Bhubaneswar: Under the guidance of Gajapati Collector Lingraj Panda, District Welfare Officer Santosh Rath, and PA ITDA Falguni Majha, the Gajapati district administration decided to hold story-telling and writing sessions for children, to help them develop their own reading and writing skills.
The initiative has garnered praises from people from all walks of life. Being a tribal-dominated district, Gajapati has numerous Tribal Residential Schools, which are run by the Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes Development Department. Also called ‘Ashram Schools’, these institutions primarily address the educational needs of tribal children, where they are provided boarding and lodging facilities until they complete their secondary education.
“We realized that there was a dissonance in the ability to create a narrative and speak it out amongst the children from tribal residential schools. Students from sixth grade could not even achieve the reading and writing skills of a third grader, which resulted in a major dropout rate down the line, especially among girl students,” said Panda.
He understood that the best way to help these kids in reaching to a certain level of narration would be to involve them in the method of story-telling of their own environment. For that to happen, they needed to create a proper atmosphere in the school libraries, which was child friendly and could attract as many students as possible.
For this, each school has put up a special library room that has been decorated and painted with various themes. Numerous books have been stored in the library, primarily pictorial ones. All the books have been colour coded according to the age of the students. The children pick up any book and read loudly before other students and the teacher. If the teacher detects any pronunciation errors, she corrects the student accordingly.
Once the students have picked their book and read it aloud in the class, they are advised to do story-telling where they are asked to narrate the story again, in their own words, or add something creative to the story that they read and share it with the class.
Furthermore, the students also make artworks of their stories by converting their narration into drawings and paintings. This strongly builds not only their intelligence but also their creativity. The administration has also set up a television in the library, where the students watch educational videos and channels.
The Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Paralakhemundi, has provided funds to paint the library rooms and buy furniture and books for them. They also provided teachers with training so they could assist the students with storytelling and writing, before the initiative was launched, three months ago.
The libraries also have a dedicated ‘Art Corner’ where the best stories and their best artwork is exhibited for everyone to see. The entire environment is made in a fashion where students can make their imaginations run.
