Thursday, April 21 2005 20:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Stressing on promotion of creativity among children, President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Apr 21, 2005) suggested the Centre explore ways to reduce syllabi for primary schools and make the bags of students less heavy.

"I would suggest that the creativity has to be built in the primary schooling of children in the age group of 5 to 11," Kalam said, after bestowing the National Bal Shree Honours on 22 children for creative excellence.

Observing that the time students spend in primary school is the learning period for children, he said that this time, "should be devoted to creative lessons like building model aircraft, rockets, spacecraft, cars, chemical experiments, electronic devices, computers, paintings, sculptures, music and dance.

"That means our present syllabus has to be reduced and the learning process should concentrate on creative lessons, creative products in the classrooms," he said.

"Can we bring down the bag weight of the primary school students," Kalam asked Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh who was present on the occasion.

Suggesting a five-point action plan for National Bal Bhavan, Kalam said that more such centres should be set up in rural areas to promote creativity and innovation among our rural youth.

Noting that promotion of creativity required creative teachers, Kalam said that it was necessary to recognise ten creative teachers on the national level.

Such teachers should be given awards on Teacher's Day every year, he said.

He said that a research cell may be created, as part of Bal Bhavan to study the creative potential among children and suggest educational and environmental interventions needed in schools to promote creativity and innovation.

He also asked winners of the Bal Shree awards to give a brief write-up on suggestions they would like to make for inculcating, sustaining and improving creativity among youth.

Advocating sharing of information and ideas, Kalam said that the National Bal Bhawan should invite Prof. Anil K Gupta, the vice chairman of the National Innovation Foundation to listen to his experiences on rural innovators.

Earlier, Kalam gave away the National Bal Shree awards for 2004 to 22 children in the age group of 9-16 for creative excellence.