Call for focus on mental health in school education at UNICEF meet on learning recovery
Senior Correspondent
NewsBits.in
BHOPAL: Speaking at a media meet on Monday, F A Jami, Education Specialist, UNICEF office of Madhya Pradesh said that we need an early warning system to identify potential dropout children in school and to ensure their retention.
He quoted an National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) study and called on the increased focus on mental health in school education.
Sharad Dwivedi, Group Editor, Bansal News said that school is an institution for growth of society and we should invest more in focusing on education and learning in school.
The media meet was organised by UNICEF and Bansal News with participation of about 55 district level TV journalists of Bansal News. The theme of the meet was ‘school education - opportunities and challenges.’
Brajesh Chouhan, former member, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights said that Madhya Pradesh has a schoolbag policy, but still the bags of children are heavy.
Though the State has taken steps for improving school education, at ground level we see challenges including dropouts, which needs a focus, he said.
Neha Bagga, Spokesperson of BJP shared the steps being taken by the State government, including CM rise schools, and called on media to bring out positive stories of changes happening at ground and also shared the work done during COVID-19 times.
The meet was facilitated by Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist, UNICEF, who said that we need to increase media stories on education both looking at positive change happening at ground and also on the theme of learning recovery. Aim is to increase focus on softer stories on school education, and also listening to views of children, he said.
At the outset, children including Satish, Prince, Amrita and Mehruhak, who are part of the school forums of the MP Child Rights Observatory, shared the things they learned and challenges they had faced during the online learning period.
Girish Updhyaya, Senior Journalist said we need to listen to children and their views if we wish to bring in changes in the system. We need to see from their perspective and include teachers in the same, to bring change in school education.
Manoj Saini, Executive Director, Bansal News, spoke on need to focus on sports at school level. Participants shared the stories done by them from field on the theme of school education.