KOCHI: Stressing on the need of promoting citizenship education among students, Binu PG, a 40-year-old freelance teacher from Kottayam, proposes the idea of starting constitutional clubs in schools.
He has already approached governor Arif Mohammad Khan and the Raj Bhavan has forwarded his request to the Office of President of India in March 2020. Even though the pandemic has affected the follow-up of the request, Binu is optimistic that a positive decision would be taken by the government.
Binu, who has been travelling across India as a teacher, said that the students need to be taught the constitutional values at a very young age and the best way to do it is by inculcating citizenship education in the school and include it in the curriculum.
He said that as India celebrates its 75th year of Independence, it would be the ideal time of implementing such a historic move in the field of education.
“Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It is not just a book. The things written in it and the values it uphold make the country India. However, sadly many of younger generation have no idea about the constitutional and the citizenship values. I have been taking classes on the Constitution for nearly 10 years. All students must be taught it and it will help them to be better citizens abiding by the law,” said Binu who is a teacher for 15 years and had even worked as the project officer of National Service Scheme in Kerala.
He said that the constitution club aims to develop student’s ability to participate in societal activities and promote constitutional literacy. “It will help students evolve into informed and thoughtful citizens and thereby strengthen democracy. It will change passive citizens to active citizens,” he said.
Besides constitutional clubs, Binu in his letter to the governor requested the government to take necessary steps to highlight the contributions of B N Rau, who was a civil servant, jurist and constitutional scholar.
“Government of India should give deserving importance to the role of Rau in drafting the Constitution. Even B R Ambedkar appreciated very openly about the contributions of Rau. But, unfortunately now Rau’s role and contributions do not receive the deserving recognition,” he said.
