Shyam Sudan
Schools are an important medium of formal education. No doubt we can say that mother is the first institution for a child. But for formal education schools plays a very pivotal role in the life of an individual. A good early schooling shapes the personality of an individual for his future life. We are living in that nation which was once the education hub for rest of the world. Our Gurukul system of education was world recognized way of imparting education. Our glorious world famous Nalanda and Taxshila universities was the testimony of this fact. After the independence we have framed various commission and policies for education. Recently the Government has launched an indigenous policy of education for our country. No doubt this is a remarkable achievement for all of us .now we are focusing on knowledge cum skilled based education for our children. No doubt this was the need of the hour for the makeshift, because as we know in this digital era, there is need of smart human resources in every field. Now the demand and expectations of our society is different as compared to early times. Ours is the only nation of the world where there is great percentage of young people. Now the big question for us is that how can we channelize the energy of this mammoth population for the betterment of our nation. We must adopt some strategy to explore the talent and efficiency of this section of our society. For that there is need of a proper and all inclusive education in the country. In this new education policy we are focusing on the skilled based education to gain our prime objective. The prime motive of education as we know is the development of all round personality of an individual. For that purpose in this new education policy we are giving priority to various cultural activities in our schools. Previously we gave the term co-curricular activities to such programs. Now, we have come to realize that these activities are indispensible part of education. We can’t isolate or segregate such activities from our formal education. Now various cultural cells has been already created in different schools of our region for this purpose. Now these cultural cells are gaining popularity in different schools of our region. Children are participating in various cultural activities organized by these cultural cells in schools. Basically the prime motive of these cultural cells is to aware the children about the importance of their culture and to remove the hesitation among them. Because we know that there are a lot of talented and efficient children in our society. Especially in rural areas there are a lot of children with hidden potential in our schools. But due to their hesitating and shy nature they generally don’t participate in any activity. The prime motive of these cultural cells is to give proper exposure to these children who have hidden potential in them .Participation in different activities in schools removes the hesitation of the children and builds confidence in them.A child can only Express fully when he become confident. Confidence shapes the personality of every individual. We generally blame that our government school children are not very active and energetic as compared with children of any private institution. The main drawback behind this fact is that there is lack of confidence in them .Basically every individual is very unique and talented in this world. We can’t underestimate or generalize the thinking of others. By giving timely exposure and motivation we can change the personality of every child. Cultural cells can easily change our thinking in this direction. Undoubtedly these cultural cells at present are playing their tremendous role in this direction. Now at different zones and almost in every school of every zone these cultural cells are giving their performance. Even children are giving their positive responses to every activity in these cultural cells. But there is a need of expertise and energetic human resources to launch such cultural activities in schools. For that purpose there is an urgent need to train the teachers in this direction. If a teacher becomes fully aware and motivated for this kind of work only then he/she can organize such activities in schools. Children can also take the maximum benefit of such cultural activities if they can get a perfect mentor and guide. Role of different nodal officers and incharges of cultural cells is very pivotal .The other positive aspect of organizing such cultural activities in schools is to aware the children about their incredible cultural glory. By participating in such activities children become aware about their cultural values and knowledge of it. In this materialistic world we have no time for our own children. We generally give importance to westernization ignoring the rich glory of our indigenous culture and its values. As a result we have seen that there is degradation in our morality and ethics. Such kind of cultural activities enhance the moral boosting as well as morality of our children. We have seen that mostly our children are engaged in various digital games and other indoor recreation. They are ignoring the real charm of their childhood due to absence of these cultural activities in their life. No doubt these cultural activities play a very important role in their life. There is common saying that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. There is an urgent need to encourage all the stakeholders including parents, guardian and children for maximum participation in such activities on priority basis. No doubt teachers are known as nation builders but in this changing scenario there is need of participation of all for shaping the personality of a child.
