A school has asked parents of Class III children to disconnect from their digital devices and spend some time with their family.
Another school wants parents to monitor their child’s phone use and allot screen time.
Several schools are trying to monitor and reduce the dependency of children on gadgets.
“Take out some time during this weekend to disconnect from your digital devices (phone, laptop) and spend time with the family. All the members of your family may do any of the following (activities) or anything else during that period...,” said a message to Class III parents from Modern High School for Girls.
The activities listed by the school include storytelling, star gazing, outdoor/indoor games, narrating interesting anecdotes, drawing/painting together and preparing a meal together.
Children are surrounded by devices from the time they are born. Naturally, they have easy access to those.
“They are born with phones in their hands literally, and parents think it is a great thing that their child, who is 18 months or two years, can hold a phone or knows how to scroll. After four to five years, they are complaining because the same child is not ready to move away from the phone,” said Aban Confectioner, head, junior school, Modern High School for Girls.
As part of the school’s Disconnect to Reconnect project, the Class III girls with their family members are supposed to star gaze, paint together, do story telling or any other activity away from the phone.
The activities have to be noted down and sent to the school on Monday.
Every class has been given a separate project. “These small initiatives are to give them alternatives as to what they can do,” said Confectioner.
The idea is also to reach out to parents via the children. They have access to phones or devices because of the adults.
At Sri Sri Academy, during the orientation held at the beginning of the session, parents have been told to monitor their child’s use of devices.
“We told them that they must fix a time slot when the children can use a phone. This would help to inculcate discipline,” said Gargi Banerjee, principal, Sri Sri Academy.
Banerjee said that parents should also know what the child is watching.
“It can be a better idea for the child to see what they want to on a television in the drawing room instead of sitting with a phone in one corner of the house,” said Banerjee.
To encourage children to write, the school, during the current academic session is discouraging teachers from uploading homework online.
“We want children to take down notes in the diary,” she said.
After the Covid pandemic, many schools continued with the practice of uploading homework or classwork online. While it is convenient for parents but it also gives children an excuse to use the device.
While technology is essential, one has to know how to draw a balance, said a veteran teacher. “An overuse of technology will only crush their creativity,” she said.
Psychotherapist Farishta Dastur Mukerji said that overuse of gadgets may have multiple negative impacts on a child or an adolescent.
“Children become inattentive and lack focus....Children are not equipped emotionally, psychologically or socially to deal with such unfiltered content, and we see the spillover in the classrooms sometimes,” she said.
