Javadekar says ‘Extra-curricular activities equally important’

PUNE: NP NEWS 24 ONLINE- On Sunday, in an inauguration of Malpani Foundation’s Dhruv Global School, Union Minister Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar said that ministry was trying to reduce the academic burden and ensure holistic development of students by encouraging experiential learning, physical and life skills education.

 “We need to have equal focus on experiential learning, sports, physical education and life skills education for the holistic development of the child. We are trying to reduce the burden of classroom syllabus in a phased manner to facilitate this thought. This year we are reducing the syllabus by 10 per cent and by 20 per cent in the following year so that kids can get required time for experiential learning, sports and life skills,” Javadekar said.

He also spoke about Samagra Shiksha drive under which more than 11 lakh schools are being given a special grant ranging between Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 for procuring books for library and sports equipment separately. Almost 3,000 Atal Tinkering Labs have been set up in schools across the country for introducing children to modern science.

Javadekar said, “Normally it is considered that a teacher’s responsibility is restricted to classroom teaching but in my opinion teacher’s primary responsibility is to identify talent of his students.”

 Javadekar shared that in India about 26 crore children are taking school education of which 13 crores are taking it from the State or Central Government schools. This shows us that the number of children in non-governmental schools is equally big.

The event comprised MP Sanjay Kakade, Govinddev Giri Maharaj, Dr Sanjay Malpani, founder of Dhruv Global School and Rahul Solapurkar along with Manish, Girish, Ashish and Rajesh Malpani and Sangeeta Raut.