Recently, a board was installed at our institution to put up newspaper articles. The idea was to encourage students and teachers to read newspapers. Actually, to just read. We began with an open mind and four dailies. We were keen to get to know of the developments in the country and the subjects we pursued.
We began by reading and rereading the newspapers, shortlisting articles, pondering over them, and neatly putting them up on the boards. In the course of a few weeks, we increased the board area and made it more reader-friendly. ‘Shall we read?’ talked of parents’ and bookstores’ efforts to increase reading. We were doing our bit here. Next came the themes.
AI is extensively written about these days. We put up articles on how it reinforces gender and caste biases (Sociology) or even on how it discourages creativity. We also had articles on the water guzzling and carbon footprint (Education for Sustainable Development) that go into the development of AI. The details and the numbers left all of us surprised.
Civics followed. Newspapers had extensively covered the municipal elections in the state. This helped us discuss political parties, youth participation, voting practices, results, fair elections and democracy as a whole. We realised that our awareness of local bodies was not something we could be proud of.
Leopards were all over the landscape and the news, so they got dedicated space (EVS). We talked about how these sightings have a seasonal trend, possible long-term solutions at a landscape level and so on. This was of avid interest, especially as a leopard was trapped by the forest department not far from the institution.
The idea behind having History on the board was to underscore that the subject was alive and being discussed as it impacted our present and future. The articles talked of new galleries coming up in museums, new evidence uncovered in excavations, conserving and displaying significant relics, and even a ‘Return to Harappa’, which talked about toy kits around history. History was not exactly popular and some students would ask why they needed to learn history. These discussions helped address that, to some extent.
The ongoing debates in the country during the period were extensively covered in the newspapers: the Vande Mataram controversy, UGC regulations, Keezhadi excavations, the changes to the NCERT textbooks, what was going on with the Aravallis, and even the Preamble to the Constitution. These presented an opportunity for the classroom to engage with topics being discussed elsewhere, to read views and opinions of others, and agree/ disagree with them. More importantly, to learn to agree and disagree.
Then there were articles on books: reviews, author interviews, reports on literature festivals and reading. Among authors who got space were Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, and Satoshi Yagisawa, who had new books and Hindi writer Vinod Kumar Shukla, who passed away.
To our surprise, the most popular article was the one on the Japanese automobile company Suzuki making and selling Indian curries in Japan. Initially, we were unsure whether this was for real, but the article led to discussions about innovation and collaboration.
At one level, the entire exercise was about skimming through newspapers, reading shortlisted articles, pondering over them, putting them up neatly on the boards, and learning about the country. At another level, however, it was about realising that newspapers talk about and mirror the world, which is doing what it has always done: change and evolve. It was up to us to decide what we took from the newspaper. To me, personally, reading newspapers benefited my students and me.
We had taken the initial steps. We could connect the articles with our experiences (travel, reading, conversations), or read further on topics of interest, or learn the language (including how to write better), or take cognisance of the changes around us (new writers aka fresh voices emerging, cultural spaces coming up in cities), and be aware of the worlds beyond the small world we inhabit in a society that is increasing getting more insular.
The writer has been an educator and administrator in education institutions.
Published - July 11, 2026 01:24 pm IST