Wiz kids

Around 1,000 students from several Bhubaneswar schools took part in TCS IT Wiz, India's biggest inter-school quiz, organised by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Akshat Praneet and Sampriti Panda from Sai International School won the title after five rounds of quizzing at the regional finals.

The regional champions this year walked away with an iPad Air while the runners-up Sibaprasad Reddy and Spandan Dash representing DAV Public School Unit VIII - got an iPad Mini each and a specially designed trophy and medals. The six finalists also received an array of prizes from TCS, ranging from space packs, selfie sticks, earphones, bluetooth speakers and pen drives.

The winning team, along with a teacher/parent, will be flown to Mumbai for the national finals. State education and IT special secretary Rudra Narayan Pallai and TCS's state centre head Manoj Panda distributed the prizes.

Indradhanush

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar's presentation of Indradhanush was a colourful extravaganza of music, magic and dance. Around 162 students took part in the event organised by Nalco Foundation. They also engaged in an interactive session with senior officials and shared their experiences and thoughts. "This year, we are adding 100 more children from Pottangi area," Nalco chairman-cum-managing director Tapan Kumar Chand said, while addressing the programme.

The foundation takes care of the education of 655 children from the peripheral villages of Damanjodi through three residential schools - KISS (Bhubaneswar), Koraput Development Foundation (Jeypore) and Bikash Vidyalaya (Koraput).

The foundation will institute annual awards for four students to reward them for their excellent performance in academics and co-curricular activities. The awards will carry a purse of Rs 25,000 each.

Nalco also supports meritorious girl-students from poor families, who study in schools at the periphery of the company's production units at Angul and Damanjodi, under the Nalco ki Ladli scheme launched under the Centre's Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme.

Janmasthami

Several schools in the state capital celebrated Janmashtami with children turning up dressed as Krishna, Radha and Gopis for fancy dress competitions and other cultural events. They performed aarti and sang bhajans related to Janmashtami, while pujas were performed by the staff and the children.

"It was a lovely atmosphere at the school today. The fragrance of flowers, aroma of burning camphor and jingle of bells filled the air," said Subhashree, the parent of a Kalinga Kids School student. Several schools also distributed prasad among the children after the puja.

NEET qualifiers

Around 31 students from DAV Public School, Chandrashekharpur, have secured their spots inside the top 25,000 in the all india ranks in the recently declared NEET- the all-India medical entrance exam. Of the 102 students who appeared, 94 are in the merit list. B. Sarthak (110), Adash Mohapatra (177), Anjaneya Dhal (299) are among the top rankers.

Thirteen students were placed within the top 6,000 and 19 between 6,001 and 10,000. These students are eligible for admission into different medical colleges in India. The school authorities lauded the achievers and felicitated them for their achievement.

National anthem

Students in CBSE schools across Bhubaneswar took part in the mass recitation of the national anthem on Independence Day. They were joined by their teachers and other staff members of the schools. The event was organised following a directive from the University Grants Commission and the ministry of human resource development to educational institutes across the country. Several schools also conducted various activities from August 9 to 23 as part of the central government's "Azadi 70 - Yaad Karo Kurbani" programme to instil the spirit of freedom struggle and national movement among the youngsters.

Sanskrit week

Teachers and students of Mother's Public School celebrated Sanskrit Week to emphasise the importance of the language.

The event was celebrated over a span of a week. All announcements, prayers and speeches during the morning assembly were conducted in Sanskrit.

There was an entire event dedicated towards spreading the message about the importance of Sanskrit. Students expressed their opinions about the celebration through debates, poetry recitation and slideshows.