The pilot programme of “No School Bag Day” was held at the Government High School in Udbur near here with support from the Department of Public Education and the Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) recently. The government has decided to organise a three-hour “No School Bag Day” session on every third Saturday of the month.
The concept as mentioned in the National Curriculum Framework 2005, is to inculcate creative self-learning approaches. Accordingly, a textbook-free and “No School Bag Day” was proposed and implemented in schools on Saturdays.
Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S. Suresh Kumar, and the Commissioner for Public Instruction Jagadeesh wanted an effective plan for “No School Bag Day” to be implemented in all the schools.
Plan submitted
Consequently, a concept note and an implementation plan was submitted to the commissioner by the GRAAM Executive Director Basavaraju R. As per the suggestion, the session was piloted at the Government High School in Udbur on November 2. The GRAAM has been implementing “Sugamya Shiksha” programme at the school since past two years.
The “No School Bag Day” aims to take children to another dimension of learning through practical experiences and thereby creating awareness on their environment, processes, and events, a release from GRAAM said.
The students were taken around their village’s key public buildings and asked to observe their physical status, protection, source of construction, issues and challenges in their maintenance besides their role in preserving it for future generations.
