Friday, September 16, 2011

One school one TV campaign .....begins TODAY!

 
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” - Napolian Hill

 Teri campaign  in India help lighting million lives through distributing solar-chargeable lantern. The Bollywood stars especially Shah Rukh Khan and others came forward to endorse by adopting far flung villages.  I had witness its initial stage on NDTV a few years back.  I was only impressed then. But my recent reading of the campaign on net inspired a dream in me.  My dream is to see a Television set bringing smiles to the children of all the remote schools in Bhutan.
Another reason to inspire me the dream is my current place of posting and the occupation.
   My laptop in full use...can you see the smile? 



I teach in a small community school in eastern Bhutan. The strength of the school is 67 but only 28 of these ‘future of the nation’ have access to television and remaining 39 which constitute more than half have to walk a long distance to a friend’s house just to watch TV.  Many of them even cannot afford to as they are caught in the daily tasks related to cattle and farming.
The following observation is based on my school/place but the scenario is alike in every far flung villages of our country. .  
Part I:    What I have observed here with the regular and irregular viewer among the students is the level of exposure and confident.
The irregular viewers are limited to their thinking and are less confident compared with the regular viewers. The regular viewers have different topics to discuss. The irregular viewers don’t talk much. The irregular viewers have to be pushed in to participate in competitions conducted in school. In the other hand, the regular viewers are active. They want to be always in front, participate in every competition and events held in the school. They also have built a good rapport with teachers. However other factors like living standard and alike might be also the factors contributing to the status of the students.
Part II:  Teachers, parents (if they are exemplary) and books (both academic and leisure books) are the only available source of knowledge and inspiration. In addition to it, the environment is too poor in terms of examples. There are parents who studied till fifth standard and are somehow managing to run their family, brothers are mostly school dropouts who earn by cutting woodchips and there are elders who waste their life being drunk. It is apparent from the ambition that they have. All most everyone wants to be a teacher and the most obvious second option is to be a farmer or a woodchip cutter if they fail academically. It’s good news that more than half of the school wants to be a teacher because they see us as a successful person among the rest but the level of motivation is the least.
We (teachers) try to motivate them to study hard and fulfill their dreams. Responsible as they may be but the parents are more than happy just to see their children go to school. And the duty to motivate their children at home to do better in school is out of question. They believe we and the school can alone make a child’s life.
A program to have a doctor giving lecture in a class room on how noble is his profession; a police officer on his responsibility to maintain order in a city and a fresh college graduate student sharing his strategies of academic success will definitely inspire students to follow their footsteps. But it is beyond our scope to call these people.
In the light of the above, a television set, a DVD player and educational CDs shall be of great source of education, information and inspiration to the students. A virtual world of Doctors, Engineers, Perfect students and of success stories, triumph and good moral conducts shall guide our students to build/polish their characters and pave a way for themselves to a successful life.
How can we HELP them own a TV set?
1: Students: if you are a student of any urban school/college or an institute you could organize a cultural show or any other activity to raise a fund to purchase a TV set and a DVD player for any remote school of your choice.
2: Students studying abroad:  if you are studying abroad you could initiate a fund raising campaign in your respective universities/colleges and purchase for your choice of community school in rural Bhutan. [e.g.:  The students at Skagit Valley College, USA, sent $650 to cover Legson Kayira’s airfare to America. He was a poor boy but determined to earn a college degree. Cynthia Kersey’s book ‘Unstoppable’]
3: CCR: if you are an employee/CEO of a firm, under the corporate civic responsibility you could endorse by adopting all the community schools in the Dzongkhag of your operation.
4: Philanthropy:  if you are a person in power, a social figure etc you could also buy and gift a TV set and a DVD player to a school of your choice.
5: NGOs:  if you are an employee/Director of any NGOs within our country; SAVE the Children Bhutan, UNICEF Bhutan, NCWC, Tarayana Foundation… you could arrange a fund to give this cause a live of its own.
6: Ministry of Education: if you belong to the Ministry of Education you could talk about it and help squeeze an amount of fund to initiate this campaign.
7: Blogger/individual:  if you are a Blogger or an individual reading this piece you could just help spread this Campaign by making a buzz out of it on internet.
And there is one more thing to say, if you were ever touched or have said ‘ooo….so cute’ looking at a newspaper picture of a remote school girl with her torn bag and a smile on her face YOU got to do something TODAY! Make your mind to do it either out of your sense of being responsible citizen or just as a human being but, do it anyway.
what else could move a man's heart than a sweet smile of a child

LET’S BRING MORE SMILES ON THOSE CHARMING FACES………………
Thank You for visiting my blog.

11 comments:

  1. A Heart Touching and a very initiative post, Sir.
    Bollywood has been always popular among Bhutanese and I guess, it still is.
    Well, I include one among those list, so I am thinking if I could be of help to those students when I am eligible for now. But I know, by the time I reach Bhutan, I will be in need of funds too. Anyways, lets be positive about the article and really look forward for positive result sir.

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  2. thank you yeesi7 for your response...ya i m hopeful about it....in fact three of my friends are talking with their colleagues to raise fund..hope we bring smiles soon....keep talking about it with your mates there.....take care..

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  3. Inspiring and a great initiative indeed. Hope people come forward and help the needy ...

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  4. @ thank you Lotey Om
    @ Langa Tenzin Thank you..it mean a lot to me

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  5. wonderful...the idea is noble.....and such ideas will definitely bring out the best results....Will do anything..:)

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  6. sogyel bro, Thank you beyond the sky and the earth........

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  7. Awesome post!
    I like the concept.. and agree with the fact that television surely connects us with the world and teaches us a lot.

    I hope your post affects many..

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  8. Thank you Kushal Ashok for your lovely comment..it just motivated me more.....

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  9. This is very interesting.

    I think every school deserves to have a TV ( with no cable connection), DVD player and some educational CDs. But how much improvement would be there in the life of the children we are talking about.

    I think first a cohort study has to be done. There are schools in Bhutan who do have Television. Was there any significant change in lifestyle , thinking and imagination (in a positive way) beyond the expressive capability of books?

    Lets compare those students who have passed out from a school which had TV and was exposed to it at least 40 times (once per week for 40 weeks)a year and those who were not exposed to it for the same duration.

    In a cohort study, if it is to be found that those who were exposed did better performance in school ( as in their way of expression in writing essays and stories changes or their thinking and approach to discussion changes) , in real life, ( academically and non academically)and other factors compared to those who were not exposed to it ( in terms of attributed risk, relative risk, odds ration and chi square ) then i think the study deserves a positive response.

    Next thing i would like to mention is the cost. I assume the cheapest TV, with DVD set and Educational CDs would cost a maximum of 10,000Nu per set. How many sets are we talking about here ? what about the extra charges, and the maintenance?

    And i do think we should consider a cheaper way which has the same effectiveness to cover the entire nation as the television (if there is any) because according to a study in University of Freiburg, Germany

    "Boys with high TV consumption read fewer books, showed diminished activities outside home, a tendency for reduced school-related homework, and reduced interest in hobbies."
    (source : http://jea.sagepub.com/content/16/3/301.abstract)

    I would also like you to consider that in another study;
    "The findings are inconclusive but most studies suggest that television reduces the amount of reading. Young people's reading preferences are influenced by television, because books, the film versions of which have been broadcast, gain in popularity."
    (source : http://ejc.sagepub.com/content/4/1/51.abstract)

    However, I am very interested to know the improvement in the progress of children in a school exposed to television.
    I think you should go on with the plan, first testing your own hypothesis in your school. I am sure all of us would be happy to contribute for one TV set, DVD player and Educational CDs before the beginning of next session next year. Comparing the progress of children exposed to it after a year or so, with the previous achievements, intelligence, individual creativeness, hobbies, effective reading of books, participation in extra curricular activities and other relevant factors. I am in favour of your post. All the best.
    - O. Gruebel

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  10. @Anonymous...Thank you so much for going through the post and bringing out the core issues related to the post...it mean a lot to me..shall keep on hoping and keep on doing anything possible for the cause ...

    THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN..

    for more detail pls drop a line or two in my email gayatrib65@gmail.com..shall send you as soon as possible..hope you would support!!! Thank you

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