Tree = marks. But who gets credit?

Several schools run by the Catholic Church across Madhya Pradesh and government schools in Anuppur district have made students plant saplings.

Several schools run by the Catholic Church across Madhya Pradesh and government schools in Anuppur district have made students plant saplings. The incentive is more marks and better grades. And both the church and the Collector of Anuppur district claim they pioneered the idea.

Students of Class V to IX in Catholic schools will get up to seven marks depending on the care they take of the sapling planted by them at their homes or in the vicinity. In government schools in Anuppur,students of Class VI to Class XII will get additional grades only if they plant two saplings and nurture them.

In both types of schools,teachers have been asked to monitor the growth of saplings by making periodical visits to the students homes.

Collector Kavindra Kiyawat has gone a step beyond making monitoring compulsory for teachers and issuing written warnings to principals to take the activity seriously as the schools performance will reflect in their CR.

The state government had issued a general circular,asking schools to promote environmental studies. To keep the momentum going Kiyawat has issued a number of circulars over the last two months,besides visiting several schools himself. After his last visit a couple of days ago,he asked teachers to maintain a register of their visits with details of the growth of saplings.

I have documentary evidence to prove that I started it much before anyone else, he told The Indian Express. According to him,students of 200 schools have planted 1.5 lakh saplings,including those planted in school premises.

The Catholic Church,however,has appropriated the idea to itself. Citing the initiative in several schools,the Church has written to the President,the PM and all CMs requesting them to ensure that marks are given to students for the activity. The letters claim that the Collector of Anuppur was,perhaps,inspired by the initiative. The Church,which runs several schools in the state,had started the initiative last month. Spokesperson of Catholic Conference of Bishops,Madhya Pradesh,Fr Anand Muttungal said he appreciated the initiative taken by the Collector.