Vidya Niketan English Medium School, run by the Tata Motors Employees' Education Trust, has bagged 7th rank in the national-level green school programme competition organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
The award was presented to the school during the Gobar Times green schools programme awards ceremony in New Delhi recently. About 15,000 schools from 18 states and two Union territories took part in the contest.
Of the 144 schools who qualified for the final round, 20 won awards.
Vidya Niketan was chosen for adopting the most innovative and effective practices to manage natural resources on its premises. It was also in recognition of the environment-friendly features incorporated in its new school building, including rainwater harvesting, auto-shut and low-flow taps, eco-friendly paints, CFL bulbs, use of natural light and ventilation in classrooms.
The school also has a compost pit for converting waste into manure.
The green schools programme is an 'inspection' or 'survey' of the school done by its students on its environmental practices. The students are required to form teams and go around the school on an exploratory journey and find out what's happening to the water, energy, land, air and waste in the school and how the school is managing these issues.
The school formed five audit teams of teachers and students under the guidance of principal, Vidya Gaikwad, and teacher Bharati Joshi.
During Raksha Bandhan festival, students were motivated to make rakhis out of plant seeds. Workshops were also held to teach students to make paper bags that were later distributed to NGOs and local shopkeepers.
