Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged teachers to make students aware of the dangers of drugs and help them reduce their screen time.
Interacting with national award-winning teachers on Friday, on the eve of Teachers’ Day, Modi said everyone in society should encourage students to take part in creative pursuits.
He stressed that teachers should look beyond academic performance and pay attention to students’ behaviour and everyday lives.
Modi said teachers have an increasingly important role in children’s lives as joint family structures become less common.
Speaking about drug abuse, he said it can be difficult to identify those affected by the problem in some large cities and universities, as people may not know who is supplying drugs to whom.
“In these circumstances, teachers should take the initiative for awareness and also observe minutely if any change is witnessed in any child,” he said.
Modi urged teachers to protect children’s sense of childhood and encourage them to remain engaged in positive and creative activities.
“You should not allow the childhood of a student to die,” he said, adding that teachers can make the biggest contribution to keeping childhood alive in students’ lives.
A video of the interaction was released on Saturday.
The prime minister said the teachers should enter the lives of the students, going beyond books and syllabuses.
"You should not allow the childhood of a student to die. The biggest contribution can be given by the teachers by keeping childhood alive in students' lives," he said.
Modi also talked about how teachers can keep the students away from long hours of screen time and encourage them towards outdoor sports activities.
The prime minister said children have the same basic nature and curiosity, and if teachers nurture and channelise this curiosity, they can make a significant contribution to their development.
He said screen time has become a major concern among students, as he urged the teachers to speak to parents about how much time their children spend on screens and whether they continue using mobile phones late at night.
Screen time can be cut naturally by developing an interest in sports, physical games and creative activities, he said.
Referring to the National Education Policy, Modi stressed the importance of taking children outside the classroom and connecting them with real-world skills and forms of work.
The prime minister praised a teacher who spoke about making women in her vicinity aware of breast cancer, and said a breast cancer awareness campaign was launched by him in Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency.
"I am happy to share with you that more and more women are coming forward for screening (for breast cancer), even setting a Guinness World Record for it," he said.
This year, 82 teachers and educators have been selected for the National Teachers Awards from three departments. These include 48 teachers from the Department of School Education and Literacy, 21 teachers/faculty members from higher educational institutions and polytechnics, and 13 skill trainers from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
(With inputs from PTI)