HAVING A GOOD TIME: Students of Ambedkar Memorial School enthusiastically reading the newspaper and discussing among themselves in Visakhapatnam. — Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

VISAKHAPATNAM : The lilting peals of laughter of the 30 students at the breezy terrace classroom of Ambedkar Memorial School turned the space into a lively ground of interaction. That they would get a chance to learn their lessons from an English newspaper rather than their mundane half-torn pages of textbooks brought a beaming expression on the faces of many.

Quiz contest

They shouted excitedly, giggled at every wisecrack and participated wholeheartedly as a regular classroom soon turned into a ground for an exciting quiz contest, thanks to The Hindu's Newspaper in Education (NIE) programme.

The children of the school represent a section of society that has been pushed to its limits — even beyond — due to poverty and lack of opportunities. "70 to 80 per cent of the students in the school belong to the low-income group families.

For them, it's a great opportunity to learn through a newspaper," said the school principal Yedla Naoko. She felt that the NIE sessions covered up the limitations of the routine classroom education. "These students have none to guide them at home in their studies. Some of them don't even take newspapers at home. NIE has come as a boon to them," she said.

Apart from this, the school conducts non-academic classes for the all-round development of the students. Unlike in most schools, the students eagerly await Mondays.

This is a day when they can develop their hobbies and interests in areas like vocal music, calligraphy, gardening, typing, computer and crafts. "By next year, we hope to develop a newspaper club wherein students will report in-house activities in their own ways," added Naoko.

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