Communication

Communication is the sending and receiving of messages. EVS traces it from talking, drum beats and letters to the telephone and the internet, and asks children to see how quickly this has changed within their own family's memory.

Then and now

The telegram service in India closed in 2013 after more than a century, an example EVS uses to show how a whole means of communication can disappear within a lifetime.

Personal and mass communication

• Personal — letter, phone call, message: one person to one person.
• Mass — newspaper, radio, television, internet: one source to many people at once.
• Mass communication informs and also shapes opinion, which is why Class 5 EVS begins to ask whether everything seen or heard is true.

Signs and signals as communication

Not all messages use words. A red light, a school bell, a hand raised in class, a whistle at a crossing, a nod, a rangoli at a doorway and the symbols on a map all carry meaning. Class 3 EVS treats these as communication too, which is useful for children who are not yet fluent readers and for any child with a hearing difficulty in the room.

The post office

The post office remains part of the syllabus because it is a service children can visit. It delivers letters and parcels, runs savings accounts and money orders, and the postman is a familiar figure. Children learn to write an address correctly, including the PIN code of six digits, which is a practical Class 4 exercise.

Communication and the teacher

The chapter has a second, quieter purpose: language. Writing a real letter to a friend, a grandparent or the headmaster gives writing a genuine audience, which does more for a child's language than any exercise. A CTET pedagogy question on writing often has this as the correct option — write for a real reader and a real purpose.

✗ Television is a means of personal communication.  |  ✓ Television is mass communication; a phone call or letter is personal.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between personal and mass communication?

Personal communication passes a message between individuals, as in a letter or a phone call. Mass communication sends one message from a single source to a large audience at once, as in newspapers, radio, television and the internet.

What is a PIN code?

The six-digit Postal Index Number written at the end of an Indian address. It identifies the delivery post office and helps sort mail quickly, which is why writing it correctly is taught as a practical exercise.

How should letter writing be taught in a primary class?

By having children write real letters to real readers — a friend in another class, a grandparent, the headmaster — so that the writing has a genuine purpose and an audience, rather than as an isolated format exercise.