KOCHI: With climate change causing unprecedented problems to our lives and expected to pose the biggest challenge in the future, Kerala has decided to set up weather stations in schools. The state will become the first in the country to implement the innovative education programme.
It is initiated by the general education department through Samagra Shiksha Kerala. An SSK official said it is one of the notable educational programmes included in the chief minister’s 100-day action plan. “Under the project, weather stations are being installed in 258 schools in the state,” the official said. It will be done in all government higher secondary and vocational higher secondary schools that have geography as a subject, as lab experiment,” the official said.
“If these schools are not in topographically suitable areas, the weather stations will be set up in the nearby aided schools,” said the official. The schools will be given `50,000 each to procure instruments.
“They include rain gauge, Six’s maximum-minimum thermometer, wet and dry bulb thermometer, wind vane and a cup counter anemometer,” said the official. Students will take the readings from the weather instruments and record them in the weather data book provided.
“Through this, they will be able to understand the daily weather phenomenon in and around their school premises,” he added. Weather data collected through school weather observatories can be used for research studies and other scientific innovations. “Since meteorological information is essential for scientific study in disaster-prone areas, these school observatories will be doing a great duty to society,” he said.
The SSK official said the project aims to understand the changes in weather conditions accurately and provide hands-on experience to the students. “If this knowledge is imparted, then it will be possible to create a different perspective on the environment in students. It will also help inculcate research aptitude in students and make them aware of the importance of climate,” he said.