St Stephen’s School, Birati

St Stephen’s School, Birati, is teaching its students how to grow their own food, that is, vegetables, fruits, herbs and the like, thereby giving them the opportunity to earn their own school fees as a step towards making the kids more self-reliant.

Grow Your Food is the name of the programme that aims to teach children how to grow organic and variety of vegetables at home with minimal cost. To give a proper shape to this initiative, a family pack food tower was designed which facilitates growing of about 1,000 plants in five feet by five feet area. All sorts of vegetable, including creepers and herbs, can be grown on the space, producing around 50kg of vegetables. Students are being introduced to organic soilless farming and microbes as well.

The fact that the pandemic made it difficult for some households to pay the tuition fees of their wards was taken into consideration by the school and, thus, an initiative called Earn Your Fees was launched, along with the Grow Your Food programme. The school has given students the seeds that they have to grow into plants and then hand them over to the school authorities. The school pays children for the plants that they have grown. These plants are then sold to the common public at a minimal price. “I am happy that the children have sportingly taken part in this initiative. They will not only learn to grow their own food, but also develop a knack for gardening — a positive step towards protecting nature. We are even planning to make this Grow Your Food initiative compulsory for the kids from the next session,” said principal Subrata Chatterjee.

Birla High School junior section, Moira Street

Birla High School junior section, Moira Street

The junior section of Birla High School organised a virtual annual prize distribution ceremony to mark the achievements of the students in academics and co-curricular activities for the academic session of 2019-2020. The virtual ceremony was conducted on two separate days for the lower and upper primary classes. The awards for sustainable excellence, highest achievement and subject prizes for English, maths and vernacular languages were given out at the webinar. Students with full attendance for one, two and three consecutive years were also awarded prizes. The best house and the best club awards went to Tagore House and the Quest Club, respectively. "It was important to acknowledge the hard work that our students put in. We didn't want their hard work and effort to go unnoticed. The annual day is something that is looked forward to by students, teachers and parents. We want to keep things as close to normal for our students in such trying times. They have been the worst affected in the pandemic. The online prize distribution ceremony was well appreciated by all," said Farida Singh, the headmistress.

Asian International School

Asian International School

The need for peace, better health policies and a greener world were discussed at a Model United Nations recently held virtually for students of Asian International School. The event aimed at honing the leadership skills of students and giving them the knowledge about the role of United Nations and its various agencies. It had children enacting as T.S. Trimurthi (India’s representative to the UN), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (director-general of World Health Organisation), Henrietta H. Fore (executive director of Unicef), Audrey Azoulay (director of Unesco) and many other eminent heads as they debated issues of economic and political interest. In the end, the students learnt how to negotiate and collaborate on resolutions made on the model UN platform. “This is an academic activity that will help students learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. It is meant to engage students and allow them to develop deeper understanding of the current world issues,” said principal Vijaylaxmi Kumar. Meena Kak, the chief guest and director of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, iterated similar sentiments. “Education is a process of learning, unlearning and re-learning that has made teachers reach out students even in this global pandemic. They are constantly learning, along with their students in this virtual world,” she said.