For two weeks from school reopening, from June 3 to 13, government and aided school students from Class II to X will have a one-hour 'bridge period' daily during which they will be familiarised with social and civic issues using participative tools like seminars, debates, and theatre performances.

"The idea of the 'bridge hour' is to reconnect students with what they had studied in their previous standard but would have lost touch with in the intervening three-month vacation period. But we realised that it would be fitting if the methods used for bridging could also inculcate social values in them," General Education Minister V Sivankutty said on Wednesday.

As example, he said the book 'Thelivaanam Varakkunnavar', jointly prepared by the Excise and General Education departments, was just right to instil in children an anti-drug outlook. "The students can script a play or organise discussions around the themes of this book during this hour. This way they get introduced to new ideas and thoughts that they can use in their fight against drugs," the minister said. He said that additional time would be provided for plays and seminars.

The other topics that would be taken up during the 'bridge hour' are traffic laws, personal and community hygiene, the importance of nutrition and fitness, sensible mobile use, the need to protect public property, and a sense of mutual respect.

"All these are part of the syllabus. But during the introductory bridge hour, they will be introduced to these topics. They will learn about all this in detail in due course," Sivankutty said. "The exercise will also help teachers to understand their wards right at the start of the academic year. They can gauge where their students stand in terms of language, science, social studies and mathematics," he said.

The classes will be conducted on the basis of modules prepared by the school resource groups. The theme to be chosen on a particular day has been fixed. When to conduct the one-hour bridge period is left to the discretion of schools.

  • June 3 - drugs
  • June 4 - traffic rules and etiquette
  • June 5 - personal and community hygiene
  • June 9 - health and fitness
  • June 10 - digital discipline
  • June 11 - protection of public property
  • June 12 - mutual respect and cooperation
  • June 13 - conclusion

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