Guwahati: Be it a government-funded or a private school, innovation in children's education has always been a challenge. However, defying this norm, a school in the interiors of Assam has constituted a unique model into their system to make learning more innovative and participatory for the children.
Situated 12 km away from Morigaon town in Assam, Patuakata MP school has become an example for over 65 schools for adopting and initiating the 'Gunuttaran' in their learning.
This model of educating children has been initiated by a teacher from the school itself, Kaushik Debnath who says that this exercise aims to extract the special talents these children possess. He believes each and every child is blessed with a skill hence this system has been initiated.
He says Gunuttaran has brought out special skills in their students and has also led to an increase in student admissions in the school.
About Gunuttaran
A blend of two words, Gunuttaran has a collection of exercises that are exclusive to physical exercises, the art of banking, sports, environment. All of which are incorporated by the children through various activities.
In another major boost, a laboratory in the name of the former president, APJ Abdul Kalam will be formed in the school.
To inculcate the habit of savings, the school has also introduced a small 'bank', wherein students save an amount daily. At the end of a certain period, students will receive points that will have special 'benefits', for instance, standing in front of a queue during mid-day meals.
The school has 'ministries' where students don the roles of health, law, education ministers for a tenure of seven days. The basic idea here is each student assigned with a certain ministry has certain duties. For instance, the health 'minister' will look after the cleanliness factor of the students, the law 'minister' will evoke discipline while the education minister will ensure students have turned up 'positively' with their homework.
A council of 'women ministers' has been introduced too, to encourage women empowerment and equality.
These responsibilities are distributed to each student, that helps every student to experience, at the same time experiment these life skills.
About Patuakata School
Students here are served 'basil leaves' as soon as they enter the school premises, which the administration believes will improve the spiritual as well as the mental health of the students.
To invoke leadership, students from Upper primary classes guide and impart lessons to the lower primary school students. The upper primary students here, are tagged as 'sarathi'.
This initiative has set students from other schools to join the Patuakata MP school for its brilliant ideation that inculcates in its students' life-skills along with formal school education.
