The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

SCHOOL BUZZ
Students, teachers take pledge to save
Mother Earth
Smriti Kak

GHPS, Vasant Vihar, has been celebrating Earth Day from April 16. The celebrations will end tomorrow.

The students and teachers of the school have taken up the responsibility, by way of a pledge, to save the environment. Guided by the principal, Mr S. S. Minhas, they will ensure that they do the needful to protect the environment around themselves.

The entire week saw the students engrossed in various activities. Essay and painting competitions have been held to create awareness amongst the students. The topics like ‘Gurpurabs being the festivals of caring and sharing not noise and pollution’, ‘create parks not parking lots’ and ‘shoot with a camera not a gun’ were used to take the message further.

The topics chosen for the declamation contest too were aimed at teaching and touching the lives of the students. Some of the topics are the re-use of paper, use of car pools and conservation of electricity and water. The students also participated in a workshop on making paper bags using old newspapers. The whole school wore a festive look with the children having displayed their creative works.

School opened

The MDH Group has started a school in Sector 6 of Dwaraka. The chairman of the MDH group, Mr Dharampal, inaugurated the school. The ceremony started with a ‘havan’ and the cutting of the ribbon. A Saraswati Vandana was also performed.

The students, who were enrolled recently, presented a cultural programme while the principal of the school, Ms Geeta Parashar, welcomed the gathering and brought to light the goals and aspirations of the school. The guests of honour were Mr R. N. Rai and Mr S. N. Oberoi, secretary and treasurer respectively of MDH International School, and Mr S. R. Sachdeva, retired principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Rohini.

The special invitees were Mr A. Mahadevan, principal of Bibi Jaspal Kaur Public School, and Mrs Kusum Duggal, principal of MDH International School, Janakpuri.

Special kids

Sadhu Vaswani International School for Girls has done substantial work for children with special needs. They believe that the learning capacity of children with special needs can be enhanced significantly by providing meaningful stimulation at the right stage regardless of the age or severity of the challenging condition.

The special education centre started by the school uses a variety of programmes and activities aimed at developing academics, social skills, emotional development communication and self-help to children. The centre also lays emphasis on skills such as housekeeping, cookery, dance and theatre.

We had Mrs Laxmi Verma, a teacher, tell us more about the special education centre started by the school. “No child chooses to be born in a particular family with specific potential. In the context of the universal children rights declaration, however, every child, irrespective of race or caste, creed or colour, sex or religion is entitled to quality education. The challenge, therefore, for all the forward-looking educationists is not to help the brilliant and the gifted child to shine, but to make sure they are going the extra mile to fulfill the requirements of the children with special needs.

“It is in recognition of this fact that Sadhu Vaswani School took the courageous step in 1987 to identify and enroll children with special needs.

The school took the initiative to provide them quality education, something, which is their right. “We started with six children and now have more than 30. What was initially a small team today has a reasonable number of children and three special educators, a psychologist and a special therapist.

“If we study the individual cases we secure a deep sense of satisfaction that we have succeeded in providing better opportunities for these special children. It is a pity that not many educational institutions consider providing education and guidance to these children,” Mrs Laxmi Verma said.

The special education centre also integrates, both partially and fully, those children who are capable of appearing for class X board examinations conducted by the CBSE or the NOS with the mainstream school.

Not only does it help the children with special needs get familiarised with the normal children, but also helps in sensitising the normal children to the needs and requirements of the special children.

For the parents

Amity International School, Noida, held an orientation programme for the parents of nursery, class I and Class V students. The principal, Mrs Mohina Dar, gave the welcome address and apprised the gathering about the ‘Amitian Goal’ — the evolution of the upright citizen.

The headmistress, Mrs Roopa Singh, familiarised the parents with the creatively endowed curriculum and the teaching methodology being followed at Amity.

Mrs Preeti Joshi, a child development expert, spoke to the parents about their responsibilities toward the children. The entire programme turned out to be very interactive. The outgoing nursery batch narrated their experience of the year gone by. The parents of class V were informed about the methodology being followed by the school and the change-over to the formal system.

Junior’s day

Distinguished guests on the occasion of Junior's Day at GHPS, Shahdara.

GHPS, Shahdara, celebrated its junior’s day and held the annual prize distribution ceremony last week. The Additional Director, Directorate of Education, Mr S. D. S. Nissar, was the chief guest; the other guests included Mr S. Shamsher Singh Sandhu, vice-president of the DSGMC, Mr Tarjeet Singh Nagi and Mr Mangal Singh of the school management committee.

The programme began with the rendering of the Shabad. Tiny-tots also put up song and dance numbers. A special edition of the school journal was also released by the chief guest.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Nissar advised the students to perform equally well in academics as well as other curricular activities.

He also lauded the students and the staff for their performance. The vice-principal of the school, Mrs Kawaljeet Kaur, gave the vote of thanks.

MUSINGS
Failure is never final till we stop trying

Most of the walls that hold us back exist in the mind only. If we let them overwhelm us, they become insurmountable obstacles. But if we view them as steppingstones to success, they become invaluable experience. It is the positive outlook in life that determines our attitude for, a winner never quits and the quitter never wins. There is no failure except in not trying. Just as a hurdle racer has to cross all hurdles to win the race, the same way, we have to cross all obstacles in our life to achieve our goals.

Each hurdle crossed is success gained through the ‘power of mind’ which motivates you to reach the finishing line with flying colours. Rabindra Nath Tagore said, “What are obstacles to lower creatures are opportunities to the high life of man”. Human history bears testimony to the fact that the lives of successful men have not been fraught with predicaments, but the multiple problems like poverty and handicaps they faced have never deterred them from achieving their goals. Life is full of problems but we cannot turn away from the face of adversity. Like a kite that rises against the wind, we must overcome all resistance.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of bulb, failed 9999 times but the 10000th time, the bulb lit his life. What is remarkable is that he did not see the lost efforts as 9999 failures but as 9999 methods of how not to make a bulb.

Nature is our first teacher and the eye-opener. How can a child learn to walk if it does not fall? The message is clear. An initiation with zeal to attain our goals is of utmost importance. However, to gain heights of the sky, you must see the ground as the launching pad. Looking at obstacles as opportunities will bring success. Take the example of the great scientist, Albert Einstein. Once a fire reduced his laboratory to ashes. All his research, labour and work were ruined. But, instead of being sad and mourning, Einstein went on his knees and thanked God saying, ‘Thank you Lord for the fire’. It has reduced our mistakes to ashes.

Failures are very small and short lived when you look at them in a broader perspective of life. They refuel our will and determination to build a success story.

Problems make us introspect, identify and seek our forte and, most importantly, they make us think. We all know the story of the thirsty crow, which soon devised a clever solution to make the water rise in the pitcher and quenched its thirst.

Combating conflicts is an enriching experience which enhances the personality of a person. Have faith in yourself and God. Meditate to remove mental limitations. Often you don’t succeed for you have made up your mind that you cannot do it. When you convince your mind of its accomplishing power, you can do anything.

Courtesy: Birla Vidya Niketan, Pushp Vihar.