At this govt school, every student is a cub reporter
ALLAHABAD: Students of a government-run primary school in Jaitwardeeh village, Soraon block, located around 22 kms from Allahabad, have joined hands with teachers to bring out a handmade fortnightly newspaper. The children would report on various school activities.
This initiative by children of rural areas in the Hindi heartland is grabbing eyeballs. Senior government officials now want other government-run primary and upper primary schools to follow suit.
“It all started as a creative experiment aimed at keeping kids busy and helping them learn new skills. From July 2017, we started taking out a daily newspaper with a class 5 student Shalini Jaiswal as head of the committee of students managing the newspaper. It soon caught the fancy of all students with each and everyone eager to report even the minutest of happenings on school campus,” shared Shweta Srivastava, an assistant teacher who kick-started this initiative.
Dubbed ‘Chahak’, the newspaper saw all 269 students from class 1 to 5 of the school under supervision of their five teachers vigorously jotting down developments in the school. “Another assistant teacher Archana Gupta started chipping in with subbing and proof reading the reports of students,” Shweta said. From September, ‘Chahak’ turned into a fortnightly newspaper.
Secretary, Basic Education Board, UP Sanjay Sinha welcomed the initiative.