KOCHI: The children of Pragati Academy at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam celebrated Children’s Day differently. Unlike the usual processions, these kids played a part in fulfilling Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s dream of a self-sufficient India. The students spent the day harvesting the bountiful crop of tomatoes from the vegetable garden where they also grow cauliflower, cabbage, peas, cucumber, ladies finger, pumpkin and lettuce.
According to Indira Rajan, director of the school, the right education should impart the right values. “Love for the soil and motherland needs to be inculcated in the very early years of education,” she said.
Indira also noted that Jawaharlal Nehru believed in empowering the youth scientifically, agriculturally, technologically and industrially through the right education.
“When students undertake these kinds of initiatives, it will help them understand the process of agriculture, its challenges and possibilities,” she added. She said such initiatives promoted by Pragati Academy become relevant in the background of the National Education Policy (NEP).