After the summer break from July 1, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will introduce ‘no bags and no books’ system for Class 1 students in around 100 government-run primary schools across the state.
After their classes, students will go home without their bulky bags containing books and notebooks. They will instead push their bags and books in the pigeonholes allotted to them in the school.
The education department has selected at least five schools in each of 21 districts for this experiment, which is a part of the state government’s ambitious programme of turning government schools into centers of ‘joyful learning.’
“Later, we will start this ‘no bags’ system in more schools based on the success and feedback from the 100 schools we have selected for this experiment,” PK Das, additional chief secretary (school education), told Hindustan Times.
Once in a fortnight, the students will carry their bags home to show their parents the work done in the class.
“We are introducing some changes in the functioning of the government schools. We want learning to be a joyful experience for the students in every class,” education minister Ram Bilas Sharma said, while pointing out that new initiatives were being taken to develop students as well-rounded personalities.
QUIZ CLUBS IN SCHOOLS
In yet another first, quiz clubs will be set up from Class-1 to Class 12 in all 14,700 government schools in the state and quiz will be a part of the curriculum from this academic session. The question bank will be based on class books.
The education department, in collaboration with the well-known quiz master Siddhartha Basu, will design the quiz questions.
To begin with, 5,000 questions will be uploaded on the education department website. For every class, the questions will be different. The target is to give quiz master training to at least one teacher in every school.
As per the instructions issued by the government on April 17, it will be compulsory for every government school student to become a member of the quiz club.
Every Saturday, which is observed as ‘joyful activity day’ in the schools, will focus on quiz competitions, besides other extra- curricular activities.
“Every Saturday is devoted to develop the personality of the students by engaging them in free-wheeling discussions and allowing them to do something creative. There are over 40 different activities for the students, based on their interest,” said Das, who is the spirit behind these initiatives.
He added, “The ‘joyful Saturday’ programme, which was launched on November 14, 2016, has begun picking up the pace. Hence, the government has decided to launch more activities under this move. The focus is to develop a multi-dimensional personality of the students.”
