Hyderabad: CBSE, ICSE and other boards have been promoting smart classrooms but many education experts and teachers feel that it doesn’t help in primary growth when implemented in classrooms with children of such young age.
Most schools have classes with smart boards from class I onwards, some even at pre-primary levels.
Ms Latha Shankar, principal of Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet says, “We have a smart classroom for the kindergarten classes, but many of our teachers are against it as they believe it spoils the atmosphere of a classroom. Moreover, there is the hurdle of the accent that most of these applications have. The pre-programmed voices do not have an Indian accent, and that makes it difficult for children.” Teachers say that access to technology at a young age will make them lax.
Deepthi Divakar, a teacher, says, “It is okay when you ask children to search for information on the web but making them reliant on technology from a young age is disturbing. Most children already join school immersed in smart phones and tablets, thanks to their home environment. The school should be a refreshing and educative change.”
Teachers believe that aids such as abacus and charts, on the other hand, help mental development better.
Bharath Kumar, a psychiatrist says, “The effect of technology on children is still a grey area. But what has been proved is that most technologies are brain stimulants. With repeated stimulation, children might tend to develop behavioural problems.”
Education experts believe that anything in moderation would benefit students. Swati Reddy, a member of Save Education forum, says, “The decision by school boards to implement smart classrooms is not a completely bad call. But students should be made to work on their projects on their own, too. Usage of libraries should be encouraged. Only if the subject requires visual media, it should be encouraged.”
