Students and teachers at the interactive session at Pandu College. A Telegraph picture

A team of disaster management experts from the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, (ADPC) Bangkok, and ministry of home affairs visited Pandu College on August 23 to evaluate the disaster preparedness of the college.

The team thoroughly examined the disaster management plan of the college, inspected the practical laboratories, staircases, escape routes and open spaces, besides meeting teachers, students and office staff in an interactive session.

Principal of Pandu College Bhubaneswar Bora welcomed the visiting team. It comprised M.P. Sajnani, aretired director of the ministry of home affairs and consultant of ADPC, Amit Tuteja, consultant of ADPC, Nandita Hazarika, state project officer of disaster management programme and Irshad Mirza, project officer of UNDP. Programme officer of National Service Scheme of Pandu College Shantanu Roy Chowdhury explained the purpose of the meeting and gave a presentation on the college’s disaster management preparedness. The various training programmes, search and rescue operation, civil defence training and first aid training conducted by the college were also discussed. The team expressed satisfaction over the preparedness and suggested some modalities to make the arrangement and motivation more effective

MYRIAD COLOURS: Children take part in an art competition at Ulubari Shivmandir organised by Ulubari Business Association in Guwahati on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Chit Chat

Bonds between Maria Public School, Birkuchi, and Adeyfield, UK are about to be strengthened.

The principal international relationship coordinator, Barbara Urdanowicz, career advisor and technical teacher David Lane from Adeyfield in the UK recently visited their partner school, Maria Public School at Birkuchi, Narengi.

This visit is part of the Department for International Development Global School partnership programme initiative delivered by a consortium of the British Council and Cambridge Education Foundation. The department for international development aims at helping teachers and students from the UK, Africa, Asia and Latin America to learn and respect the varied cultures and promote a better understanding between the citizens of the world.

A school official said the visit would develop the partnership further and build a strong base for youngsters of the two schools to acquire the values, competencies, skills and understanding that would help them to incorporate a global dimension in the curriculum.

Olympiad

The Seventh Chemistry Olympiad organised by the Society for Chemical Education, Assam will be held on September 14 at notified centres. The Olympiad will be held under four categories — Classes IX, X, XI and XII. The medium will be English, Assamese and Bengali (for the Barak Valley).

Those bagging the top three positions in each category will get cash prizes of Rs 2,000, Rs 1,500 and Rs 1,000 respectively.