International Life Skills, School Health and Well-Being Summit, 2012

International Life Skills, School Health and Well-Being Summit, 2012

CBSE introduced Life Skills Education as an integral part of the curriculum in class 6 from 2003-4 and in class 7 in 2004-5. Subsequently it was also introduced in classes 9 and 10. The objective is to empower learners with a sense of self-confidence, eco-sensitivity and the ability to discern between the right and the wrong in life processes. In this context, CBSE held a first International Life Skills, School Health and Wellbeing Summit, 2012 between 19 and 21 April at the India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi. This summit was organized in collaboration with Expressions India The Life Skills Education, School Health and Wellness Program, a school-based outreach programme for the promotion of child and adolescent wellbeing. An eclectic platform for children from over 150 schools across the country was offered by the Summit to enable an opportunity to interact and exchange thoughts for greater creativity and awareness in the areas of health, wellbeing, friendship and peace. Some schools that participated with us were Welham Boys School , Dehradun; Sagar Public School, Bhopal; DPS Mathura Road; DPS, Noida; DPS, Gurgaon; Modern School , Barakhamba Road; St Johns, Chennai; St. Josephs, Mumbai and many more. Our school team comprisedf 4 participants and 2 volunteers, namely, 1. Amrita Dutta, 12 th 2. Gaurav Aswani, 11 th 3. Palak Aneja, 10 th 4. Ojasvi Jain, 10 th 5. Pavas Navani, 11 th and 6. Prachi Gupta, 12 th. These students were accompanied by 2 teachers Ms. Sukhmeen Cheema and Ms. Ramya Venkatraman. The 2 day-long summit was inaugurated by the Hble Human Resource Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal. Others on the august panel were Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin, an international expert on tobacco, alcohol, and drug-abuse prevention and a member of Cornell Universitys medical school faculty for 28 years; Shri Vineet Joshi, Chairman, CBSE; Dr. Sadhna Parashar from CBSE responsible for the implementation of Reforms and CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) and the facilitator for the entire event, Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, Program Director of Expressions India and Senior Consultant Psychiatrist. The inauguration was followed by a Global School Health Exhibition and a Youth Health Parliament, as also a Wellness Elocution and a National School Health and Wellbeing Quiz. Our students enthusiastically participated in all these events. In addition, a stall set up by our School showcasing the work being done at School in the specific areas of this summit came in for appreciation. The summit also comprised a training session for teachers on Leadership for Life Skills by Ms. Usha Anand and Ms. Geeta Mehrotra, members of the technical resource group of Expressions India. On the second day of the workshop we were taken on a guided heritage tour of Delhi. In the first half of the day we visited the Indira Gandhi memorial, Humayuns tomb, the Lotus temple and the Qutab Minar. We broke for lunch after which we stopped to see Parliament House and India Gate on our way back.   In summation of the proceedings of the 2 days, each participant was awarded a certificate of participation and our School was named First with a gleaming trophy. We were needless to say, delighted, with the achievement and the honour for our School. We believe our teachers would vouch that we also returned with an appropriately altered attitude towards health, wellbeing and values! As filed by the participants.