Kerala

school notes

Inculcating the spirit of democratic ideology and values of tolerance, a competition in Youth Parliament was held at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Thiruvananthapuram, recently.

The session began with an oath-taking ceremony by the members. This was followed by the introduction of newly appointed Ministers and the welcoming of foreign delegates into the House.

A no-confidence motion moved by leader of the Opposition Sachin Sharma, a student of class XII, was countered by Anamika M.S. of class XII, who played the role of the student Prime Minister, by listing the recent achievements of her government.

Like the ‘real’ House, the student Parliament too witnessed uproarious scenes over the ‘Nandigram’ issue. The topic was raised by Anupama Passo, a student of class XI. Meanwhile, Ministers Saba V.S., class XII, Alexander Plakkeel, class IX, Niyas Ali, class XII, Parvathy Devi, class XI, Lekshmi Parvathy, class X, and Neethu Vijayan, class XII, skilfully answered the questions raised by members of the Opposition represented by Nanda Krishnan, class X, Aswin M.G. Das, class XII, and Rose Mary, class VIII. The no-confidence motion was finally rejected by Aswathy Nelson; class XII, Speaker of the House. Over 50 students from classes VIII to XII took part in the competition.

The youth parliament scheme was first introduced in the schools in Delhi in 1966-67. The competition was launched in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas at the national level in 1997, as part of the country’s golden jubilee.

The number of students constituting the youth parliament in each school is not limited. However, since it is desirable that there should be a limit in regard to the duration of the sitting, it would naturally mean that many of the participants may only have nominal sitting roles in order to create the picture of a House and may not be required to speak.

The duration of the Youth Parliament sitting is not more than an hour and out of this about 20 minutes is devoted to questions. Though there are no prescribed topics for discussion inside Parliament, most of the questions which the members raise inside Parliament are related to subjects such as welfare activity, defence, health, social justice, social reforms, economic development, communal harmony and student discipline.

The assessment of the competition is based on discipline, decorum, observance of parliamentary procedures, selection of subjects for questions, quality of answers, selection of subjects for debates, delivery and quality of speeches and overall assessment of performance by the candidates. The Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs conducts youth parliament competition in various categories such as schools, colleges and universities.

Anjana M.S., a student of class IX at Holy Angels Covent, has won gold medals at the recently concluded National Road Cycling competition in 30 km mass start (for girls under 17 years) and 15 km mass start (for girls under 15 years) held at Erode in Tamil Nadu.

The Hindu-NIE Team

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