India CSR News Network
MUNDRA: Tata Power, India’s largest integrated power company, through its 100 percent subsidiary Coastal Gujarat Power (CGPL) has been continuously carrying out initiatives to improve educational facilities for the children in and around its area of operations. In line with this philosophy, Tata Power conducted a special ‘Udaan’ (flight) science programme under their initiative ‘Shiksha Saarthi’ which is a flagship education programme undertaken by CGPL in partnership with Pratham.
The objective of this initiative was to introduce the concept of ‘flight’ to the young minds, explain the evolution of flight and educate them on how airplanes work. The workshop aroused the children’s interest by adopting a practical approach which included making planes with wooden sticks and paper, once they understood how airplanes are designed.
The Shiksha Saarthi ‘Vigyan Mitras’ supported the children by guiding them through each step and ensuring they stick to the sample design’s geometric angles and sides of perfect measures. The workshop explained four different scientific principles, namely stretch, weight, skip jack and pushing.
Science has been an important part of Project Shiksha Saarthi since 2012-13 where activities are conducted with children at schools and at the community level. These include science fairs, workshops and sky watch activities. The activities encourage the concept of ‘learning by doing’ and are conducted amongst children from Standard 6th to 8th. In the months of May and June 2015, the Shiksha Saarthi team has conducted 21 workshops, which was attended by 804 children across 18 villages, which included 479 boys and 325 girls. This also encouraged the formation of 21 Science Clubs.
Speaking on this initiative, KK Sharma, ED and CEO, CGPL, stated, “Tata Power is committed to improving the quality of education in the smallest of regions in India and works towards motivating the children to develop keen understanding of their favourite subjects. These workshops have certaily helped the children learn scientific concepts through activities and experiments, which enables them to understand the topic and familiarizes them with practical applications of concepts. We firmly believe that imparting education and knowledge to a child creates a solid foundation that allows him to go out in the world and achieve his/her dreams. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the principals and students of the schools in extending their support for this initiative and participating in the event with great enthusiasm.”
The science programme adopts a multi-pronged approach towards the education of the students through direct interventions, training of teachers, content creation for learning material for enhancing the children’s abilities. The Vigyan Mitras undertake the workshops where they explain concepts and facilitate the process by forming small groups of participating children to work on scientific models for two to three days (depending on the model). During these sessions, children make the models, carry out experiments and understand the basic concept of the topic at hand. Children also present and explain their models to their classmates which boost their confidence and communication skills.
