Millennium National School

After organizing and participating in the fun-filled events like the Annual Gathering, Fun-fair and Sports Day in a row; guess what; it was the time for Millennium kids to be a part of a conference! On Friday, 16th March – our 8th grader student-delegates presented their take on democracy, governance and issues that humanity faces.

In this fascinating event there was a variety of presentation. Some student groups presented through dramatized dialogues, there was a street play and a video presentation. Some groups even conveyed their message through power point presentations.

This was the first time that such a student conference has been organized and you could easily see the activity, enthusiasm, anxiety and some tension building up amongst the students just before the start of the event. As they stood before their fellow students there was a little initial nervousness and faltering but they quickly got a grip and managed very well.

The conference opened with a talk about the meaning of democracy – right from the meaning of the word, the origin of the concept in Greece to the modern day definition by Abraham Lincoln. Then the next group spoke about the problems in world governance, with case studies of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. Then they also attacked and criticized the policies of countries like USA and China which are the present superpowers who misuse their wealth and position in the world. It was interesting to see the view point of the children on how the issues could be handled. As they spoke about how China is trying to dominate through cyber terrorism and greed for more control and even about how USA interferes in politics for financial gain and status, we all realized that these kids are quite sharp indeed! They could easily see through double standards, terrorist policies, selfish motives and abuse of power. All us adults were very impressed indeed! They concluded that it was up to them – the “generation next” to make the world a better place for human race. They ended the act with very promising words – “We all will change the world!”

The next group performed a street play called “Ye kahaan aa gaye hum?” It started with the fight of two political groups and how they were trying to impress voters with their glossy promises – one promised to bring prosperity to the farmers, the other promised to bring them progress. The group of farmers who evidenced that fight wondered what democracy is and how come they are so poor though they work so hard? Then they discussed on current situation of Indian democracy and various problems faced by us like inflation, one-sided development, water problem, unemployment, lack of planning and corruption at each level. The group arrived at the conclusion that we all i.e. the citizens of India have to do something about it and the audience enthusiastically agreed too! There were lot of clever puns and comments on current affairs used in the play.

Soon after there was a heated debate (dramatized) that compared the situation in ancient India and present India. One spoke about how India had started off as a very prosperous country and the other pointed out where have we landed now. They touched the points like in ancient India we had most prestigious universities like the Nalanda University, wealthy kingdoms, most advanced civilizations like Indus Valley, direct / presidential democracy in periods like Maurya. While discussing these they also spoke about how the current situation is plagued with problems of illiteracy, poverty, corruption, terrorism etc. They concluded that illiteracy is the root cause of all problems and showed a chart on how India should remove this cause and work on this problem.

The next group had a theme – “Hum to aaise hi hai”. Here students showed in a very clever manner how undisciplined India is. They showed one interesting video showing people littering, spitting, destroying historical monuments. Then they talked about various other issued faced by India such as discrimination, big gap between rich and poor,  gender inequality, corruption (for corruption they gave day-to-day examples of how corruptions begins from our doorsteps), casual approach and laziness of people, black money etc. Students had also conducted a survey on unity, discipline, reservations, one child policy etc. and displayed its results in the form of graphs. At the end they gave examples of countries like Japan who recovered from crisis but “Hum to aaise hi hai!”

However, the optimistic approach is what is needed for real development. So after the mistakes and shortcomings were pointed out – in India and the world, the next group had a case study of countries that were examples of good governance and development. They talked about countries like Japan, Germany, Israel, UAE and Singapore and how they came out of difficult situations such as natural calamities, nuclear attacks, defeat in world war, country getting split, internal riots, extreme environmental conditions, scarce resources etc. They not only talked about what are the advancements in these countries but what were the reasons behind them. The group concluded that it is because of their patriotic citizens and hard working governments that these countries rose from the ashes like a Phoenix.

And we ended on a happy note – with examples of “India shining”. India has largest government in the world so people have large participation in government. Secondly it’s a fastest progressing country. Here they gave the example of the state of Gujarat and how it’s developing under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Then they talked about growth in industrial and telecommunication sector in India. They gave information about companies like Infosys, TATA, Airtel and Micromax. Then they also talked about India’s social development where they gave examples of Anna Hazare’s fight against corruption and Baba Amte’s Lok Biradari Prakalp. Finally they also mentioned about India’s achievements in sports sector such as winning the ICC World Cup and accomplishments of various sports personalities like Saina Nehwal, Abhinav Bindra and Vishwanathan Anand. To conclude the group said that children are the future of India and they should be patriotic. They should follow 3 Ds i.e. Determination, Discipline and Dedication.

This entire activity gave students hang of how to do research, how to prepare PowerPoint presentations and how to deliver effective presentations. This gave the participating and also the attending students an insight of issues going on in India and around the world and how they can learn from it to be good citizens and build a strong India. It was remarkable that students did a great job at the conference despite the fact that they were given a very short period for preparation. Well done champs!

The event ended with appreciating efforts of our teacher Ms. Swati Sardesai and head of our school Ms. Smita Deshpande who guided students and put together the conference in a very short period of four days.

Ms. Arpita Karkare, the director of Millennium, summarized the conclusions of all the presentations at the end to inculcate students’ understanding. She also made a great announcement that from next academic year the school is planning to have more of such conferences for other standard students. The school would be introducing concept of “Fun Fridays” which will have lots of brilliant activities such as games, competitions, conferences and fun-events. So look forward to the coming year; some great ideas and events are coming up!

Here are some pictures that we took of the conference.

And here is the Times NIE view on the conference.