Exhorting children to ‘throw the box and think’, P. Vijayan, Inspector General, Kochi Range, has said that it is innovative flavour that strikes a chord with the changing world.
Speaking at this year’s district-level launch of The Hindu ’s Newspaper in Education (NIE) programme at Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir, Eroor, on Monday, Mr. Vijayan said the young took to the new media instantly as they were born in the era of knowledge and information explosion.
However, he was quick to sound the note of caution and termed the social media “a double-edged sword”.
‘Be updated’
Children who kept themselves updated with the changing world would be the fittest while others would be out of sync with the times, he said.
“It is a kind of ‘Social Darwinism’, if you are the fittest, then the sky is the limit,” he said.
The new generation has the advantage of having the media as part of their lives while growing up.
“But abuse it and misuse it, and your life is at risk,” he said. Most cyber offenders were adolescents, he added. “Use it for enriching knowledge and for realising your dreams,” Mr. Vijayan told students.
Even though students seemed to be updated with technology, their general awareness on various issues was found wanting, he said.
Speaking about his association with The Hindu since 1987, Mr. Vijayan said that reading the newspaper as a civil service aspirant had helped him develop his views on various issues and enabled him to understand what was going on in society.
Focused coverage
On the NIE School Edition of the The Hindu , he said children would find it interesting as it gave them news in a focused and interesting package.
Nirmala Venkateshwaran, Senior Principal, BVM, Eroor, welcomed the chief guest.
Mili Susan Paul, NIE co-ordinator of the school, proposed the vote of thanks. N.V. Balamurali, Deputy General Manager, Circulation, and Sandhya Varma, Assistant Manager, Circulation, The Hindu , also took part. The Hindu has so far enrolled about 50 schools in and around the district under the NIE programme.
