KOCHI: School students from acroos the city came together for the cause of unity on Friday. The celebrations were held as part of the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Vaduthala. The day was obeserved as the ‘National Unity Day’.
More than 15 schools across the city participated in the event. The chief guest were the R Nishandini, deputy commissioner of police and T K Latha, principal SBOA school. T K Latha, said, “ It is wonderful to have an event like this. Events like this will make the idea remain with the children for long. It is the beginning of a process of making them patriot. While the students display a lot of unity but the feeling of oneness lacks in them. Through children we can even spread the message to parents eleders and the rest of the society. It is a good way to shape the thought process in the right direction.” The function started with the inaugural speech by Chinmaya School student Faizan. The students present took a special national unity pledge. Chinmaya school principal Maya Mohan spoke on the occasion.
Maya Mohan said, “Events like this make the children rethink. It is also important that children have a feeling of being Indians. This can be done at a primary level only by educational institutions. Students also need to know the history of our country well. Children need to know about the others who kept us together in the process of getting us freedom.”
More than 300 students participoated in the ‘Run for Unity’. Students ran a distance of 1.5km to promote unity. The run was flaged off by R Nishanthini. Other than the run students participated in competions like the postert making, collage , an online quiz on Sadar Vallabhai Patel’s work and life. The topic for the collage making was Unity in Diversity and that for the poster making was achieving unity through cleanliness. A special painting competition called ‘collabrative painting’ was also organised. the topic for the painting competion was Threats to Indian Unity. Students from different schools were grouped into one team promoting unity in its true essence. ‘Turn About’ was a surprise competition where students were given a topic and asked to speak on the topic.
The topics were based on the national issues. The winners for the various competiotns were also declared on the same day itself.