Chennai: Schools in Chennai are giving students a model farming experience, fusing modern culture with the agricultural experience, as they teach them about planting trees and give them hands-on experience. Over 26 schools in Chennai have given children an opportunity to sow seeds on their premises and tend to them with the help of Tree Bank Environment, an NGO, to enable them to learn the process of germination and know the value of trees.
SBOA Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Anna Nagar conducted Farmville ’14, setting up a model farm with a potter, cows, grass, ducks and an agriculture exhibition at a cost of RS 50 lakhs, transforming the school into a mini farm. Everwin Matriculation School hosts such farm exhibitions every year during Pongal, complete with temporary fields being set to teach students the value of hard work through farming.
What students learn in books about plants are now brought live to them in their schools.In the corner of these schools, thousands of saplings are grown and nurtured every day by the students.“Initially, students did not want to get their hands dirty, but as they saw their seeds germinate, they got engrossed in the process and started enjoying it,” said C.M.Mary Joyce, biology teacher at Holy Angel’s Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School where students of Classes 6, 7 and 8 have taken part in the tree plantation programme by planting seeds with mud inside milk covers.
”Trees are the first relative of a human, they contribute oxygen,” said Dr Sashi Swaransingh, headmistress of Jaigopal Garodia Matriculation School as she pointed at the trees that had a Thirukkural saying, inscribed on cardboard, around each of those on the school premises. Schools are thus teaching children farming and the value of trees.
Fifteen-year-old student P.Soundarya from Neyvasam village felt that of late Chennai had more green cover than her village where farmlands was decreasing due to lack of rains.
“If at least increasing the trees in the city would stimulate rains in the region, it would also spread to the neighbouring areas and save our farms. This way, I’m happy about growing trees in Chennai,” she added.
Tree Bank Environment will distribute the saplings, cultivated in schools, to places that need them. “Government schools in Chennai are now issuing a sapling for each of the students to grow in their houses.Depending on their interest, plantation programmes will be included in the schools,” said an official from the education department.
