It was literally a students’ day out on Wednesday in the premises of TKR Educational Institutions where hundreds of them from various institutions across the city converged and did just what they liked the best.
Arriving in groups from each institution, they dispersed to participate in a variety of events, some fun-filled and others sombre, all organised as part of The Hindu Education Plus Club Challenge 2013.
The studious ones presented their views through Power Point presentations on five pressing issues - Power Crisis in Andhra Pradesh; Urbanisation: Boon or Bane?; Importance of Voluntary Blood Donation; Career Guidance; Soft Skills, the Reality and Cricket is Killing Other Games.
Confidence shone and voices boomed in sessions where students were left to themselves in expressing their views freely and without fear. Aiding them were the presentations, many of them prepared in great detail and some using appropriate graphic to drive home the point.
Participants in elocution had no such electronic aids. They depended entirely on their words, persuasion skills, body language and glib reasoning.
At the group discussion event, young brains battled with one other, reasoned out and arrived at conclusions on a dozen topics. The topics spanned from the death penalty to Aadhar project, and also included corruption, sexual atrocities, television and social media.
“This is the first time I am attending a group discussion of this scale. I am sure it will help me in developing problem solving and team building skills when I assume managerial responsibilities after my course,” beamed Jayesh Agarwal, a first-year MBA student from Siva Sivani Institute of Management. Another student, Vineeth Bogra, too had an exciting session, though he had participated in group discussions earlier too.
Not all were fresh entrants though. Some like Harshitha had the advantage of previous experience at the annual event conducted by The Hindu in coordination with TKR Educational Society.
“The event is much better organised this time round. I participated in the elocution and spoke about the role of technology in a child’s journey to adulthood. I supported the technology, saying each coin has two sides, and its use depends on which side we look at,” said the engineering student from Vignan Institution of Science and Technology.
There can’t be a debate when it comes to facts. So the quiz session engaged only those who knew their stuff. It had two rounds, online and offline. The online round required each participant to sit at the computer and answer the questions displayed. Four shortlisted teams of three participants each were invited by the quiz master onto the dais in the second round.
In all, more than 130 students participated in the quiz competition.
These serious pursuits apart, students had a gala time outside in the open auditorium erected especially for observing the youngsters’ favourite faith - fun and frolic.
Adrenalin levels shot up at the site as youngsters jived to the rhythms of well-conceived cultural performances by all participating colleges. Pepped up by shouts, whistles and spontaneous applause from their friends off the dais, the performers set the stage on fire with their electrifying music and footwork.
Technical Education Commissioner Ajay Jain, who was the chief guest, urged students to take advantage of the fee reimbursement scheme for obtaining quality technical education.
“Great institutions don’t mean great buildings. They mean good teachers who churn out good students,” he said, hailing the TEQUIP programme by the government to address the faculty improvement.
Teegala Krishna Reddy, chairman, TKR Educational Society, appreciated the efforts and said such events would bring out the hidden talents among students. Prizes were given away to the winning teams.
The three college teams which won overall team prizes will participate in the finals to be held at Vijayawada on March 4.
The overall sponsor of the event was TKR’s Ikon Hospitals, while Grafx IT Solutions Private Limited was the knowledge partner and Enter Infolabs the technical partner.
