Children use road as 'slate' in MP's Betul

Betul (Madhya Pradesh), February 1

Generally, people use roads to commute but a road in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district has come in handy for local children who are using this road as a giant slate or blackboard to learn counting, tables and other subjects.

The corona pandemic has severely affected children as schools are closed and roaming outside is a not safe. To tackle the situation people have moved to community classes and 'learn with fun' techniques.

A unique experiment has taken place in Simori village of Betul district. Children here are using a road as a giant slate. They assemble every evening and practice basic maths along with playing.

Children adopt various practices to learn like writing, counting, tables, month and day names, English, nouns, important days, counting in Sanskrit, names of grains, flowers, fruits, and vegetables etc while also collecting interesting information about the country and abroad, and important personalities.

Whatever the children learn at home or in community classes, they write it on the road just for fun which is actually improving their writing skills. Apart from this, whenever any child passes through this road the written stuff acts as revision material for them. The children are also liking this concept.

Shailendra Biharia, a teacher, said "This road was a hangout venue for children, they used to ride bicycles and play here for most of their spare time. In this situation, we have combined road and education in a single wire." Mamata Gohar, member of a local NGO, said "We are providing white and coloured chalks to children free of cost. This new concept has become quite popular in the area." (Sandeep Pouranik can be reached at sandeep.p@ians.in) --IANS