NBT workshop on role of story-telling in education

Story Ghar of the National Book Trust organised a symposium for educators on the Role of Storytelling in Education on 15th January 2017 at Pragati Maidan. It was conducted by Ms. Jaishree Sethi, Director, Story Ghar, Ms. Diyasree Chattopadhyay, Managing Director, Madhuban Educational Books and Mr. Vishesh Gupta, Principal MHPG College, Moradabad. The objective of the workshop was to use story-telling as an intervention in classrooms and integrate it with the curriculum.

Ms. Chattopadhyay spoke of how she resented history as a child because it felt hum drum. Her class VII history teacher, however, was responsible for changing her attitude to the subject. She was drawn by the teacher's easy-to-relate, story narratives and began to visualise historical events better. According to Ms. Chattopadhyay, several topics, not just in history but in other subjects too, can be dealt with effectively with the medium of stories. She encouraged teachers to think along these lines and come up with suggestions. Mr. Vishesh Gupta remarked how todays generation is staying away from books and therefore it is even more important to incorporate stories as a medium.

The hour long session was well spent. It included several suggestions to get the teachers started. But, more importantly, it got them to begin thinking actively from this perspective.

Ms. Sonia Nayar