The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

SCHOOL BUZZ
Little angels take a leaf from nature’s book
Smriti Kak

Tiny-tots adopt yogic postures.

A children’s eco-camp was organised by Navdanya, an NGO led by environmentalist Dr Vandana Shiva. The organisation has been working on different community, biodiversity and environment related issues for the past 15 years in different parts of India.

The participating children at the eco-camp were from Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttaranchal, Kolkata, Delhi and Haryana. In addition to kids from well-known public schools and government schools there were kids from underprivileged backgrounds living on the streets, who were also made part of the activities.

On May 19, 65 students (age 10 - 16) from diverse backgrounds travelled from various regions of India to participate in the youth leadership camp at Navdanya’s rural sustainability campus known as Bija Vidyapeeth. At the end of the weeklong camp, a group of 10 of these students was selected to go to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Leading environmental visionaries Vandana Shiva and Mandla Mentoor interacted with and inspired the kids to help them understand their environmental future and to have fun doing it. Dr Shiva and South African activist Mandla Mentoor spoke to the kids about the many possible paths our future holds, and showing the children that they have the power to determine their future.

The children got to learn about food through a series of activities on organic agriculture, from sowing seeds to preserving them for future propagation.

Over the next few days, the kids worked in teams, learning about the issues of food, water and biodiversity while getting to know each other. The children developed campaign posters to promote awareness. They defined a future world that they would like to see. They came up with personal solutions that each of them was willing to commit to living by to have a better future. Each of these solutions has government action that coincides with the personal actions, and the kids will be sending out this action form to ask their leaders to follow by implementing the solutions at government levels that will provide them a clean happy future.

The concept of this project is unique in that the children are given the responsibility of deciding who will be appropriate to send to meet with the United Nations. Among those who have been selected to be the ambassadors to carry their visions to the world in August are Alysha Banerji, class 8, Shri Ram School, Gurgaon, Nupur Jain, class 9, St Mary’s School, New Delhi, and Azam, Meena Bazaar, Delhi.

Holiday capers

BON APPETIT: Tender hands chopping vegetables for a pizza.

Amity International School, Manesar, celebrated the onset of the summer vacation with vigour. They organised a fortnight-long summer camp where they participated in a host of fun-filled activities from educative and interactive sessions to project work and a do-it-yourself cooking session.

The camp also helped the children get familiar with epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. They also got a first-hand experience of the melodious ‘chaupais’ and therapeutic yoga. Personality development was also on the agenda for the youngsters.

Full marks

For their meritorious performance in the CBSE exams the Director-General of the CRPF, Dr Tirath Mishra, applauded the students and the staff of CRPF School, Rohini.

In class X out of 140 students 101 have secured first division while 39 have secured second division. While the school topper, Saurabh Sinha, has scored 94.4 per cent there are 34 others who have got distinction. In class XII out of 111 students, 106 have scored a first division while 61 students have scored a distinction. The class XII topper, Sandeep Kumar, has scored 95.6 per cent.

Hard work pays

Students of Vishwa Bharati Public School have made the school proud by scoring exemplary marks in the CBSE class X and XII exams. In class XII the highest scorer was R Mukunth with 94.4 per cent while in the commerce stream Monisha Nair scored the highest marks with 89.6 per cent.

In class X, P. T. Vihas scored the highest marks with 92.5 per cent. Says the topper, Mukunth, “There is no substitute for hard work and diligence. The adage of 95 per cent perspiration and 5 per cent inspiration has always stood me in good stead and worked wonders for me”. We believe you Mukunth.

Camp at Chilla

The scouts and guides of Vishwa Bharti went on a field trip to Rajaji National Park at Chilla, Hardwar.

The trip was peppered with a lot of adventure, learning and fun. From deep jungle trekking to sighting wild animals, from pitching tents to singing around a bonfire, the students had a whale of a time. This is what a student has to say, “This is the first trip I made alone without my parents. It was a learning process for me and I had lots of fun. We were also solely responsible for ourselves, though teachers were with us. I have become confident now. I can travel alone anywhere without any apprehensions whatsoever”.

Campaigning kids

To mark World No Tobacco Day observed on May 31, a contingent of school children led by Ms Mira Aghi, a social worker of the Indian Coalition for Tobacco Control and workers of the NGO conveyed the message of the hazards of smoking, eating paan masala and gutka at the New Delhi railway station.

Principal Speak
What we need is a green thumb

The mercury had soared to a blistering 45 degrees Celsius. The sun’s white light pierces the eyes like needles and there seems no solace. I wondered where all the trees had gone. The stone and concrete world appeared heartless. Dejected and sapped, as I walked on with my eyes downcast, a tiny, cheery little wildflower, peeping out of a crevice, nodded happily as it swayed in the hot wind. It instantly put a smile in my heart. Nature had taught me yet another lesson. My heart brimming with gratitude, I wondered if I would have to wait for Environment Day to show my respect and appreciation for the limitless blessings of nature, foremost of which is life.

God created Nature before he created Man. Nature nurtured us in her lap,

introduced us to the delights and joys of the world, fed us, healed our wounds and soothed away our cares. We’ve drawn our strength from her, have learnt our lessons from her and found our feet, but as we surge ahead, we’ve forgotten to thank her, express our gratitude or replenish what we took from her innumerable yet diminishing resources. Though drained and exploited, she continues to smile. Her patience deserves to be respected, not rudely ignored.

In the primordial societies and even today in the tribal and tradition-bound communities, the elements of Nature are deified as protectors of life. People revere the beneficent nature and appease her fearful moods. Today scientific theories and explanations may have stripped Nature of her divine aspect but they too endorse that man’s sustenance depends on Nature and on an understanding of our interdependence.

All civilisations have flourished along the banks of rivers, whose holy waters quench our thirst, cleanse our bodies and souls and become our life force. We, however, have only polluted pure waters, overdrawn from resources and choked banks and riverbeds with plastic bags. Every drop of water is precious. We need to save it.

Today, it is heartening that there is a renewal of concern for environmental issues. People are no longer waiting for governments to act. Grassroots’ movements are springing up everywhere and the vitality and creativity of these movements in India, especially rural India, are a source of inspiration. Where Nature is venerated, movements like the `Chipko movement’ take on a new strength.

The ecological imbalance, environmental destruction and poverty are not due to lack of knowledge, technology or even funds but due to lack of motivation and compassion. Thus, we need to rebuild this respect for man and nature. We need to pay our homage to Nature for being our true teacher and offer her the guru dakshina we owe her. We need not cut off and offer our thumbs like Eklavya did, we just need to turn them `green’.

It is time for each one of us to participate in this change in our own small ways—by sowing a sapling, protecting our trees, using eco-friendly products, not polluting the water bodies and not letting our taps drip. These will make Nature bless you.

We owe it to nature to curb our greed and lead simpler lifestyles. Even the animals in the jungle drink water from the stream only to quench their thirst and leave the rest to flow for others to use. They uphold this law unflinchingly. Surely, we too can obey rules and not grab what is not ours. We are often reminded that we have inherited this world to bequeath it to the future generations. Let us pay our tribute to Nature by preserving her beauty and riches.

Madhu Chandra Principal, Birla Vidya Niketan Pushp Vihar

CAMPUS CRAZE
Economics, journalism latest fad among students
Tarun Gill

New Delhi, June 2
Increasing commercialisation, shrinking public sector jobs and the growing importance skill-enhancement have had their effects on the campus as well with Economics continuing to attract the best talent.

“The demand for a course like Economics is growing every year with more and more students seeking to enroll in an honours course,” the Dean, Students Welfare, Delhi University, Dr Hema Raghavan, said.

Experts attribute the phenomenon to the growth of Economics as a discipline and its increasing importance in day-to-day affairs, more so after the structural reforms process was initiated in India in 1991.

The economic liberalisation process has meant that there is a greater understanding of economic issues among the common citizen, a fact that is manifesting itself in the larger number of students seeking to undertake a formal course in the subject, experts said.

“Even if it cannot assure a job after graduation, a subject like Economics can definitely help students in pursuing a career in business administration,” she said.

The mushroom growth of television channels has also had a positive effect on a seemingly non-professional course such as English. “English is also not lagging behind. Graduation in English can not only polish the person’s skills in the language but also opens job avenues such as television and journalism,” Dr Raghavan said.

Interestingly, Psychology is also becoming increasingly sought after, primarily due to the career opportunities in clinical psychology, industrial psychology and human resource development.

Other conventional courses like those in Political Science, Physics and Microbiology have not lost their charm still, mainly because civil services remain high the career agenda of many students.

Professional courses like those in Journalism are gaining immense popularity in colleges such as Delhi Arts and College (DCAC), Lady Sri Ram College of Commerce for Women (LSR).

“I would rather go for a professional course in Journalism than to waste my three years in doing something which cannot even assure me a job. I was planning to do Computer Science but the global recession has made me a little apprehensive about it. But Journalism is a subject which can never go out of fashion,” Anuradha, a prospective student of journalism, said.

As a result, courses like graduation in Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu Honours have taken a back seat with hardly any candidate coming forward as his/her first choice. With very limited career options, these are looked down upon.

“This year, we have even reduced the cut-off list to even 45 per cent marks to draw students to courses in Hindi and Sanskrit from all parts of the country. But no one seems to be interested,” Dr Raghavan said.