A high five

KOCHI: For the five students of the Rajagiri Public School in Kalamassery, Aiswarya John, Anna Mathew, Gopikrishnan, Job Michael Mathew and Arshad Muhammed, the last few months have been a hugely educative and eye-opening experience. Each of them have taken part in the ‘School Report Programme’ of the BBC channel, in  collaboration with the British Council, that identifies outstanding students from all over the world to report on one local, national and international issue.The selected videos are expected to be broadcast on the channel.This annual programme of BBC selected two public schools from Kochi to be part of the programme, Rajagiri and Toc-H Public School (Vyttila).As a first step, on December 20, last year, a three-minute report was made by the students on the much-talked about Metro rail project. This formed their local topic. “We went to the proposed site after thorough research. The preparatory works of the rail was in its initial stages then. We interviewed the concerned authorities and gave an account,” Arshad, class IX student says.The next project they went in for, and came out feeling emotionally impacted, was the farmer suicides of Wayanad. “We went and met the family members of the debt-ridden farmers who had committed suicide. What we saw was very sad. We found that the government had failed to provide necessary financial aid to them and the Rs 1000 given as part of the emergency relief declaration was the only help provided so far,” says Job Michael Mathew.Job adds that the experience was a revelation to them. “We felt there was an urgent need to raise our voice for the marginalised sections of society. We of course knew about these issues through the newspapers and channels, but only when we got ourselves immersed in the crisis did we really understand the gravity of the situation. I think it has made us more committed towards social causes.” Job says.The international topic that the students are working on is ‘100 days to Olympics’.“The students themselves come up with relevant topics and we provide them with necessary advice as to how to gather information,” says Parimal Paul, the teacher co-ordinator for the BBC news school report.Needless to say that the project is proving to be a hugely enriching experience for Kochi’s students. For further details, login to “https://www.youtube.com/embed/vumSTmX5rLg?rel=0”