New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged teachers to make students aware of the menace of drugs and has urged them to help reduce their screen time.

Interacting with the national award-winning teachers on Friday, the eve of Teacher's Day, Modi said that everyone in society should push students towards creative pursuits.

He emphasised that teachers need to look beyond students' academic performance and be attentive to their behaviour and everyday lives.

The prime minister said teachers have an increasingly important role to play in the lives of children now that there are fewer joint family set-ups.

On drugs, Modi said that in some big cities and universities, it is difficult to identify if anyone gets affected by the problem, as no one knows who gives whom what.

"In these circumstances, teachers should take the initiative for awareness and also observe minutely if any change (in behaviour) is witnessed in any child," he said.

"You should not allow the childhood of a student to die. The biggest contribution can be given by the teachers for keeping childhood alive in students' lives," he said.

A video of the interaction was released on Saturday.

With inputs of PTI