Community service brings laurels to Navodaya Vidyalaya

DAVANAGERE: Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in Devarahalli village near here has won seventh e-India-2011 Award. JNV principal Ammal C, who received the award at a programme in Gandhinagar of Gujarat, said the award is in recognition of their attempt to address community-related problems, especially that of women so they are made self-reliant. Besides classroom teaching, the students have been motivated to involve in community-development programmes, she said.
Eight batches of students from high school, who have taken up community projects under teacher's guidance, have created awareness among the locals about their problems and the possible solutions. The projects were implemented using digital-learning mode under information and communication technology (ICT) as part of e-India contest.
The programme was organized by the department of Science & Technology (DST), Information Technology (IT) and Communication Technology (CT)and All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE, New Delhi). The students have worked on eight different projects, including the one related to hard water. "The presence of high fluoride content in groundwater had prompted us to recharge the groundwater through rainwater harvesting," said teacher-guide A Ravi.
After implementing the project, the quality of groundwater in 15 borewells of the village has improved," Ravi added. Another project involves training of women villagers in mushroom cultivation, and it is being guided by the principal. The other projects cover creating awareness on the ill-effects of alcohol and smoking through street plays, the importance of population control, sanitation and hygiene, consumer awareness, women empowerment and simplified way of learning English. Speaking on JNV's achievement, Devarahalli GP head Vasudeva Shetty said they will support teachers and students to take up many more projects.