The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Illuminating young minds

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Monday, May 12, 2008
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Illuminating young minds

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Class X students from economically-weak families, who had a poor academic record, studying in the Government Girls High School, Tripunithura, have made a tremendous improvement over the year during which they were part of ‘Project Educare’ promoted by the Centre for Health, Intelligence, Learning and Development (CHILD).

The level of self-esteem has gone up and the girls have even started thinking about their rights, said Dr. Girija S., president of CHILD.

“We had conducted a general intelligence test at the beginning of the programme that included assessing their temperament and learning ability too,” she said.

The girls have undergone a sea change in their attitude since then, she added. “Their attention span has increased. Their memory and the way they respond to questions and situations has improved.”

Their weak spot was mishandling of emotions. “We worked on that. If you know how to handle emotions, other work can be done with persistence”.

At a function held on Saturday to honour the 28 girls who were part of the project, K. Chandra, District Education Officer, presented a lamp each to the girls telling them to be the light of the land themselves. The girls were not worried about what the results of the SSLC examination would be. They were ready to face any life situation and were all confident of getting through the examination. School principal Girija Devi, PTA president Sathyavrathan and project coordinator Philomina also spoke at the function.

CHILD’s next project will involve Class IX students so that they get more time to deal with students.

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