How a Tamil Nadu school got kids and parents hooked on newspapers in summer vacation

TIRUCHY: Students of the Government Adi Dravidar Welfare Primary School at Pappakurichi in Thiruverumbur union of the district brought their parents along on the last working day on Wednesday for a session aimed at replacing their idle time during the summer vacation with a seemingly simple active learning activity: newspaper reading.

While no hands went up when headmaster DR Dhanabal asked how many of the over 50 participants subscribe to a newspaper, the latter went on to read headlines from the newspapers made available aloud, hunted for word meanings and even drafted their own news reports.

“They only read textbooks. But even fourth and fifth graders read sports columns and local news with real interest (during the session),” Dhanabal noted. V Saravana, who completed Class 5, said, “I always note cricket match scores on TV, but seeing the scores and pictures in a newspaper felt new. Now I want to cut out the pictures and stick them onto a notebook.”

B Malliga, school management committee president, said, “We never thought of buying newspapers. Now I’ve asked my vendor to deliver both English and Tamil dailies.”

S Jasmine, president of the parent-teacher association, said, “We always get news either from TV or the mobile phone. I feel I have to read the newspapers first to teach my kid. For the first time, I looked at a newspaper together with my child.”

To keep the momentum going, the school has created a WhatsApp group, ‘Inainthu Katral Thittam’ (learning together). “Every day for the next one month, we’ll send simple news reports and encourage students and parents to share their thoughts through voice notes,” Dhanabal said.