CHENNAI: Before entering the gates of this seemingly nondescript school in the busy locality of T Nagar, one has to get rid of all plastic bags at the entrance, and disposable plastic bottles, as these things are not allowed inside. The students and teachers of Sri R K M Sharada Vidyalaya take saving the planet quite seriously, and a series of environmental activities keeps the children of this government-aided school on their toes.
Besides the rainwater harvesting system and recently installed solar panels, the school has a vegetable patch and has replaced earlier lights with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The children have even done neighbourhood surveys and monitored the electricity bills of their homes, neighbours and the school and done comparative graphs of the units used.
Headmistress Kannaki Prabakaran’s room is filled with certificates and reports recognising the school’s green initiatives. “The students have conducted studies on the difference between fruits and vegetables in a marketplace and in a supermarket,” says Kannaki who used to be an eco-club coordinator, after which her personal interest in the subject made her attend various seminars and workshops on the subject.
The students have visited Pallikaranai marsh to study the ecosystem and bird population, and they have even sent this study to the Department of Forestry, she says. Students from Classes 6 to 11 are in the clubs, and the school parliament even has an environmental minister.
“We give the waste from the midday meals to a cowshed nearby, and we use milk covers to plant saplings in,” says Kannaki. The activities are not restricted to within the school, the students have distributed pamphlets to shops on saving power and conducted rallies for smoke-free bhogi.
With active documentation of the events that are conducted in the school, the school has in the past received a cash award of `1 lakh from Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, director of the Energy and Resources Institute and a chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The school has a Green School Initiative Award from the CPR Environmental Education Centre.
Although the guidelines for activities to be conducted are framed by the government, the fund of `2,500 hardly suffices for the activities and it lies in the hands of the school to finance and execute most of these events.
“We do extra work because we know how important this is for our future. We coordinate with NGOs and other organisations for sponsorship for some of the activities,” she says
