Source : Times of India
KOCHI: A judge who evaluated participants in the Haritha Vidhyalayam contest was pleasantly surprised to find that Athira Mohandas, a Class X student from SNDP HSS Udayamperoor, had read Kamala Surayya’s Kolad and was even able to analyse its social relevance.
The faculty members of the school, which secured the first place in the contest, were not surprised by their student’s well-informed response as it was the result of their relentless effort to help their student engage with literature.
For the past six years, the school has been undertaking various innovative programmes to introduce their students to writers and their works.
“One of our first initiatives was converting every classroom into a museum dedicated to a specific writer. We had museums dedicated to M T Vasudevan Nair, Kamala Surayya and so many others,” said Rekha Rajappan, English teacher at the school.
In the last academic year, the school made all 3,000 students represent one book they read as a graphic or even as a quote on a large canvas. “When the students in my class submitted the book report I ensured that they had read the book entirely,” said Rajappan. Apart from these activities, this government-aided school also brings renowned writers to for interactions. This academic year they organizedinteractive sessions withwriters’ C V Balakrishnan, Perumbadavam Sreedharan and SanthoshEchikkanam.
“The latest book I read this year was Aarachaar by K R Meera. I had heard people talking about the book in school, so I was very curious about it and book was everything good I heard about it and more,” said Abheeshna Prakashan, Class XI student with SNDP HSS Udayamperoor.
K Anvar Sadath, vice-chairman and executive director, KITE, said that the main purpose of the Haritha Vidhyalayam event is not to create competition between schools but form a platform where schools can learn and inculcate some of the innovative methods adopted by others.
“A crucial cog in the running of our school is the micro-units we have created for administrative efficiency. We have small units which consist of three classes and within these units, we have two students, two parents and the class teacher from each class that can raise relevant issues. And later these issues will be taken up by the PTA,” said E G Babu, principal, SNDP HSS, Udayamperoor.
