Sector 53 smartschool,first in city,gets heads-up

Head Mistress of the school,Raj Bala said,”An entirely different and student-friendly infrastructure makes our school stand out from other government schools in the city. Secondly,the e-learning in the classrooms has helped the students a great deal. We have students coming from the nearby villages,especially from Khajeri,where they don’t even have television sets at home,and it is because of this reason the students actively participate in the classes along with their teachers and try to operate the computers themselves out of curiosity.”

“We feel satisfied and comfortable enough to give such facilities to these students. This is what they need to move ahead in life,” Bala added.

An official from the school administration said,”Many parents now want their children to study in the smartschool. We have received requests from parents who came to us asking for their child’s admission to standard VIII if we have no seats in class IX.”

Jyotsana,an Economics teacher of Class IX said,”Like other government schools,we cannot fool the principal by saying that we taught a particular chapter when in reality we haven’t. The computers in all the classrooms are networked and controlled from a server room. The computer in the server room stores the history of every chapter taught on daily basis in the respective classrooms. Above all,this computer is also connected to the principal’s room,so that she can have a tab on all teachers.”

“These students who come from economically weak background do not lack in intelligence but interest and the smart classrooms are the best way to generate that interest in them. We need to make the visuals their friends,” she added.

Students at GHS-53 have access to the well-equipped library,music room,where students are taught music and also how to play instruments,through presentations on the smart boards. The school also has social science,home science,computer science labs,sports room to encourage students in physical activities and a computer room too. There is a park too,based on scientific experiments for students. It has a Braille garden,a pond and a green house with many medicinal plants. A natural vermicomposting area makes the park nutrient rich. The school already has a website and also plans to make a Facebook page soon.

The school makes sure that the children with any disability should get the right facility and attention. “We have one student whose lower part of the body is completely paralysed. We have asked for a wheel chair from the administration. Experts from the department also come to help with physio therapies and speech therapies,” Jyotsana said.

One of the students of Class III,Anuj said,”I saw a computer for the first time in the school only,and my parents feel happy when I tell them that I am learning to operate it. Our teacher asks us to fill colours in fruits or flowers on the screen.”

One of the mothers who had come to pick up her 8-year-old daughter from the school said,”We are not allowed to go inside,but I feel good when my daughter elaborates on her experiences everyday with big computer screens on which they are taught various lessons.”