UMERKOT: Speakers at a meeting on Friday stressed the need to revamp outdated teaching methods to restore the quality of education in government schools.
They were speaking at a meeting titled “Discourse with Stakeholders”, organised by Right To Play, an international non-governmental organisation.
Speaking on the occasion, District Officer Education (Literacy) Bilawal Ahmed said conventional teaching methods were the main reason behind the poor performance of public schools and needed to be revamped.
He said the curriculum should urgently integrate play-based methods so that learning became enjoyable for students rather than a burden.
District Officer Social Welfare Abdul Wahid Leghari said Right To Play’s approach was productive and constructive for public schools, as it engaged students in healthy activities.
RTP District Coordinator Abdul Haleem Soomro said play and sports were a child’s right, giving children exposure and variety in today’s hectic environment. He said such activities could help restore the lost glory of public schools.
He said the organisation was in close contact with senior education department officials and was pressing at the policy level for the play-based model to be integrated into the regular primary-level curriculum.
Soomro said outdated teaching methods based on rote learning and cramming had reduced the interest of both students and parents in government schools. He added that sports and play, once regarded as extracurricular, were now called co-curricular activities, which was a sign that the approach had gained acceptance.
Krishan Sharma, Executive Director of DDAAT, said introducing sport as a tool for better academic achievement in government schools would certainly increase children’s interest in learning. He said a child who left a public school and enrolled in a private one had “walked out” of the system, yet was recorded as a “drop-out” in education department records.
Sharma said creating child-friendly spaces and promoting such play-based techniques would make schools more attractive and improve attendance and retention.
Om Parkash Paragani of UNICEF said the UN agency had always supported public schools in collaboration with the education department to make them child-friendly. He added that sports activities helped children’s social, emotional and cognitive development.
Ghulam Mustafa Khoso, Executive Director of Sami Foundation, said the initiative could be made sustainable by building the capacity of regular teachers and supporting it on the lines of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) classes run jointly by Right To Play and Sami Foundation with UNICEF’s support.
Kapil Dev, a journalist, said many public schools currently lacked playgrounds and that reviving play in government schools would be a landmark step. He said the initiative reminded him of his own school days.