CEE-YMP Students addressing Energy issue through their Mission Assignments

Akankshya Jena, Sibaram Sadangi, Harish Senapati, Siddhartha Mandal, & Abhishek Dash in Student Group 13:41 fro Kendriya Vidyalaya No.3, Bhubaneswar are having great time doing YMP course. YMP is the first online program they have been implementing and it is providing them a good experience for other online programs which is becoming the norm now-a-days. This program has also provided the students a unique opportunity to do Group work with other class students which otherwise they didn’t did earlier.

The topic Sustainable Development (SD) is something they always wanted to know about and work for and this program has provided them the opportunity. Their Parents are also taking keen interest in the program and supporting them. The group has taken the Energy theme particularly with a great interest and through their missions have tried to address the issues related to energy conservation and the efforts and Hand Print actions which we all could take up to conserve the vital energy sources.

The program has been beneficial to the students in many aspects in enhancing their skills and various competencies. It has helped them in their personality development as they are now very effectively using the group discussions and also learning new technical skills. For each mission assignment, students also do presentation among themselves and thus learn and improvise as a team. Through virtual classroom interactions, students are also getting to know about various issues in different places and hence increasing their ‘Local to Global’ knowledgebase and also increasing their problem solving network.

The school has provided them all possible help in carrying out the missions. Both the teaching and non teaching staff has provided help in doing the data collection. Staff have also helped in conducting the outdoor interviews. The teachers Dr. Dash and Mr. Tripathy have provided them valuable guidance whenever possible. They are also helping them in preparing their action plan for the missions. The group work has been so successful for this group that they have decided to work in the same group for any other projects also in future.

The main challenge in this project has been the time management for the students due to their busy school times, however looking at the enthusiasm from the student groups, the school authorities look forward to take up the course next season with more number of student groups and with proper time management plan.

YMP at Gauhati University Model High School

“YMP is first of its kind online diploma programme for school students of this region. It has provided us an opportunity for the first time to be familiar with many things happening across the globe”; said Manash Pratim, a student of Gauhati University Model High School. “I had an email account but it was inactive and for every new thing I want to know I used to either ask my teacher or go through books but thanks to YMP which helped me to develop the habit of checking mails regularly and surfing the net. To my wonder, it has become my Hobby now to learn about new things through the internet.” said another student.

Manash Pratim, Sarma Daisy Das, Rakesh Rabha, Sweta Mahanta and Arju Ali all studentsworking together in student group (12:200) in one of the Mission of YMP visited an NGO in a nearby village at Sualkuchi. The name of the NGO was Bose Poverty Association. Students considered that visit as one of the most delightful field experience with lots of new learning. It was their vacation after their annual exam and the group decided to spend a whole day in the field to work for their Mission. The student group interacted with the NGO representatives and through this interaction they learned about poverty, what an NGO is, how it functions, who are the members etc.

“There are many educated unemployed youths in the village and the NGO identifies them and train them based on their capabilities for earning livelihoods based on the resources available in their periphery which mainly include weaving and handloom products, bamboo products, local fruits and vegetables, etc.” informed another student from the group. “I have known for the first time about Self Help Group and how it functions and provide financial assistance for the rural poor to be self dependent.” said a girl from the group.

The group also informed that they have developed the habit of working in group and division of task within a group. The YMP classroom motivated the students in such a manner that they took part in awareness drive against the use of polythene bags in the city and reach out to the community. They also initiated a no polythene zone for their school which they put on a regular check and each individual of the group took effort to reduce its use by themselves, their family and their friends. Thus YMP is also triggering student groups where they are taking hand print actions to conserve and protect their environment and these efforts are also initiatives where students are delving deep into the social issues as well.

Initially they faced some difficulties in the online procedure as many of them are not familiar with the online process but with subsequent workshops and interaction and frequent use they have developed this competency. As a whole, the YMP programme has proved to be an interesting ESD tool for school student where learning by doing method is promoted and students are encouraged to take action initiatives.