Value Based Skills Oriented Quality Education

Hello,

The summer heat is slowly reducing its intensity upon us. With rains bringing some respite, the past few months have been busy for our residential school students. With a timetable that packs in space and time for academics, skill education, sports and spirituality, our students are benefitting from this robust value-based skills-oriented education system. Having seen the success of this rural model of education since 1995, when the school started, here is the breakup of events and happenings of the past few months.

Academics: The board results were announced and of the 31 students that wrote their tenth board exams following state syllabus, 30 students passed with flying colors. These 30 children also included six specially abled students who worked hard and scored well. It was the sheer hard work of these students and the constant attention offered by the teachers that made this possible. We are happy and wish them the very best. While this was the news for our tenth graders, students from other classes wrote their Formative Assessment examinations in the beginning of August.

Skill education: The BCT residential school believes that vocational skills are important for students, and the past has shown, that these skills have helped many alumni augment their income. Skills practiced in the past few months included tailoring, electrical skill, horticulture and charkha. Specially abled students of the school also participated in stitching school uniforms. A total of 170 school uniforms were stitched and distributed by BCT Secretary Sri B Sri Ram Murty to students on 9^th August.

Animation: After finishing their examinations, students of grades six to nine participated in the annual activity of animation. Under this, students trained in school and learnt the folk dance forms of burra katha, tappetagullu, dappu, kolatam and chitikelu. After a week of practice, they showcased their performance to Team BCT on May 10. There onwards, the teams went on to perform at different villages. Through this medium, students keep alive the tradition of folk dances, while also spreading social messages in their villages.

Special events

Various special events were held in this tenure too. An important event was the ‘Enterprising Bharat’. Held in Visakhapatnam, BCT students presented traditional folk dances of kolatam, tappet gullu, and dappu to an enthralled audience of students who also joined in dancing to the energetic drum beat.

15^th August - Independence Day, never fails to bring out the feeling of nationalism among students. This is the time, when their creativity and sportsmanship comes to the fore. Various games were conducted for the students and staff. This year too, the national flag was hoisted by BCT Secretary B Sri Ram Murty along with the youngest students of the school. The flag hoisting was followed by a vibrant display of songs, dance and skit by the students. The cultural program was followed by prize distribution and the afternoon ended with a delicious lunch served for students, staff and BCT team members.

Visits by friends

Visitors to the school always bring us joy as this gives our students scope to know the world around them better. In the past few months we had many visitors. Students from the three branches of BCT Tech Mahindra Foundation SMART centers visited the school campus and interacted with the school students. Children displayed folk arts and spoke about their academic and skill classes. Students from the SMART centers expressed that they were very inspired and impressed with the confidence of these students. Members from Team Rubaroo in Hyderabad, Tata Steel, and guests from other countries visited BCT campus and interacted with the school students as well. Mr. Gopalkrishna and team from Taj Hotel, Visakhapatnam visited the campus for Rakhi celebrations on 31^st August.

Building one strength after the other

After setting up the science lab, team BCT also set up a digital laboratory to encourage students and make them comfortable using technology and the Internet. Helping them expand their knowledge by exploring new tools and online learning, this digital laboratory was provided by Amazon and Learning Links Foundation. Students are now using the laboratory and benefitting from it.

With these being a few of the key developments, students from the BCT Residential High School and specially abled students from the Sri PV Venkatesan Center of the challenged send their love. Also, each of us from Team BCT wishes to thank you for your interest in our school project, generous donations and your valuable time.

Thank you for reading,