Media Literacy Afterschool

A young girl took her life over fear of the world coming to an end following the start of the LHC experiment. Amidst the fierce competition between TV channels for dishing out sensational news - a life is lost.

It brings home some harsh facts:

• If you do not give people the right information - they will have access to only the wrong information
• People have any number of information sources today - but do they have access to media literacy skills?

Media literacy should be a core part of any afterschool curriculum - how to access information and how to critically evaluate the information you access.

Afterschool services in India also need to have many avatars - there are thousands of school drops outs like the unfortunate 16 year old who will benefit from a non-formal flexible educational experience. Is there a local learning club that she could have gone to - to discuss her fears and to seek facts? I find it so disturbing that the child was constantly asking her family questions about the end of the world. She did not get her answer...

My dream is to have a network of afterschool learning centres that anyone can walk into - to learn and to share their own learning and life experience.

Afterschool vacation camps on bioresources

The National Bioresource Development Board (NBDB) under the Department of Biotechnology been running a Vacation Training Programme on Bioresources since 2002. This 3-4 week programme is held annually for the children who have appeared in the class X board exams. The course consists of interactive lectures, hands-on lab & field work and individual projects on study of plants, animals, microbes of their area, web page designing on bioresources, simple biotechnology-based experiments etc. Since 2002, more than 40 programmes have been organized across the country.

The Department has now launched DNA clubs (DBT's Natural Resources Awareness clubs) in 145 schools across 23 states and UTs of the country. The Vacation Training Programme is now a part of the DNA club programme. These clubs will conduct a range of activities and provide hands-on learning opportunities focusing on bioresources. Regional Resource Agencies (RRAs) have been established at different locations in the country to facilitate this activity.

There is also a school contact programme through which quiz competitions, film shows etc are held in different schools at the regional and national levels. This programme is being hosted by National Geographic Channel.