CBSE to combat hate-speech, cyber bullying & others with meme study. Highlights: • 1 in 6 students face cyber bully attacks, • Training on holocaust to prevent genocide & social media • Learning expands to global events • Teachers to learn & sent evaluation to UNESCO

 CBSE to combat hate-speech, cyber bullying & others with meme study
Highlights:
• 1 in 6 students face cyber bully attacks,
• Training on holocaust to prevent genocide & social media
• Learning expands to global events
• Teachers to learn & sent evaluation to UNESCO
More than 83.2 per cent school children (study published in journal of preventive medicine & hygiene) have a significantly higher screen time than recommended 2 hours by world health organisation (WHO), furthermore, one in 6 (WHO study) of these children fall prey to cyber bullying, hate speech, frauds, scams, fake news and other social media evils.
In a first ever innovative attempt, central board of secondary school (CBSE) students will now be trained to beat these evils by learning to analyse, create and utilize memes. Not only this, this will just be a part of a bigger picture wherein students will explore the effects of Holocaust.
During this new assessment study and training, students of class 9 and 10 will be given tasks to question the difference between facts, opinions and beliefs.
Global learning: universal effect of actions
With the advent of the internet, all aspects of life grew from local to global. Now, with social media, internationalism and global access to everything, it’s a global village where future generations must live.
With pic – UK Jha
“One of the biggest challenges is: to prepare students to counter various evils for this new world, which is not possible by just putting restrictions. The only way is to develop and guide students to understand the difference between truth and fake.
 The special inclusion of Holocaust manual will prepare them to see how one thing affects the entire world and furthermore, they will learn to identify and counter issues like hate speech.”
UK Jha
CBSE coordinator & principal of Ekayanaa School
Meme study
Memes, defined as attention-grabbing images with clever captions that pepper social media feeds—permeate our cultural discourse. While memes have the potential to replace thoughtful conversation and impede connections between different opinions, with proper scaffolding they can be the entry point for critical thinking.
Hence, analyzing memes will be used as an essential technique to help students combat hate speech, misinformation and disinformation in the digital age.
“Seeking answers from students and reverse the teaching trend to self-introspection is the new way of learning. For example, students must ponder on how social media shapes their identities. Do they feel like the person they are IRL (in real life) is the same as the image they present on social media? How do they feel about the accuracy of information they see on social media?”
Manoj Bajpai
CBSE resource person & principal of Birla School, Indore
21st century skills
Until now, most students were informed and sometimes given research on a subject. Rather, this time, students will not only study and learn about a finding, they will be required to provide credible evidence to support the message of the meme.
The twist is that once research is completed, students must discuss the opposite message of the assertion.
“Asking reverse questions to students is a new and beneficial concept. Students must think before making a statement at all. This helps in critical thinking abilities that are a must for surviving in the 21st century.”
Timsi Rai
Director of Advanced Academy
Teachers’ training & learning for 21st century style
Until now, it’s been book learning, internet research and curriculum based teaching. With the challenge of teaching students with memes and guiding them on research, even teachers are required to learn about them.
“For being good at this, we have asked teachers to familiarize themselves with memes and analyse them during summer vacations. Teachers must acknowledge the negative and positive power of the medium and refrain from a personal response to memes students choose, giving the task of critically analyzing the meme back to the students.”
Dr Anju Chopra
Principal of Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vihar
Evaluation to go to UNESCO
The Evaluation Survey of this learning module has to be submitted by educators to UNESCO after completing all the lessons.
The concept note from UNESCO for educators said, “The Holocaust began with words - and in the internet and social media era, the power of propaganda is more devastating than ever. But education and knowledge can help prevent genocide.”