There should be a dedicated television (TV) channel to instill the religious, national, and cultural values among the children, the child psychiatrists, and education experts said on Sunday.
Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Head of Psychiatry Department Professor Dr. Rizwan Taj emphasised starting a TV channel especially, for children and youth.
He criticised that since the television industry started flourishing and despite the expansion of different networks, not a single channel was dedicated for children and the youth. He contended that it would have thought the young viewers how to enhance their skills and to prove themselves as a useful member of society. “If the content aired on that channel would be composed and created while keeping in mind our origin, the young generation would have the opportunity to learn true customs, tradition, norms, standards, and values.”, Dr Taj said.
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He expressed that the channels should cater to the needs of children and youth while keeping in mind their different age groups, from toddlers to youngsters as all of them needed different programs.
Another PIMS Senior Child Psychiatrist Dr.Amir said he had seen many cases in which young minds had picked eccentric behavior after watching meaningless stunts of supernatural heroes in cartoons and parents found that uncanny, he added. ‘’TV channels should focus on teaching children sympathy, harmony, humanity, and modesty by showing decent content,’’ he suggested.
Further, a senior educationist Ahmed Ali said it was a serious and necessary task as children of the modern era had fewer outdoor recreational places to spend quality time. A channel fully dedicated to the children would divert their attention from electronic gadgets and games, he added. As the population grew, high rise buildings and commercial centres replaced playgrounds and parks, Ali noted. He said that the generations of the 90’s, unlike the modern generation, were quite fortunate as they had more parks and playgrounds to stay busy with different sports.
It would be a novel step to dedicate a channel for youth as they would be the ones to transfer heritage to the next generations. However, there would be immense and constant efforts to create high-quality content, the purpose of programs whereas the transmission should be based on educating children in a manner that was fun for the young viewers, the educationist noted.
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Moreover, Principal Islamabad College for Boys Ali Ahmed Kharal said the internet and smart technology were indeed useful but, he criticised, it has worsened the behavior of children as by staying indoor parents are compelled to provide smartphones to children. Even a three-year-old child could play a game on a smartphone, while teenagers could see anything on YouTube, it doubled the worries of parents to divert the children interest towards positive elements as they had no choice, he opined.
Kharal said that no previous government did nothing for it but in contrast, the number of channels for adults was launched abundantly. Art activities such as theatre, poetry, and other extracurricular events were rarely organised for the young generation, he added. The principal lamented that fine literature for children was not written in abundance both in Urdu and English while the available books were beyond the reach of many as they were expensive.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2020.
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