Gujarat govt launches ‘Joyful Saturday’ programme to keep students away from mobile phones

For the ‘Joyful Saturday’ programme, it has rolled out a detailed plan to be followed on every Saturday by all government and grant-in-aid primary schools in the state.  The first ‘Joyful Saturday’ was scheduled for July 5, and teachers said they hoped that it would help children get away from mobile phones and bring an overall positive impact.

“From the analysis of subject experts at GCERT (Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training) and feedback from teachers, it was observed that school students across geographies are excessively using mobile phones and drifting from sports and physical activities. Thus, high prominence of obesity among young children is a common problem these days. Also, during the school visits, we realised that students are not active, responsive or interactive in the class and also do not look happy,” GCERT Director Prakash Trivedi told The Indian Express.

Government schools in the state have already implemented the “10 bagless days” policy, aimed at making learning in schools more joyful and stress-free.

The government has now laid down clear guidelines for the ‘Joyful Saturday’ programme, to  be followed on Saturdays, which are half-days for students as the schools are run from 7.30 am till 11 am. “In today’s era, the use of mobile phones among children is increasing at an alarming rate. Excessive use of mobile phones has a negative impact on the physical, mental and social development of children including eye strain, headaches, lack of sleep, obesity, and lack of physical activity, solitude, irritability, depression, anxiety, and decreased learning ability, lack of social skills, loneliness, alienation from the real world,” stated the detailed directive issued by the state government.

“’Joyful Saturday’ can be extremely helpful in keeping children away from mobile phones. Children are not aware that they can get joy from things other than mobile phones. When they engage in other activities, they will not feel like using mobiles. Physical games and group activities keep them active and socially connected. Creative tasks encourage them to use their imagination. Visits to villages expose them to the practical world, which is quite different from the virtual world of the mobile phone. Thus, this will free them from their mobile addiction, providing them a golden opportunity to live, learn and develop in the real world,” Rakesh Patel, Principal of Nava Nadisar Government Primary School in Godhra, Panchmahal, told this paper.

Schools have been asked to incorporate traditional games and activities like kho-kho, kabaddi, running, long jump, high jump, rope jumping.

“When children are engaged in physical and creative activities, their screen time naturally decreases. Excessive screen time is directly linked to a sedentary lifestyle and obesity,” Thaltej Municipal Public School principal Ruchita Shah told this paper.

Also, awareness among children about the benefits of healthy diets and regular exercise through educational games or small projects related to health and nutrition will be spread under this programme. The disadvantages of eating fast food and the significance of including fresh fruits and vegetables in their diets will also be explained to them in simple language .

Based on the feedback to be collected at the end of the first semester in October, the programme will be continued in the second semester with modifications, if required, GCERT’s Trivedi also said.