BHOPAL (Madhya Pradesh): School students in Harda district of the state are learning about the Constitution through ‘Samvidhan Melas’ and a re-designed teaching plan, which emphasises on practical aspects of the Constitution - on what the Constitutional values and provisions mean for them in their daily life.
Activists of Synergy Sansthan - an NGO from Harda - working among the adolescents and youth of the district, during their interaction with school students found that they simply mugged up whatever they were taught about the Constitution.
“Their only objective was to clear the examination,” co-founder of the Sansthan, Vishnu Prasad Jaiswal told Free Press. A closer study revealed that the way Civics was taught in the schools was one of the key reasons why the students’ knowledge about the Constitution, its values and its provisions was only theoretical.
The Sansthan decided to correct this anomaly in its own small way. It picked four government higher secondary schools in the Harda district to try and change the way the Constitution was taught and learned.
“By talking with students we also realised that the language used in the Civics textbooks was too complex for the students to understand. Moreover, social science was not on the priority list of the students. They paid more attention to science and commerce subjects,” adds Jaiswal.
The Sansthan began working on the 17 chapters in textbooks for classes 6-10 which were about the Constitution and Civic issues. After extensive discussions with educationists, it prepared a ‘Civic Educational Facilitation Module,” for teachers.
The 111-page document details how students can be taught about fundamental rights and fundamental duties, organs of government, the significance of the Preamble to the Constitution and concepts like democracy, liberty, justice and equality in a way that is interesting and relates with their life.
They tested and retested the module to remove the practical difficulties. Since 2019, Civics is being taught to students in four government schools in Harda in keeping with the manual. “Persuading teachers to adopt the new methodology was a difficult task. They demanded approval from their higher-ups. We then met the District Education Officer and the Collector and both gave their approval,” says Jaiswal.
Another novel concept developed by the Sansthan to make the study of the Constitution easy and interesting for the students was ‘Samvidhan Melas’.
“We found that in both Independence and Republic Day celebrations in the schools, the focus was on the freedom struggle and the freedom fighters. “We therefore began organising Samvidhan Melas on R-Day,” says another co-founder of the Sansthan, Vimal Jat .
Students prepared songs, dances, plays, poems etc. on the Constitution for the Mela. An exhibition was also organised in which models based on Constitutional provisions and values made by the students were displayed. “We ensured that the parents as well as local dignitaries such as the Sarpanch were invited to the Mela,” says Jat.
The past three years of hard work have yielded results. The students have started asking questions. For instance, one wanted to know whether the teacher sitting on a chair and the students on tatt-patti wasn’t a violation of the Right to Equality!
Preeti Uike, 16, a class 11 student of Government Higher Secondary School, Nayapura says that she now knows that it is gender discrimination if her brother is allowed to go out after dark but she is not. Preeti, however, is very happy that she is getting to learn about the Constitution through songs and dances.
Her classmate Radhika Kajle says that the Civics period has now become enjoyable. “Maza aata hai,” she says. Radhika is proud that she now knows the meaning of ‘Loktantra’.
Synergy Sansthan is doing a good job. They had recently organised a Samvidhan Mela in our school. Students are now able to understand Civics much better than they used to when the subject was taught in the routine manner in classes. -KP Munda, Principal, Govt HSS, Nayapura, Harda
It is an innovative idea, a novel initiative. Practical knowledge is always better than bookish knowledge. -Shiv Sankhla, social science teacher, Govt HSS, Fuldi, Harda
