MUMBAI: With children spending late nights on the internet and having to wake up early for school the next day, Maharashtra governor Ramesh Bais on Tuesday urged the education department to consider changing school timings to help students catch up on sleep.
The governor was speaking at the launch of various initiatives of the school education department at Raj Bhavan, in the presence of CM Eknath Shinde, and school education minister Deepak Kesarkar.
Bais said that everybody's sleep pattern has been affected, and students are no different. He said the education department can help students get their quota of sleep.
The governor added that teaching should be fun and not be restricted to textbooks. He said at a time when school bags are heavier than the weight of children, schools should create an environment where students need not take books to schools. He said some schools have encouraged students to leave back their books in the schools.
Bais said it is a fact that students spend a lot of time on mobiles. Books, he said, should be introduced online in the form of audios and videos. Lauding the state for its 'reading movement' campaign, the governor emphasised the need to revive libraries and add new books. He also dwelled on the need to adopt libraries and to teach in the mother tongue. The governor and CM Eknath Shinde jointly launched various initiatives of the school education department like 'My School, Beautiful School', 'Story-telling Saturday', 'Enjoyable Reading', 'Adopt School Activity', 'My School, My Backyard', and 'Cleanliness Monitor', while inaugurating new school buildings run by BMC.
These initiatives were started to upgrade infrastructure facilities in schools of the state, to create a competitive environment for education in the schools, and to increase the participation of the students in decision-making process.