"My School and Environment": A Drawing Contest
Creative expression is an important factor in childhood development, contributing to both emotional well-being and socialization. Recently Educate the Children sponsored a drawing contest for 4th and 5th grade students from several schools in our Godavari and Ichangu Narayan project areas.
The contest had as its subject “My School and Environment”. The goal of the competition was to encourage students to discover their own hidden talents, to learn to trust their own sense of the world and engage with it in a new light. Developing this skill can directly contribute to academic success because students learn to approach their schoolwork with a sense of discovery; even in subjects like math, where problems have definite answers, achievement can be improved if students find that getting to the correct answer can be as rewarding as having the answer itself.
In an educational system such as Nepal’s which is traditionally based solely on rote memorization, sparking the creative impulse that all children have can be a revelation not only for students but for teachers as well. Too often teachers fail to appreciate their students and treat them as lesser adults rather than as humans endowed with their own unique perspectives on their school, community or nation. So this contest was one way in which we at Educate the Children strive to provide teachers with creative strategies for engaging students in a meaningful and successful educational process.
Over 100 children from several schools participated in the contest. Educate the Children provided students with paper and color pencils and they had one hour to create a drawing without being able to see the work of their peers. This helped to encourage individual creativity as well as a little healthy competition. The contest was fun and the students were focused and competitive. First, second and third place winners were selected from both the Godavari and Ichangu Narayan areas. Man Kumari Rai, a student in Godavari was very happy about the contest: “It was great to be in this art competition which is so new experience for me, to learn new things and ideas. If I get a chance to participate in this type of competition again and again I’ll would do much better in the future.” The headmistress of Sabldyola Primary School, Poonam Rana, said “I never imagined that children would think so much about the subject of school and environment, but they really showed their talents on paper. It was a wonderful thing to see.”
Paru Lama, Grade 4, Bal Bikash Secondary School, Ichangu Narayan
Mandira Sunar, Grade 5, Siddheswor Lower Secondary School, Godavari
Ashok Pahari, Grade 4, Kitini Higher Secondary School, Godavari