SHILLONG, Feb 6: Members of the South Asia Women in Media (SAWM) gathered in here on Monday for a national media workshop on ‘Children’s Learning Issues after Covid: Reportage and Coverage.”
The workshop, held at the City Hut Conference Hall, was attended by about 40 delegates from across the country representing the print media, TV and online news channels, and freelance journalism.
The vice president of SAWM and host of the workshop, Patricia Mukhim, welcomed the gathering.
She noted that the COVID pandemic had disrupted education, and stressed the important role of the media in constructively reporting on school education. In her opening remarks, Nilova Roy Chaudhuri, the general secretary of SAWM, outlined the objectives and agenda of the workshop, and introduced the speakers for the conclave.
The opening presentation on “Malnourishment and Learning in Meghalaya and the Northeast states” was delivered by Dr Glenn Kharkongor, ex -vice chancellor of Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU), Shillong.
Former professor of Pediatrics, Kharkongor described the connection between stunting in children and poor cognitive development. This leads to impairment of learning ability and poor performance in school. Meghalaya, with the highest prevalence of stunting in the country, is beset by a high dropout rate and low pass rates in school board examinations. Malnutrition as a key factor in low academic performance receives little attention from the government and media.
Dr Iwamon Laloo, professor of education at MLCU, spoke on “Primary Education and Foundational Learning in Meghalaya and the NE States.” She provided statistics from the Annual Status of Education Report 2022 (ASER), that showed low ability in reading and mathematics in most of the Northeastern states, comparing them with the National Achievement Survey 2021. According to many parameters, children’s education was adversely affected by Covid. She emphasised the importance of parent and community support for schools and teachers.
Senior media person, Uma Sudhir of NDTV, in her presentation titled ‘Election Promises vs Ground Reality’, gave an overview of the poor state of education in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and gave a graphic account of how children from poorer families continue to be stigmatized by their peers and how education is still out of reach for many even today
Other speakers included Dr Syeda Afshana, University of Kashmir, who narrated the challenges and opportunities of digital learning. Rekha Dixit, a senior journalist, spoke on the need to report on school education stories that need to be told, because there are often stark differences between government reports and statistics, and ground realities. The vibrant discussions of the conclave threw up many inputs and ideas for reporting on the education sector.
The SAWM meeting also saw the re-launch of The Thumbprint news magazine edited by Teresa Rehman, which had earlier run into some technical glitch.
It may be mentioned that SAWM, a network of women media professionals from the eight SAARC countries, works for freedom of press, increased participation of women in the media, a gender-sensitive work environment and a gender-equal outlook in the media.
