The extracurricular aspect of secondary education in the State will soon get a much-needed boost.
The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) is undertaking an array of activities including field visits, yoga training, and motivation camps. The idea is to familiarise students with the world outside textbooks, and to provide them a holistic education, according to Rahul R., State Project Director, RMSA. The programmes are being undertaken in the 1,227 government high schools in the State, in coordination with the State education mission.
The field visits, fully funded by the RMSA, include ‘exposure visits’ to scientific research institutes in other States, as well as cultural and educational visits to locations within Kerala.
For the exposure visit, which aims at developing the scientific aptitude of students, 1,000 students of the 9th and 10 grade with a demonstrated flair for science were selected.
The first set of visits were completed last week, with students from eight southern districts being taken to the ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri and the District Science Centre at Tirunelveli. Here, the students received the opportunity to interact with scientists, learn about the operations behind satellite launch vehicles, and so on.
Over the coming week, students from the northern districts will visit the the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru. Apart from this, 10,000 students from financially weak backgrounds will be taken on excursions to locations within the State. These trips are expected to be completed before mid-February.
Yoga training
A two-day orientation programme for Physical Education (PE) teachers, as part of RMSA’s initiative to impart yoga lessons to students, began at the Ananthapuri Auditorium here on Tuesday. At the programme, two PE teachers from each district are undergoing training in a yoga module prepared by experts, which they will disseminate at the district-level over the next week.
RMSA’s efforts are in tandem with the grama panchayats’ scheme to introduce yoga in school curriculum, and there are plans to integrate the two initiatives from the next academic year, according to an RMSA official.
RMSA will also hold motivational camps this month for female students.
The camps will be of two days’ duration, with sessions on overcoming conflicts, positive thinking, personal hygiene, soft skills, and awareness of legal rights of the girl child.
Other schemes include self-defence training for girls, which started at the end of December, district-level book fairs to be held in January, and the distribution of sports kits in schools.
