District Education and Empowerment Programme launched in Nagapattinam

The district administration on Monday launched the District Education and Empowerment Programme (DEEP) in partnership with a non-governmental organisation with the object of inculcating leadership skills among students from government and government-aided schools in Nagapattinam.

Collector Johny Tom Varghese launched the novel initiative at Government Higher Secondary School at Sikkal.

Official sources said the objective of the scheme was to provide holistic development of students with special focus on nurturing leadership and organisational skills.

C. Subashini, Chief Educational Officer, Nagapattinam, said the district administration, in association with Vidya Vidhai, NGO, had started this programme on a pilot basis in 25 schools. Under the initiative, students from various classes in a school would be grouped into four houses viz Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow. Each house would have a captain, vice-captain, and members. The teachers would assess the performance of the students, as a group, on various extracurricular and co-curricular parameters including learning ability, conduct, and participation in literary festivals, sports, and tree plantation drives.

The Department of School Education had also planned to involve the members of school management committees in the programme as supervisors to ensure that parents were informed about the initiatives taken by their wards. The group could also pitch ideas for the development of the school and to keep the premises clean.

Ms. Subashini observed that the initiative would create a positive outcome among the students by eliminating differences and creating team spirit. The district administration had also planned to extend the initiative to all government and government-aided schools after a thorough study of the outcome of the pilot project.