Video conference with students in Kazakhistan

The Indian School is well aware of the importance of introducing children to global issues and encouraging them to see the world through anothers eyes. In the same light, a video conference was organised with The Nurorda International School in Astana, Khazakistan on 15th December 2016. Being an increasingly interconnected world, our young learners from class 5 were encouraged to engage in communication with the Khazak students.

The excitement in the conference room was palpable as the students waited eagerly for Kazakh school to come online. As soon as this happened, the room reverberated with enthusiastic cries of Namaste and Slem. In fact, the children's look of excitement and anticipation were delightful!

Our School began the session with a Bhangara performance. This lively and energetic dance from Punjab was thoroughly enjoyed by the Khazak students and set the tone for the event.

The Nurorda International School was celebrating the 25th Independence Day of Khazakistan. Our students learned that Kazakhstan became the very last country to declare independence from the Soviet Union after the latter's dissolution, on December 16th, 1991 and its anniversary is celebrated each year as Independence Day. Her, the students sang for us melodious song on independence in their language.

This was followed by a dombra performance. The dombra is a pear shaped long necked lute of the Kazakh people. It has a slender long neck with fourteen gut frets and two gut strings. Our students enjoyed the music so much that they swung to it in their seats and clapped to the rhythm.

Christmas carols in both English and Hindi were also sung by our students.This gave a taste of how joyfully all festivals our celebrated in our multicultural country.

Subsequently, the children taught each other a few words of their distinctive languages. It was, indeed, delightful to witness these young learners embracing and respecting each others languages and cultural beliefs. A question-answer session in which the students asked each other about the climate and sports' activities of their respective countries, wrapped up the session.

Im sure the information garnered by the students through this video-conference greatly enriched and enhanced their overall learning.

Ms. Neelima Sharma.