E-Paper
Government school uses puppet show to educate children on good and bad touch
Breaking away from the chalk-and-blackboard approach on Saturday, teachers of the government primary school in Badi Jugaili area of Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, adopted the fun and interactive method of a puppet show to raise students’ awareness about child sexual abuse.
Breaking away from the usual chalk-and-blackboard approach on Saturday, teachers of the government primary school in Badi Jugaili area of Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, adopted the fun and interactive method of a puppet show to raise students’ awareness about child sexual abuse.
The show focused on explaining the concept of ‘good touch and bad touch’ and how children in distress could immediately seek help through the 1098 emergency phone service.
“I though we could call the Dial 100 if we needed help from the police, but now I know that 1098 is especially meant to help children,” said Class 3 student Rakesh.
Childline 1098 is a 24-hour helpline for kids in need of assistance.
Principal of the school, Ajita Singh Gaur, appreciated the teachers for coming up with the “amazing idea of educating children on a serious issue in a fun way”. “We will surely use puppet shows to make students aware of other social issues also,” she said.
The puppet show was the concluding act of the inter-house competitions organised at the school under the aegis of the HCL Foundation (HCLF) with help from the Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), which has two of its teachers reporting daily to the school to take classes as well as assist in various educational endeavours.
Kali Saurabh Shanker, project manager, SHEF, said, “I am delighted to see such activities happening in these schools. We will continue to do more innovative and fun activities.”
The inter-house competitions included activities like poster-making, group discussions, dance contest and poetry recitation in Hindi and English.
“Children participated in the competitions with enthusiasm. During group discussions, they came up with ideas on how to keep their surroundings clean, plant more trees, save water and attend school regularly,” said Gaur.
Meanwhile, the children said they loved attending classes because learning was fun at their school. Some of them said they especially liked studying English.
The HCLF and the SHELF have also arranged for a laptop and a projector at the school. The organisations have partnered the state authorities in their efforts to improve education and learning outcomes in over 20 government schools in Lucknow.
Vineet Kumar Singh, HCLF programme manager, said, “Use of laptops and projectors for teaching in these schools is really bringing about a change in the learning habits of children and, thereby, also impacting their attendance and enrolment.”
