With the growing distraction towards formal education among the children, mostly due to increased likeness towards use of technology, it has been very difficult for the teachers to support the children to have their attention intact and constant on studies. Internet has become free, but not books, food, medicines, and other basic needs. It has become part of our life, through a simple smart phone. Some of the adolescent children of our projects work hard as daily wage labour so that they can buy smart phones. This is so attractive to them that they fail to prioritize their needs over wants.
Very recently the activity centre teachers have adopted debate as a medium for educating children. At the activity centres debates were organized among group of children, mostly adolescents, where they debated on topics like “Smart Phones are useful for children”, among others. The children were not only interested in the topic but were enthusiastic during their participation in the debate session. Although the group of children who presented the “disadvantages of using smart phone” won, due to their good presentation and summing up skills, yet the group supporting “advantages of using smart phone” came up with a unique idea. To put their idea into their words— “at this moment we cannot take out smart phone from the planet, what we can do is use this as a tool to educate ourselves”. They described how they use “google” to study and learn about science experiments. One of them says, “While reading the experiment from my book, I felt bored and was unable to concentrate, but when my elder brother showed me that through a video I understood it so easily”.
There were many other topics on which the children debated, like– “necessity of games and sports”, “Having a uniform in school”, “saree as a uniform for school for girls”, “children should be included in decision making in the family”.
Debate as a tool for education has been very effective in our learning centres, as it helps the children to think more deeply on various issues. Active participation in debates helps children to build their confidence and improve their communication skills. The teachers are working on using various text book chapters to use as topics for debate, which will help the children in having fun and learn at the same time.