By reducing education to set patterns, rules and guidelines, the ability of children to think creatively is getting restricted. Children should be allowed to think independently, educationalist and writer G.S. Jayadev has said.
Participating in an interaction on “Quality education” at the School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya in Mangalore on Friday, Mr. Jayadev said it was necessary to make children face the facts of life. Their imagination should be triggered and they should be allowed to identify life. “Education is not creation of successful people, who take from society and give nothing in return,” he said.
Mr. Jayadev, who is the founder of Deenabandhu Trust that runs a primary school, a boys’ home and a girls’ home in Chamarajanagar, gave examples of experiments at his institutions. One among them was making students do documentaries on topics such as making jaggery, water pollution and air pollution. Such activities were being done with an intention to expose students to the immediate environment and develop concern for others, he said.
Mr. Jayadev said 60 per cent of children dropped out of schools after 10th standard. Such students were being neglected. The State government should take steps to help such children.
Quality education, Mr. Jayadev said, should help drive away superstition and untouchability.
In this era of globalisation, children should be made known about what was right and wrong. They should be trained in tackling and overcoming difficult situations, he said.
Earlier, children from institutions run by Deenabandhu Trust screened their documentaries on jaggery-making, water pollution and air pollution at the auditorium of the School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya.
Manoj, a first year pre-university student, said their documentary on water pollution focused on the condition of wells within the 15-km radius from the trust. Ishan, an 8 standard student, said they used handycam to make documentaries.
