In an effort to draw children away from gadgets and enable parents to train their wards in basic language and mathematical concepts, the office of Karkala Block Education Officer has brought out a pictorial booklet, Maneye Modala Paatashale Maggi Pustaka, for the over 7,000 students in Classes 1 to 3 in the taluk.
Apart from alphabets in Kannada, English, Tulu and Hindi, this booklet gives information about 1-100 numerals in Kannada, English and Hindi. The booklet contains multiplication tables till 20; days of the week in English and Kannada; names of months in English, Kannada and Tulu; shapes of objects and pictures of animals, birds and plants.
To make it interesting, the booklet has some moral stories, daily workout that children can do, home remedies for simple ailments and hand washing techniques. It has a song about Karkala, the well-known names of Karkala taluk, the State and national anthems.
In the introduction, Karkala MLA and Energy, Kannada and Culture Minister V. Sunil Kumar, who has brought out the booklet, said that it has been brought out to enable parents do the basic teaching at home. “We grew up in the days when our parents made us say slokas, taught us multiplication tables and told us moral stories after our return from schools. This old style ingraining life lessons at home is important when schools are yet to start physical classes,” he said.
The former Karkala BEO G.S. Shashidhar, who was actively involved in bringing out the booklet, said that the booklet is product of the efforts made by 41 teachers of Udupi district. They worked between May and July to bring out the booklet early this month. “We have made some changes to the traditional Maggi Pustaka to make it relevant to today’s children,” he said.
Among the teachers involved in bringing out the booklet include Kamal Ahmed from the Government Secondary School, Shivapura, Udupi district, who designed the cover page.
Commending the effort in releasing the new Maggi Pustaka, Professor of Education, Government College of Teachers Education, Mangaluru, H. Kumaraswamy that said parents should be provided guidelines for effective use of the booklet. “Rather than rote learning, children should have fun in using this booklet that deals with basic reading and counting skills,” he said.
Mr. Sunil Kumar told The Hindu that there is a good demand for Maggi Pustaka. “The first set of booklets have been distributed. I have ordered for additional booklets and they will be distributed shortly,” he said and added that he will wait for the outcome of this effort before suggesting it for State-wide implementation.
