classroom experiences for many more children across Uttar Pradesh.
Initially, we had envisioned to integrate the innovation into the school’s attendance system and run sessions across all eight classes in a day. However, through field experience, we realised that in government schools, it was not practical to bring children from different classes to a separate space, especially given short class durations and the distance between classrooms and the Yellow SLATEs room.
Based on this learning, we adapted our approach. Instead of covering all classes in a day, we now conduct sessions for two classes daily, one before lunch and one after lunch. This modification has made the implementation more practical and effective.
Develop a structured curriculum: A well-designed curriculum is essential to ensure consistency and quality of learning. (We can support with this.)
Obtain government permissions:To work within government schools, permission must be taken from local education authorities or district officials. The process may vary by location.
Secure funding support: The model requires a financial partner or sponsor, as it is implemented through external funding rather than government funding.
Identify and set up a classroom space: A dedicated room within the school needs to be identified and prepared.
Design and transform the space: The room is aesthetically designed and painted to create a safe, engaging, and child-friendly learning environment.
Implement the programme: Conduct regular sessions using interactive, experiential methods aligned with the curriculum.
