BHUBANESWAR: Union secretary of school
education and literacy ministry of human resource development
Anil Swarup asked all schools to come up with their own ‘action plan’ to ensure safety and security of children in schools.
“Action plan is very important. Many a times we think passing an act will solve the issues but implementation of the act is crucial. And it is not the job of the government alone but all of us have to work for it. We must realise what needs to be done when then many major problems will be over,” said Swarup. He was interacting with school principals and teachers during a seminar on ‘Safety and security in schools’ in Bhubaneswar here on Sunday.
Giving emphasis on emotional safety on children Swarup said “Emotional and psychological safety of children is equally important as that of their physical safety. A child committing suicide due to bad performance in examination is the most disturbing thing, it shatters a family. We must teach students that failing in exam is not the end of life and provide them adequate emotional nutrition.” He asked schools to regularly interact with parents to know the emotional status of each child and ensure their good psychological health.
Expressing concern over growing sexual harassment of children, Swarup said, “From next academic session NCERT will introduce a chapter on sexual harassment in text books. But it is important that how we teach students and the kid of pedagogy and methodology being used in delivering chapters. Children must learn about good touch, bad touch and whom to contact first if something wrong happens or they suspect any danger. ”
Giving emphasis on learning from best practices in teaching, Swarup said, “Despite all challenges some schools and teachers have been doing excellent jobs in teaching. We must learn from them. At Diksha portal such best practices and innovations in teachings can be uploaded. The centre is also coming up with a National Centre of Excellence in Teaching soon where research and innovation in teachings will be done and we can develop our own models instead of following other countries.”
