New lessons

Ranchi, Oct. 12: Come November and primary school students across Jharkhand would throng their respective institutions with a pinch of salt. The salt will be tested for its iodine content, which is directly related to the kids’ learning ability.

Assistant project officer (education) of Unicef Vinoba Gautam told The Telegraph that as part of Jharkhand Education Project (JEP), Unicef would provide iodine-testing kits to all primary schools of the state. The exercise is part of the Unicef’s initiative to improve the overall intelligence level of primary students.

As per a survey conducted by National Health and Family Survey (NHFS), only 26 per cent children (up to the age of 14) are found to be iodine sufficient in the state.

According to the plan, students would come to the school with a pinch of salt used in their home for preparing food. The iodine testing kit, within a second, will show the exact iodine content in the salt. As most of the rural households still use non-iodised salt (as per the NHFS survey), the students would convince their parents to use the iodised one for consumption.

“It has been observed that iodine deficiency affects the growth of brain, which ultimately affects the learning ability of children. Unicef, in collaboration with JEP, has decided to encourage the use of iodine salt in the homes,” said Gautam.

Gautam along with Dr. Madhulika Jonathan, health officer of Unicef, recently held a meeting with the regional and district-level education officials in this regard at JEP headquarters here.

In the meeting it was decided to start the “salt campaign” from November . The Unicef officials also decided that they would request chief secretary Manoj Kumar Mandal to direct the deputy commissioners of different districts to support the cause.

However, the Unicef officials added that besides the iodine deficiency prevalent among the children, other areas like attendance percentage, dropout rates, lack of teaching staff and interactive education need to be addressed, for which JEP has been assisting the state human resource department with infrastructure upgradation of schools.

Widening its focus for girl’s elementary education, Unicef, in association with the JEP, has also decided to expand the ambitious Meena project in various districts of the state, which are showing poor performance in the front of girl’s education. “We have zeroed in on several blocks of different districts, where Meena project will be launched shortly. Earlier, on experimental basis, we had introduced the scheme in East Singhbhum, where it was a huge success,” said a senior JEP official.