Children today face a big problem when it comes to attention. With technology almost pervading our lives and the young ones being exposed to it at an early age, attention spans have dipped drastically. However, schools in Goa have come up with a unique way to increase it, with the help of games.
Electronic devices and social media platforms are the lifeline of the young today. However, it affects their ability to focus and pay attention to one task for long. Schools are challenged with this new-age condition today; but these institutions have a novel way to deal with it. Board games, meditation, advice for parents, and more are a part of the study sessions at these schools.
According to Rahul Deshpande, Managing Trustee of People’s High School, the attention span of even children in kindergarten is decreasing greatly. It is a challenge to hold their attention for long and high school lectures run for 40 minutes.
Sarita Carvalho, Principal, The Rosary High School, too, said that they have seen a dip in the motivation levels of students to compete academically.
Deshpande introduced a unique way to address this challenge. This academic year, he started using Scrabble, the Rubik’s cube, Vedic Mathematics, and meditation in the school. So, children can play with the Rubik’s cube for 5 minutes after every science class and they were introduced to Scrabble as part of the English subject. Children were thrilled to be allowed to play games during classes; and, the teachers were pleasantly surprised to see them play even during their break time.
Vibhuti Bhangui, Principal of the school said that the time the games would be allowed in class was kept as a surprise to keep up the excitement in students.
She added that meditation was introduced in the higher classes as they realised that after the recess students took a long time to settle down. And, meditation helped resolve this situation.
Two short meditation sessions would be introduced in the Rosary High School from this month. Carvalho said that earlier, students would fret over losing even half a mark. But now, even though there are some high scores, the motivation levels in general are not like before. So, if the school discovers that students have social media accounts, their parents are summoned immediately. Also, the school confiscates their mobiles and return them at the end of the academic year.
Vilas Satarkar, Director, Dr K B Hedgewar High school cited that the teachers visit the students’ homes and counsel the parents about the ill-effects of using electronic gadgets.
Introduction of simple games during classes and meditation in schools is truly a great way to hold the students’ attention for a longer time.
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