IE : Capital kids get a classroom outside school: Rail museum: Sept 18,2007
Capital kids get a classroom outside school: Rail museum
In a pilot project with National Rail Museum, CBSE works to make country’s
heritage more relevant to school curriculum. If successful, project can be
extended to other museums, art galleries and historical sites across India
TENZING LAMSANG
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 16
L EARNING your Maths and Physics through the movements of trains, being
taught History in the oldest steam trains of the same period and learning
what to do when a train disaster occurs. If that’s not enough for you, how
about the stories behind old heritage stations, bridges and tunnels brought
alive through video, audio, pictures and other forms of multimedia?
These are just some of the innovative ideas in a pilot project by Central
Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and National Rail Museum to make the
latter more interesting to students of all ages. If successful, the project
can be extended to other museums, art galleries and historical sites across
the country, in an effort to make the country’s heritage more relevant to
school curriculum. CBSE and the rail museum have roped in other partners
like UNESCO, Institute of Science, media groups and NGOs.
“CBSE, which will be responsible for the content, will include new ways of
redoing the museum exhibits or exhibit techniques so that it can capture the
interest of students and also be linked to conventional subjects in the
classroom,” said Ashok Ganguly, the chairman of CBSE.
One idea is to use empty old railway compartments as venues for students to
carry out various practical projects like designing their own trains or
making posters. Also previously untouched subjects like landscapes – from
mountain tops and thick forests to the beautiful coastal beaches – will
showcase the railways as the most environment friendly mode of travelling.
Another item on the menu is to explore the lives of the people behind the
railways, such as stationmasters, coolies.
“The conventional guided tour system will also be upgraded to make them more
interactive so that students can communicate with each other and with the
museum instead of going there only to see the exhibits,” explains Rama
Sharma, CBSE spokesperson.
To this end, boring pamphlets will give way to films, multimedia tours,
colourful pamphlets and practical work to keep school children involved.
“The strategy is to encourage children to learn outside the classrooms and
develop a real passion for their subjects. If we can ignite that spark, our
job is done,” said Ganguly. The project will try to target the increasing
number of ‘little couch potatoes’ immersed only in front of the television
or computer.
The National Rail Museum was chosen for the pilot project, which kicked off
last month, as it was a willing ally and because it was discovered that most
of its visitors from Tuesday to Friday were schoolchildren.
The ‘resource package’ will be designed in three groups from Class 1 to 5,
Class 6 to 10 and finally Class 11 and 12. Three sub-committees will frame
these three packages. A core committee comprising the various supporters of
the programme will also be formed for guidance.
“We will also try to convince schools across the board to increase their
trips to museums, galleries and historical sites so that there is some
stronger link between the syllabus and activities of students on which they
could be graded,” said Ganguly.