Securing present of students will brighten their future, says CM
By renovating school buildings and providing a better environment for education and safety of students, the present and future of the students will be secure. Stating this, the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that considering the disaster vulnerability of Uttarakhand, it is also necessary to inform both students and teachers about natural disasters. Referring to the challenge of human-wildlife conflict, he said that the nation’s first training centre on human-wildlife conflict will also be opened in the state. The CM said this at a function held under the Honeywell Safe Schools programme during which 15 schools were handed over to the State government after being restored, repaired and retrofitted by Honeywell and Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS).
Rawat said that providing a conducive environment in schools will also help generate positive energy in students and abet their mental development. Stating that attempts should be made to provide education in a simple manner and in a secure setting in schools, he appreciated the efforts made by SEEDS and Honeywell.
SEEDS co-founder Manu Gupta said, “We thrive on building resilient communities through comprehensive interventions in the area of education, health, disaster recovery, response, and preparedness. Under the Honeywell Safe Schools programme, we create safe, conducive school environments that will encourage students to explore more, empowering them to become the change agents of tomorrow.”
Honeywell India president Akshay Bellare said, “As a global leader in technologies that create safe and secure living and working spaces, Honeywell is pleased to extend our commitment to building safer school environments in the communities we serve in Uttarakhand.”
Technology for safer schools, art & music to tackle bullying
As part of the Honeywell Safe Schools programme, SEEDS is using not only technological aspects to make the schools safer but also addressing issues like bullying faced by some students. Talking to The Pioneer, SEEDS co-founder Manu Gupta said, “We have taken up 100 government schools in Dehradun and Haridwar districts under this programme. During our survey we found that 30 per cent of the students were also afraid of animal attacks. Apart from the technological aspects to ensure safety of the students from both natural and human-made disaster scenarios we have also incorporated art and music to address the issue of bullying. We have received a positive response from both the teachers and students.”
On whether they plan to extend the programme to mountainous regions, Gupta said that while the state government is fully cooperating in the initiative, the aim is to execute the project in a manner which provides a model for others to replicate in various parts of the state.
Wednesday, 18 December 2020 | PNS |Dehradun
