Bengaluru: When private school children are having a field day at summer camps this season, government school children are not too far behind this year. The Department of State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) has conceived a new programme which contains little fun on the run with lots to learn. It has chosen nearly 7049 higher primary schools with student strength of above 150 for fun-based-learning summer celebration-2017.
The camp is attended by students entering grades 6 and 7 during the academic year 2017-18 and involves plenty of extra-curricular activities. The summer camp, which started on April 17, will extend to a period of five weeks.
In collaboration with Pratham Organization based in Mysuru, the learning materials have been prepared and printed through Government Press for the summer celebration. An App has been designed for monitoring the programme in association with Bangalore Education Foundation.
The camp is aimed at developing children’s reading and mathematical skills. Activities are designed accordingly to improve comprehension skills and mathematical problem solving ability. Weekly activity content has been prepared and given to schools keeping in mind the number of students attending the camp. The first week activity is for family, followed by water, food, health and hygiene and concluding with environmental issues during the last week of the camp.
The three-hour summer camp involves personal and group activities for children. Children are allowed to participate in various activities during five days of the week. On the sixth day, students’ parents, guardians and others are invited to visit the school to assess the progress made by the children during the entire week. Overall, this is an innovative programme that brings the concept of summer camp to poor children. SCERT deserves all accolades for creating and implementing a unique programme to make summer holidays for school children “a real celebration.”
