Eight students of the top-ranked Gyan Ganga International School, Jabalpur — Isha Goyal, Umeed Chandel, Nitik Jain, Amartya Tiwari, Swapnil Gupta, Sakshi Patel, Raja Kaurav and Soudamini Tiwari — were invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan, Delhi by President Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of Children’s Day (November 14). The students were accompanied by principal Dr. Rajesh Chandel.

At Rashtrapati Bhavan, the students had tea with President Mukherjee and discussed several issues related to education and national development. After tea, they visited the Mughal, Circular, Long and Rectangular gardens and the Children art galleries, as well as the Darbar Hall where all award functions are staged. “Such study tours make the study of history interesting and help develop sentiments of patriotism and love of the Motherland within the students’ community,” says principal Chandel.

EduSports Health & Fitness Survey 2013

The EduSports Annual School Health and Fitness Survey, 2013 conducted by the Bangalore-based EduSports, indicates that regardless of age group, gender, region or city, the current generation of school children in India face an unhealthy future. This year’s study covered 77,669 children in the age group 7-17 years from 176 schools in 68 cities and 17 states. The fitness parameters assessed over a period of 24 months included anaerobic capacity, flexibility, lower and upper body strength, abdominal strength and body mass index (BMI).

Speaking at the launch of the 4th edition of this landmark survey, Saumil Majumdar, CEO  and co-founder of EduSports said: “It is disheartening to witness an unhealthy generation that is otherwise ahead of its times. The alarming fitness standards that have emerged in our annual study yet again prove that physical activity/sports in schools should be viewed as an important part of the curriculum for the overall development of children. We encourage schools to increase their PE (physical education) activity and ensure that their sports programmes are more effective resulting in a greater probability of healthier children.”

Winner of a number of awards (NDTV Marks for Sports 2012 and Sankalp Awards 2012 for education and vocational training), EduSports claims to be India’s largest physical education and school sports enterprise, partnering with 330 schools with an aggregate enrollment of 200,000 children in 80 cities countrywide.

Agastya bags Google Impact Award

The Bangalore-based Agastya International Foundation, is one of four winners of the Google Impact Challenge India 2013. Its TechLaBike programme to bridge the digital divide and accelerate learning in Karnataka schools was awarded the $500,000 (Rs.3 crore) Global Impact Award.

The award will support 30 TechLaBikes, enable over 1 million student interactions and empower 3,000 teachers in Karnataka. An instructor will ride the TechLaBike — a motorcycle fitted with hands-on-science models and an internet enabled laptop — to remote schools lacking quality labs and digital equipment.

“We are pleased to win the prestigious Google Global Impact Award and feel greatly motivated that our innovative project has been given global recognition. Over the next three years, Agastya will reach children and teachers in 1,620 rural schools with our blended science learning programme through the TechLaBike project. The grant will go a long way in helping Agastya achieve its target of impacting the lives of 50 million children and one million teachers by 2020,” says Thiagarajan K, chief operating officer of the Agastya International Foundation (AIF).

Currently AIF has 75 mobile science labs, 33 science centres and a 172-acre creativity lab campus in Andhra Pradesh, and is also working with government schools in 13 states countrywide.

UM alumni association seminar

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbour’s India alumni association organised a ‘Lead the Change’ seminar at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai on November 16. The seminar was addressed by the president of the university, Mary Sue Coleman; former president A.P.J Abdul Kalam; senior faculty from the UM Ross School of Business; Jayant Sinha, MD, Omidyar Network; Pramath Sinha, co-founder, Ashoka University, and Manish Sabharwal, chairman, Teamlease, among others.

The consensus of opinion at the seminar was that liberal arts education is important for the appreciation of nuances, respecting cultural differences and innovation in science, business and arts. “India is, by population, a huge democracy; it’s got growing pains, a rapidly growing economy and real issues. I think there’s a rich area for our students to engage. This conference is a way to bring society and business leaders to debate the most productive business environments of the future,” said Coleman, speaking at the seminar.

Creya Ignited Minds Challenge 2013

The Hyderabad-based K-12 supplementary education company, Creya Learning Pvt. Ltd, staged its second Creya Ignited Minds Challenge (CIMC) 2013 in Bangalore on November 16-17. Over 120 class VII-VIII students from 20 Bangalore schools participated in the event designed to test students’ capabilities to apply classroom learning to solve real world problems.

“Most analytical ‘left-brained’ tests such as the olympiads and talent search exams examine only a single facet of student capabilities. On the other hand, painting and creative contests provoke the interest of ‘right-brained’ creative children. However real world problems demand ‘whole-brain’ solutions,” says Datla V, co-founder and director of Creya Learning explaining CIMC.

The winner of CIMC’s Creative Thinking Champions trophy was Sri Kumaran’s Children’s Home. The Analytical Thinking Champions trophy was shared between Gopalan National School and Vidya Sanskar International School, while The Whole Mind Championship was awarded to Sri Vani School.

The chief guest, S.S. Bhat, general manager of Canara Bank, Bangalore, awarded the prizes to jubilant winners.