Outdoor Classroom Day invites India’s teachers embrace outdoor learning and prepare children for the future
Mumbai: Action for Children’s Environments or ACE, an NGO and a charitable trust working towards creating safe, healthy, inclusive and resilient living environments, for children and young people is calling on teachers across India to take at least one lesson outdoors on Thursday, October 12, 2017, as part of the global Outdoor Classroom Day campaign.
The campaign is a response to the decline in the time that children spend outdoors. Research has found that 56% of children globally play outside for one hour or less each day1 – that’s less than the two-hour guideline for maximum security prisoners in the US. Furthermore, in India, 56% of parents believe their child has less opportunities to play than they did as a child1
In India, primary school students spend about 51 hours more in classrooms that their OECD counterparts annually, and research shows that if more time is allocated for recess, there will be a greater willingness to study among students.2
Seventy Nine per cent of children report that having time to play at school helps them to concentrate in lessons.3
In fact, in some cases such as in Puducherry, India, only a 15-minute recess is given during the six-hour school day. The same is true for many schools across all states in India. Shrinking of play space in Indian schools, due of lack of land in cities, poses another problem. Almost half of India’s children have no playground at school. 4
In response to similar situations as above, in 2016, almost half a million children around the world, got involved in Outdoor Classroom Day by having their lessons outside (within and outside school premises) and celebrating playtime. And 92% of schools agreed that children engaged more with their learning outdoors!5
Outdoor learning improves children’s health, engages them with learning and leads to a greater understanding of nature. Moreover, as per a study conducted, opportunities for spontaneous play may be the only requirement that young children need to increase their physical activity.6 Play not only teaches critical life skills such as resilience, teamwork and creativity, but is central to children’s enjoyment of childhood.
ACE is not alone in its drive to reconnect children with the outdoors. Thousands of schools across the world are taking part and India’s teachers are being urged to join them. To date, 2,102,579 children around the globe are getting involved! The NGO believes that getting outdoors to play and learn isn’t just ‘nice to have’, but is critical for children’s development.
Dr. Sudeshna Chatterjee, CEO of ACE Trust said, “We’re calling on teachers, parents and anyone who cares about childhood to get involved in the campaign on October 12th, 2017. Whether that’s by taking a class outdoors, encouraging your child’s school to sign up, or helping spread the message far and wide, everyone can do something to make sure children across the country experience the benefits of playing and learning outdoors.”
There are lots of resources available to support people to take action at: https://outdoorclassroomday.in/. Get involved in Outdoor Classroom Day and help make sure children across the country have happy childhoods and are well prepared for the future.
The global Outdoor Classroom Day is led by Project Dirt, in partnership with Unilever as part of their Dirt is Good movement.
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For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact Trisha Tejani on +91 9766770772 or [email protected], and Neeti Mansinghka on +91 9772862100 or [email protected].
Survey Methodology
The global study included a 20 minute online quantitative survey with over 12,000 parents (both mothers and fathers) who have at least one child aged 5-12. It was executed across 10 markets – United States of America, Brazil, United Kingdom, Turkey, Portugal, South Africa, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and India. A total of 1,000 interviews were conducted in all markets except the United Kingdom and the Unites States of America, where 2,000 per market were performed to meet media standards. All markets are representative of the online population in these markets.
Research was conducted by Edelman Intelligence, an independent market research firm. Fieldwork was conducted in February and March 2016.
The margin of error for the total sample is ±0.9% at the 95% level of confidence.