The peppy drumbeats rent the air inside the sprawling green campus of the Sadhana group of schools at Virattipathu to welcome nearly 150 students and teachers who have pedalled their way from home to school. It is a ritual followed every Thursday and whoever bicycles to school gets a standing ovation.
Right from the correspondent and the director of the school to Primary students, everyone makes a conscious effort to support the cause of fuel conservation. An idea that was launched just three weeks ago is already seeing an increasing number of enthusiastic participants joining the bandwagon, says the Director, P. Natanagurunathan. He is popular among the students as ‘Be Good, Do Good Brother’. “In our school, teachers, students and caretakers call each other as brothers and sisters,” he adds.
The school management has gone an extra mile to convince parents to allow their kids to use bicycles at least once a week. “We are trying to convince and motivate all our parents to drop their wards on bicycles at least once a week. Participation is voluntary and we also ply the school bus for those who do not want to cycle down,” says K. Vidya, Principal, Om Sadhana Central School.
The schools have 650 students on the roll and of them 150 have already joined in the exercise. “We are overwhelmed by the response and are confident that ensuing weeks will see more students joining,” she adds. Every Thursday, the school encourages all the students to take the public transport if they are coming from far off places instead of using their own vehicles. Those who stay nearby are encouraged to walk to school. “We want our children to be socially responsible,” says Natanagurunathan.
With more than four decades of teaching experience, Natanagurunathan follows what he preaches to his students, whom he refers as ‘learning brothers and sisters’. Everyday he stands at the entry point, which the school calls as welcome track, and greets the students with “Be good, Do good brothers and sisters.” In the evenings when the school closes, he repeats the same standing at the exit point or what they call the ‘Goodbye track’.
Apart from ‘Save Fuel’, the school also practises ‘Save Electricity’ Day every Thursday when all electrical connections are switched off from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and classes are conducted under the trees in the green campus of the school. Mr. Natanagurunathan points out how people lose sight of energy conservation by unnecessarily switching on lights on a bright and sunny day or the fan on a cool and rainy day.
In response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharath’ campaign, the school has also fixed the second day of every month for cleaning.
This month for instance, the students went about cleaning the area around the Muthiah Swamy Temple in Kochadai and TPM Nagar in Virattipathu.
At the Sri Sadhana Matriculation Higher Secondary School, run by the same group, students are empowered to debate on issues and matters related to them and their school and come out with a solution. For the purpose, student cabinet and council of ministers have been formed and all activities are tabled before the cabinet for final decision,” says M. Madhumitha of class IX who is the Prime Minister of her school.
Each year the school chooses a particular theme for all its activities round the year. For instance, last two year’s it was kind living and right living and this year it is useful living.
The school also encourages the students to gift saplings to the institution on their birthdays which are then planted in the name of every new entrant to the pre-primary classes and the students are made to water the plants. This way, believes Natanagurunathan, the students will understand the significance of protecting nature.
As a result of such efforts, the three acre campus today has more than 1,200 species of plants of which 60 are rare species like the Parijatham (night flowering jasmine) and Manoranjitham (climbing ylang ylang).
Slowly and silently, the Sadhana group of schools is taking energy conservation to what it stands for. Or else, in many places it still remains a lip service.
Vishnu Niranjan of XI Standard, says, “When the school announced the ‘Save Fuel Movement’, I instantly decided to join even though my home in Tirunagar is 13 km away. I take the school transport but I fought hard to convince my parents to permit me to ride bicycle. As a minister in the student cabinet, I thought I should be the first person to join the movement. Finally my parents heeded to my request and allowed me. What is more surprising is that my friends in the neighbourhood have also decided to pedal to their respective schools now after seeing me. I feel happy that I have contributed to the cause in my own little way.”
