Wellington Hindi School, the oldest community based Hindi language and culture school in New Zealand, recently marked its 20th anniversary.
As a part of our anniversary celebrations, we launched three initiatives, the first of which was to present a concert on December 1, 2012.
Our other two initiatives include joining hands with various organisations to celebrate Holi,’’ the Indian Festival of Colours in March and publish ‘Darpan,’ our magazine.
From our humble beginnings, we have grown to offer services that extend from Preschool and adult Hindi education.
Our students come from backgrounds, from families in which Hindi language and culture are a part of daily life, to those in which Hindi is unknown.
We have taught Hindi to beginners, evincing the interest of the wider New Zealand cultural and community groups.
Modest beginnings
It all began with informal classes conducted by a group of Indo-Fijian families led by Jagdish Prasad. Their goal was to preserve and promote their mother language and culture in a predominantly English-speaking environment.
The School has witnessed a change in the level of interest and expectations of students and parents.
The operating model necessitated a change to accommodate the changing needs, leading to a formal and professional structure.
In 2003, we developed a teaching programme for years 1 to 6, based on the input from the wider community and the New Zealand National Curriculum.
A few years later, we developed this further, creating our own teaching and learning resources to those sourced from Fiji and India.
Additional Centres
During this time, we started two other centres (Lower Hutt in 2005 and Newlands in 2006) to support families in the wider Wellington area.
In 2011, we developed a textbook that is set to become our standard text.
The Indian Government and the Indian High Commission in Wellington continue to support us by providing resources. From time to time, we invite experts from the community to work with our students, or contribute to our quarterly newsletter ‘Hindi Vaani.’
Our Schools aim to encourage the use of Hindi in our daily lives, while the message from our School Coordinator raises awareness and appreciation of our history, literature and culture.
Optional subject
We also aim to provide opportunities to learn the language and culture through fine arts, dance and drama, which in turn will encourage and motivate our students to become future educators.
We encourage parents to enroll their children into classes as early as possible.
Among my ambitions is to make available Hindi as an optional language within the NCEA Curriculum in New Zealand.
Sunita Narayan is the Coordinator of the Wellington Hindi School based in Wellington.
