Exhibition on Governmental systems

The Central Idea of our UOI; Governmental systems was, “Governmental systems and decisions can promote or deny equal opportunities and social justice”. The students had finished their summative assessments and started the preparations to have an exhibition to show their understanding of the topics.
The exhibition was held on Friday, the 6th of March. The various topics included;
· 5 types of Governments recognized in the world.
· Indian Government system.
· Indian Fundamental Rights and Duties.
· Human Rights Issues around the world.
· Human Rights abusers and Human Rights activists.
· Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
· Interview Reports about the knowledge of Human Rights at school.
· Human Rights Banners.
In addition to the above, we had an “On the Spot” activity for adults where they could express their feeling about any Human Rights issue, which is close to their hearts by painting, sketching, slogans, poetry, songs, essays, etc.
The response to the activity was wonderful with people planning in advance about what they were going to do.
The classroom in the first hour of the exhibition resembled a “fun-fair” with explanations going on all around and the “activity” going on in the middle. The enthusiasm and encouragement shown by visitors, including some parents was wonderful and has to be appreciated.

The students were able to explain the concepts to the best of their abilities and their efforts were well appreciated by the visitors.
The work of all the participants was put on display and it was found that “female infanticide” & “education”, specially of the girl child, were the topics close to the heart, for the majority of them.
All participants got to wear a badge, “I CARE”, to show how much they support the various issues they felt strongly about.
The exhibition ended with the Grade 5 students learning how different people feel about different issues and how they express these feelings. The exhibition truly proved to be an enriching experience to the visitors and me.

Gowri murali

Grade 5

Human Rights and the Law

The visit to the office of Advocate Falguni Ghantiwala by my students and me was an enriching experience in itself. Mrs.Ghantiwala took time out from her busy schedule and welcomed us at her office. The students couldn’t contain their excitement and started asking various questions related to Fundamental Rights and Human rights. Mrs. Ghantiwala gave a patient hearing and answered all their queries specially related to juvenile crime, abuse and domestic violence. She also gave an insight about how a case moves from a lower court to courts at higher levels. She explained to the students that there are separate labour courts, consumer courts and juvenile courts. Every slum or shanty has a social service organization with social servants, which looks after the welfare of the people living there. Social servants are not denied entry to jails, remand homes, if they wish to inspect the same for some human rights abuse.
Wow! That was a revelation!
Behind the soft persona of Mrs.Ghantiwala is a woman of steel and her knowledge of the law makes her a force to reckon with.
Did you know there are 6 Fundamental Rights drawn up by our constitution?
Find out more by visiting: www.indianchild.com
Did you know there are 30 Rights in the Universal declaration of Human Rights?
Find out more by visiting: www.youthforhumanrights.org

Visit to Hydropower station ,Ukai

After prolonged waiting at last we got the permission to visit the hydropower station at Ukai. It has been possible because of Mr Pankaj Gajjar ,one of our student’s father and for this we are really very thankful to him .
We are also thankful to Mr Chowdhary( Sr. Engineer,Dam) and Mr. P.R Shah for granting the permission.

Students of grade 3,4 and 5 along with their class teachers Mariyam, Priyanka and Gowri were all set to go and waited desperately for 27 th Feb morning when we started from the school at 9 a.m.
As soon as we boarded the bus all the students got into the mood of MASTI and DHAMAAL and deliberately took out the packets of Kurkure and Lays and started eating them .We were just out of Surat when all the kids started demanding for taking a break so that they can enjoy eating their Tiffin .It was quite natural because mothers today had given a variety of junk food in their Tiffin which otherwise they are not allowed to bring in school. So we had to agree to their demand and took a break on the roadside where they enjoyed eating their party food.
We the class teachers along with the special educator Ms Janaki and head of the school Mr Vardan Kabra also enjoyed eating sandwiches ,idli and dosa brought by us.

After this we took a loo break ,in absence of any other option we suggested them to go ahead behind the bushes and they enjoyed this experience too.

We were all set to start our journey again and so boarded the bus once again .

We reached Ukai at about 12.30 p.m and collected our permission letter from PR office to visit Ukai dam. When we reached ukai dam all of us were fascinated by seeing the beauty of nature over there. The water seemed to be very fresh and clean and so students could not resist themselves going into the cold water.
Kids also observed the algae and fishes in the water and were inquiring a lot about it from the teachers. They also collected the shell from the riverside and brought them to their home.
It was lunch time now ,so we all went to Ukai circuit house where we had already placed the order for serving us chole ,puri ,salad and gulab jamun.
Kids enjoyed eating the lunch and more than this they enjoyed playing in the garden even when the sun was overhead
From here we headed towards the hydropower station which was the purpose of our visit.We reached the main gate of the station ,collected the permission letter and entered the station .When we reached inside the authorities requested us to divide the students in groups of 20 so that the understanding of the concept is better.
The first group followed by the second group went to the turbine room and there a person from the electricity generation department guided them about the procedure of electricity generation .After this we went to see the view point where from the students could see how water helps in the movement of the turbine.
All the students understood the concept of power generation and usage of water.

This trip basically helped 3rd and 4thstd as they studied about water and energy respectively in their unit of inquiry .
Nevertheless, for fifth std it was a great experience to see power generation although they did not study about it but they can now understand the importance of water.

We were all back to Surat by 6,30 pm and all the students were dropped at their respective stopages.
The trip to Ukai was a good combination of knowledge and fun

Priyanka Tiwari