Ganjam: Education Officer Popularizing ‘Building as Learning Aid’ Concept amid Lockdown

Berhampur: Next time you will visit the Block Education Office (BEO) in Dharakote in Odisha’s Ganjam district, most certainly you will be easily mesmerized to the world of colors and pictures drawn on the walls of the office building. These are the creation of an education officer to popularize the concept of ‘Building as Learning Aid (BaLa) for creating a joyful environment for the kids to learn with fun.

ABEO (Assistant Block Education Officer) cum BRCC Sauri Shankar Behera took his leisurely hours amid hectic COVID-19 related works to paint the office building with thematic pictures and drawings to maximize the educational value of the built space.

Sauri Shankar, who has an artistic family background, says it gives him immense self-satisfaction in doing some creative works to boost the teaching-learning process.

The artist-turned teacher thought of using his skills to popularize the concept of the BaLa during the ongoing lockdown.

With the help of some like-minded teachers, the education officer started drawing the pictures on the walls of the office building.

Besides doing the COVID-19 related works as assigned by the district administration, Behera took up the painting task voluntarily and does it during free hours.

“No doubt, schools are specialized spaces for learning. We used to believe that school buildings were meant to provide shelter to the activity of education and thus treated them as structures of bricks and mortar, rather than as enclosures that encompass a learning environment. But with the introduction of BaLa, much attention is paid to the interface between building design and the design of the teaching and learning program”, says the AEBO.

The concept behind it is to make use of the school space aesthetically in order to make every child learn with fun in a joyful environment in which he or she can relate to quickly, he added.

Impressed by his works, some teachers are showing great interests to replicate the same model at their respective schools in the block.