No bags, it’s masti time at govt schools

In a first-of-its-kind initiative taken by the District Education Officer (Elementary) the day was declared a ‘no bag day’ for the students of Government Primary Schools in the district. Happiness writ large on the faces of students as they played, engaged themselves in various entertaining, fruitful activities throughout the day — it was a day full of masti for them.

Kavya, a Class 11 student at Government Primary School, PAU, said it was so much fun and there were no studies. “We are having great fun. We played outside and did a lot of drawing, made shapes and flowers and so on,” she said excitedly.

Namandeep Singh, another students liked the activities and sports played with other students. “We had to jump and reach a circle and those who could not reach were out of the game. Everyone tried hard to be in the circle drawn on the floor,” he said.

For Diwali, many students painted beautiful pictures of diyas and candles. The teachers also played with us, helped us in drawing. There was no stress from books or the notebooks, there was no classwork or learning today. “I want such days more often, where we interacted with each other”, said Rajan, another primary wing student.

The messages were sent to the respective schools last evening and it was forwarded to parents on WhatsApp groups not to send bags to the students today. The students learnt to colour the Diyas, fake currency notes were provided to them to understand which notes were in use and which were discontinued by the government, the students made attractive articles for Diwali, they recited poems, sung songs and made social awareness posters, which were pasted on the boards.

The teachers said all the students were very relaxed.

The person behind this, DEO Elementary Ravinder Kaur said there should be a day in the academic year when the students should not be burdened with anything. “They should enjoy, mingle with friends, initiate interaction with one another, should come forward with their hidden talent, and should never take school as a burden. Formal activity charts were sent to schools and sports and activities were held in the primary schools based on that. It feels so good that parents and students have liked the idea and we got appreciation for declaring one day as ‘no bag day. The last Saturday of every month will be observed as a no bag day,” the DEO said.