Essay competition to facilitate dialogue on online game addiction (OG)
Students winning the 1500-word essay competition will be awarded Rs 10,000 for the first prize, Rs 6,000 for the second prize, Rs 4,000 for the third prize, and Rs 1,000 as a consolation prize.
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CHENNAI: To create awareness among teenage students about online gaming addiction, the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority along with the School Education Department will conduct a state-wide essay competition for students from classes 9 to 12 starting on December 2 (Monday).
The essay competition on the topic “Do you agree online gaming is a major concern among school students? If so, what are your recommendations to control the same among students?” will be conducted in both Tamil and English.
As per the notification from the department, the essay competition is being conducted both in Tamil and English to create awareness and facilitate discussion among the students from classes 9 to 12 in all types of high and secondary schools about the addiction to online games and their ill effects.
Students winning the 1500-word essay competition will be awarded Rs 10,000 for the first prize, Rs 6,000 for the second prize, Rs 4,000 for the third prize, and Rs 1,000 as a consolation prize.
The notification further stated that the school-level competitions will begin on Monday in both English and Tamil languages. Subsequently, the educational block-level competition will be held on December 5 after shortlisting the students.
Furthermore, after thorough streamlining, the district-level competition will be held on December 9. Following this, the name list will be handed over to the gaming authority members on December 10, and later it will be handed over to educational officials on December 12, the notification added.
“The school, block, and district level competitions must be held on the scheduled dates and the district education officer (primary) will be in charge of the same,” the notification read.
Meanwhile, an educationalist speaking to DT NEXT highlighted, “With children having easy access to smartphones now, the cases of addiction are rampant among teenagers. Besides such awareness events, this calls for more intervention from the education department”
The educationalist further added, “The government should also intervene in the growing usage of cool lip and other tobacco-related substances among children.”
