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Young World
Towards a holistic school curriculum
A. B. SUDHINDRA
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Curriculum should help students develop totally.
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PHOTO: P.V.SIVAKUMAR
Holistic approach: School syllabi must encourage all-round growth.
Recently, at a meeting of principals of Sahodaya Schools, an association of private Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools of Bangalore, chairman of the board Ashok Ganguly stated that the schools must aim at universalising excellence. And they must attach importance to the total and holistic development of the child rather than mere academic scores in public examinations.
Mr. Ganguly told the principals to focus not only on scholastic areas but also on all aspects of a child’s personality.
“Learning should not be driven by examinations and tests. Have an action-oriented approach, where knowledge is implemented and judiciously applied to real-world problems,” he said.
He inspired the various school managements to introduce ‘Curriculum Plus’, an activity that promotes thinking skills, creativity and innovation in children and also told them to improve various other facilities including sports.
Now is the season of sports meets at city schools. A spectacular splash of colour and activity mark the events and the day witnesses breaking of old meet records.
Children participate with enthusiasm and energy in many events. And when the winners gallop towards the victory podium to receive the medals from the guests, the cheering and the roar from the members of their respective houses is deafening. Overall, it is a carnival-like atmosphere at these sports meets.
Many teachers and students echoed the sentiments of Mr. Ganguly.
Encourage sports
They said that sports infrastructure needs to be improved at schools and talented children need encouragement not only from schools but also from parents. However, in reality many schools encourage their children to excel only in academics.
Some schools do not have a sports field and the available space is used for building classrooms.
A student rued that his school conducts just the athletic meet and the management hesitates to send them to various other sports meets in the city.
“Even parents are not keen and they expect their children to excel only in academics. Hence, many children do not pursue a career in sports,” says a physical education teacher.
Only a few schools direct their efforts at providing good facilities for sports. They have well-organised sports centres, which are supervised by experienced and professional coaches.
“We have good infrastructure in place. We send our children to interschool meets and subsequently to the state and national level sports meets. Children enjoy participating in such events and it gives a good exposure,” says Rani Rajkumar, Principal, St. John’s High School. Many agree that sports activities are important for the all-round growth of a child. Many opine that besides academics, schools must give due importance to co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.
“Sports activities facilitate leadership qualities in children, they understand the importance of teamwork and they learn to accept both success and failure in equal measure,” adds John Ellis, principal of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School.
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