At Sree Narayana Trust Higher Secondary School (SNTHSS) at Cherthala in Alappuzha, learning beyond the textbooks is the new normal.
As school students across the State are relishing their Onam holidays, a group of 25 students from the SNTHSS are busy conducting field visits to Thanneermukkom, Kanjikuzhy and Mararikulam North grama panchayats to gain practical knowledge about waste management practices and understand the current state of affairs. The students are visiting segregation units, households and establishments as part of project documentation under the Suchitwa Club, a wing of the Social Science Club of the school.
“The school launched the My Waste My Responsibility for New Kerala initiative to create practical awareness among students about scientific and eco-friendly waste management. The students will identify best practices in household waste management through field visits. They will observe and study material collection, including the type of waste and quantity, their management and segregation. Visiting Haritha Karma Sena units will help them get a better understanding of the segregation process. The students will also look for uncollected waste. They will submit reports on September 11, which will then be compiled and submitted to the respective local bodies,” says Sudeep P. Das, teacher and convener of the Social Science Club.
Prior to the field visits, students attended a workshop on waste management where experts from the Nava Kerala Mission trained them. As the next step, the group will be taken to some of the best-run waste treatment plants outside the district. They will also visit the Integrated Rural Technology Centre in Palakkad for a two-day training session.
In the meantime, the students will conduct a study about plastic pollution in parts of Vembanad Lake and submit a report to the Thaneermukkom grama panchayat. They will also prepare a report on waste dumping along the railway track in the Mararikulam area.
It is not the first time that the school has initiated practical approaches in imparting lessons to its students. Last year, the SNTHSS organised a series of field trips, seminars, study camps and orientation programmes to inculcate a deeper understanding of decentralised governance among its students. It took students to the Kerala Institute of Local Administration and Alappuzha district panchayat where they attended sessions about grama sabha, democracy and decentralisation.
The waste management project documentation is carried out with the support of the Nava Kerala Mission. The school also recently launched a programme to make its campus plastic-free and has set up a Thumboormuzhi-model segregation unit.
