School weather stations will help students understand climate change, monitor variations in weather near their schools, and make interventions for the benefit of agriculture, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said.
He was speaking after the State-level inauguration of the school weather station project of the Samagra Shiksha, Kerala (SSK) at Dr. Vayala Vasudevan Pillai Memorial Government Higher Secondary School, Kollam district, here on Saturday.
The Minister, in his inaugural address, said that as schools were becoming modernised, the General Education Department was trying to implement programmes that could help students know and understand science better through the use of scientific and technological equipment. The school weather stations would help students monitor in advance the daily weather conditions of their local area and climate and prepare data on it.
The school weather station at the Dr. Vayala memorial school is the first of the 240 school weather stations coming up across the State in higher secondary and vocational higher secondary schools where geography is a subject. The project will receive support from the India Meteorological Department, Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, and Kerala State Disaster Management Authority.
More schools
The Minister said this was the first time that such a project was being implemented in such a large number of districts of a State. Steps would be taken to set up weather stations in more schools in the coming academic year.
Minister for Animal Husbandry J. Chinchurani presided. Kollam district panchayat president Sam K. Daniel released the school weather station guidelines. SSK State Project Director Supriya A.R. was present.
