Last Updated:
Visual content has become the bridge between old and new methods of education. It does not replace teaching but ensures that kids comprehend what they are learning.
Research shows that visual learning improves retention by nearly 65%
A child today learns to swipe before they learn to write. Their earliest stories come from screens, not textbooks, and by the age of thirteen, the average Indian child has already consumed more than 1,200 hours of online video – far more than the time spent reading anything on paper. Visual content has become the language children think, feel and remember in.
If this is the world they inhabit, education must ask a simple question: Are we still teaching children in a language they no longer speak?
The Rise of Visual Learning in the NEP Era
The National Education Policy 2020 pushes Indian classrooms away from memorisation and toward understanding, experience, and creativity, states Syed Sultan Ahmed, Festival Director, School Cinema International Film Festival (SCIFF) & Founder & Chief Learner, LXL Ideas Pvt. Ltd. In many ways, it aligns closely with how digital-native children naturally learn. Research shows that visual learning improves retention by nearly 65% and speeds comprehension by close to 40%.
A scientific principle becomes clearer when seen in motion; a historical event feels real when viewed through characters instead of listed as dates. The NEP asks us to connect learning to real life, and visual content delivers that connection instantly.
Film as a Learning Experience
Among all visual formats, film occupies a unique and powerful space because it carries emotion. Learning anchored in emotion lasts. When a child watches a thoughtfully selected film, they pick up empathy without a lecture, understand relationships without worksheets, and form opinions without being told what to think. This is why more than 60,000 schools have used School Cinema, and why the School Cinema International Film Festival (SCIFF) has reached over 10 million students since 2017. We do not bring films into classrooms for entertainment; we bring them because films make children think.
Why Visual Content Resonates with Students
Today’s learners decode the world through images, colours and moving narratives. Visuals help them feel before they analyse, and that emotional entry point is often missing in traditional teaching. A child may forget a paragraph they read last week, but they will remember a scene they watched three years ago. Visual content strengthens conceptual clarity, independent reasoning, imagination and cross-cultural understanding. It also levels the playing field. A story cuts across language, background and academic ability. Whether a child is in a metro school or a rural classroom, the film speaks to both.
A New Direction for Classrooms
As classrooms evolve, integrating visual learning is no longer an enhancement – it is becoming central to how young people absorb information. This is why SCIFF 2025 is bringing more than 100 curated films from 25 countries to over 41,000 schools across India this November. But watching is only the beginning. The future lies in helping children make films, not just watch them. When students script, shoot, and edit their own stories, they learn collaboration, communication, planning, empathy and self-expression—skills no textbook can fully impart. Watching builds awareness. Making builds agency.
Education stands at an important crossroads. On one side are traditional methods that served earlier generations. On the other is the reality of learners who interpret the world through a screen long before they interpret it through a textbook. Visual content has become the bridge between these two worlds. It does not replace teaching; it makes teaching land. It does not lower academic standards; it deepens understanding. It does not distract children; it speaks to them in the language their world has already chosen. If we want learning to remain relevant, meaningful and memorable, then “Watch, Learn, Make” is not just a festival theme – it is a design principle for the modern classroom.
November 26, 2025, 18:04 IST