The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan on Tuesday issued a notification to all its schools, directing them to integrate into their curriculum the “Compassionate Citizen”, a humane education programme designed to teach children to be kind to animals.
“Compassionate Citizen”, which has been prepared by animal rights advocacy group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), will be integrated directly into the official curriculum via languages, science, social studies, environmental, and value education curricula.
Compassionate Citizen is designed to teach 8 to 12-year-olds to be kind to animals and has been endorsed by the Animal Welfare Board of India and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The programme offers tools and lesson plans to teach children to view animals as feeling, sensitive beings. It consists of a teacher’s guide, reproducible activity sheets, a reading unit and a 28-minute video – all devised to help students use their reading and reasoning skills to examine the complex lives of animals, how our relationship with them has changed over time and how to respond when animals are in trouble.Official statement, Kendriya Vidyalaya
The statement went on to say that the programme has to be included in the monthly curriculum as an extra-curricular day activity or a one-day workshop, and that it will be divided into four different sections.
The notification came after a meeting between representatives from PETA and KVS officials.
PETA has distributed the educational resource materials in English and Hindi to all Kendriya Vidyalaya schools. The programme is available in English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Telugu and can be made available in other languages, if needed.PETA India CEO, Poorva Joshipura.
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