CIOL AWARDS
• Delivering online webinars for both
teachers and students
• Organising annual training for teachers
since 1999
• Opening 18 centres for Gujarati learning to
more than 1,500 children across the UK
• Developing an eight-book comprehensive
Gujarati syllabus
• Attending and contributing to the
Language Show with an information stall,
performances and a taster class
• Recruiting young volunteers to support the
holistic service package, from leadership
and administration to teaching, research
and development
• Creating bookmarks, reference cards,
worksheets and posters
These accessible and scalable resources
have helped to improve the knowledge and
performance of teachers around the world,
enabling centres to replicate our methods
and standards in their own schools across
the UK, as well as in the US, Africa, the Asia-
Pacific, the UAE, and even in Gujarat.
Children studying for GCSE and A level with
us have achieved high grades, reflecting the
dedication of our volunteers and the quality
of the teaching and resources.
This work has been recognised by a
number of leading bodies. In addition to
winning CIOL's Threlford Memorial Cup this
year, BAPS has received the National
Resource Centre for Supplementary
Education Gold Award twice, a British
Academy Schools Language Award (the only
supplementary school to have received it
twice) and the Queen's Award for Enterprise.
The continually evolving programme has
raised the profile of the Gujarati language,
changing negative perceptions among
children, teenagers and adults, and creating
an enthusiastic appetite for learning Gujarati.
Professor Itesh Sachdev, former Director at
SOAS, University of London, met BAPS
volunteers and organisers in 2008. "We have
full-time staff, yet even we have not been
able to create what you have done very
professionally and that too by volunteers!" he
said at the time.
The natural focus at this juncture revolves
around leveraging this success. Proficiency in
the Gujarati language through our resources
and learning platforms also offers commercial
benefits, enabling people to do business with
entrepreneurs in Gujarat, which accounts for
about 21% of the Indian economy.
Our journey to research, develop and excel
continues. As humanity evolves, so must the
academic strategies and materials that are
used to teach children. The dynamic digital
world creates new platforms which captivate
the end user. There is, therefore, a need for a
strategy to harness technology and further
enthuse learners of Gujarati. The pandemic
has reaffirmed our appetite for digital media,
particularly among children. It has the power
to nurture and engage.
The root of tradition is culture. The root
of culture is language. And the root of
language is knowledge (education). BAPS in
the UK endeavours to inspire the cultivation
of moral, cultural and spiritual values in our
children – made possible through an
appreciation of one's mother language. A
child who appreciates their mother language
not only learns to appreciate their past and
present, but also to embrace and positively
shape the future.
www.baps.org | londonmandir.baps.org
FUN AND GAMES
Children learn with the Gujarati Spinner
game (left); and the Shri Swaminarayan
Mandir in north London (main image)
