For a good 33 years, children in Kirk View Kindergarten, Gaya have been able to quickly relate to their environment. Things they read and learnt in their text books were often only a few feet away – especially nature – plants, trees, domesticated animals. All this and more was available on the campus.
When Kirk View School – the primary school – was selected for the NDTV-Grundfos Mission Energy Campaign a few months ago, text book discussions leapt out into finding solutions for real life. Did the school shudder at the challenge – No. Working in a State that has always had a chronic power shortage, was almost a logical step to daily learning the school’s director felt.
The school management and staff sat down to understand what the NDTV-Grundfos Mission Energy Campaign was. The first round of discussions was with the teachers. This was then discussed with children. These discussions had interesting spin offs. Teachers and children of the school were found to be very conscious of natural light hours as part of their living with long hours of no power.
When there was power, they considered and discussed the need to switch on lights and fans only when necessary. After the discussions, on a hot day one committed child actually switched of the fan and the teacher had to put a brake to explain that they needed to save power, but not at the cost of their comfort! Another child suggested that the fridge to be switched off for an hour.
These are exciting times in Kirk View School. The school now has its sprawling new campus in Rajpur and the timing of the NDTV-Grundfos Mission Energy Campaign has got the management incorporating energy saving measures as the new buildings come up. The first seven classes here have been built aligning the east/west directions allowing the classrooms to be well ventilated and these are brightly painted so there is enough light within. As Gaya enters its blistering summer, even up to noon as the temperature steadily moves up the classes remain pleasant. The window coverings are also kept closed during the day to prevent solar gain.
Parts of the Rajpur village are off the power grid. When construction work began here, the school’s board of trustees saw the opportunity to use renewable energy to get things rolling. The school has already been sourcing water through a 0.5 hp submersible pump that is run on solar for the past few months saving on a recurring energy (diesel or electricity) bill. More importantly, the solar intervention is a rallying point for others in the village too!
Children in the school have also estimated the cost to change the 10 LEDs on the ground floor of the City school and the management is looking towards taking up that challenge in subsequent phases.
P Chatterjee,
Managing Trustee,
Kirk View School
