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Although residents have welcomed the move, they raised doubts about its long-term effectiveness.
Digital Desk: The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) places flower pots in 'Guwahati Swachhta Abhiyan' to combat frequent littering at ident
Prasanna Bora, Inspector of Schools, Kamrup (Metro), praised both educational institutions for successfully implementing the peer learning approach, which is one of the National Education Policy's requirements.
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Digital Desk: Project Springboard, an innovative programme of partnership and mentorship between Cotton University and New Guwahati Adarsha High School, came to a successful conclusion today with a magnificent finale and valedictory celebration held on the Cotton University campus. At the valedictory celebration, Vice Chancellor Bhabesh Chandra Goswami, Inspector of Schools, Kamrup (Metro) Prasanna Bora, and Headmaster of New Guwahati Adarsha High School, Binoy Kumar Sarma, were present. The occasion was also attended by Prashant Joshi, CEO of the Leap and Scale Foundation, which has supported the entire initiative.
In his remarks, Prof. Goswami commended the students, as well as the team of coordinators and faculty advisors, for the successful completion of this innovative mentorship programme.
Prasanna Bora, Inspector of Schools, Kamrup (Metro), praised both educational institutions for successfully implementing the peer learning approach, which is one of the National Education Policy's requirements.
"We were trying to tackle what we call wicked problems," said the project's convenor, Ochintya Sarma, the brains behind this mentorship programme and a Bangalore-based social innovator. We never anticipated anyone being able to address these issues. Making Guwahati clean, safe, and promoting youth health are all serious issues. Our plan was to present pupils with similar issues and see how they responded.
While addressing the audience, Dr. Rakhee Kalita Moral, Head, Centre for Women's Studies and University Coordinator of Project Springboard, emphasized that Cotton University has a heritage of mentorship, which is also applied through the Cotton Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme. "Project Springboard came naturally to us because the school has long imbibed a mentorship environment," she said, suggesting that Cotton and AHS's current experiment may serve as a model for other mentoring organizations.
During the valedictory ceremony, Binita Barman Dutta, the project's school coordinator, spoke about the positive improvements she noticed among the school mentees over the course of the project's journey. She emphasized the significance of implementing a mentoring programme like this in rural schools for the children's benefit. Prashant Joshi, CEO of the Leap and Scale Foundation, said that while the project was focused on offering new solutions to challenges, there were also innovations within the programme. "Fundamental innovation came from faculty members' involvement, postgraduate students' involvement, and the two institutions' general relationship," he noted.
Six teams of high school and university students presented innovative solutions for efficient waste collection and disposal, school student well-being, cyber safety, organised urban planning for increased cleanliness, women and girls' safety in public transportation, and student stress management earlier in the day.
The grand finale was judged by Chaaya Das, former principal of Panbazar Girls' Higher Secondary School; Nandita Hazarika, an environmentalist; and Dipankar Kaushik, a journalist and quiz master. Certificates and cash prizes of Rs 20,000 and Rs 15,000/-were awarded to the two winning teams. The remaining four teams each received Rs. 5000/- for their active participation.
On May 18, the project was formally launched at the New Guwahati Adarsha High School. Six teams of 18 high school students and 12 university students were formed, each working on a different community issue. The study focused on three key themes relating to Guwahati. Cleanliness, well-being, and safety were among them. A mentor-mentee model was used, in which university students coached high school pupils on how to conduct research and come up with creative solutions to problems. Prior to the grand finale, students talked at three seminars about identifying the issue, the landscape, and best practices linked to the challenge, as well as their project learning.
The project's co-coordinator was Dr. Sangeeta Barthakur. As faculty advisors, six university faculty members from various disciplinary domains were assigned.
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