Social-mental-academic issues of children should be addressed says Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

With the Kerala government mulling to re-open schools which have been shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said that effective intervention is needed to address social, mental and academic issues being faced by children who had been confined to their homes due to the virus spread.

Stating that all efforts should be made to get to know the children closely, he said interventions would be made to iron out the problems being faced by the youngsters and schemes should be prepared in such a way that new and existing students have a joyous experience in the schools.

"There is a need to draw up schemes which will provide a joyous experience for new and existing students", Vijayan, who chaired the first meeting of Vidya Kiranam State Mission (programme to support deprived children), said.

"There is a need to have a good understanding on how the education system in the state should be after the pandemic, which has so far affected people in the state and claimed over 23,000 lives. Intervention is needed on social-mental and academic issues being faced by children, who have been confined to their homes for a long time, and their abilities should be discovered and developed," he said.

"If there are shortcomings in online teaching, this should be resolved and there should be no digital divide in the state in terms of education," Vijayan added.

The meeting also stressed on the need to provide more training to teachers to enhance their professionalism. "Each district should have a resource team and nationally acclaimed experts should be roped in for the training," Vijayan said, adding that the academic master plan should continue.

"Children from marginalised sections and those who are differently abled should be given necessary training support. To make classrooms digital friendly, extensive schemes are needed," he said, adding a teacher should be appointed as mentor for a group of 10-15 students.

This will help in knowing the child better and any small change reflected in the child's behaviour would be easily gauged by the teacher. Education minister V Sivankutty and Higher education minister Dr R Bindu were among those who attended the meeting.