Chennai/Puducherry, August 12, 2009: Dr. K.M. Cherian Educational Society today commemorated 62 years of the Indian Independence by organising an array of events at ‘The Study’, the international school being promoted by Dr. K.M. Cherian Educational Society at Kalapet in Puducherry. About 400 school students coming from diversified cultural background, celebrated the day with several events showcasing their cultural accomplishments such as yoga, karate, the Indian classical dance and music, etc. Mr Ragesh Chandra, the Collector of Puducherry, and Padmashree Dr. K.M. Cherian, Chairman, Dr. K.M. Cherian Educational Society and Chairman & CEO, Frontier Lifeline Hospital, Chennai, presided over the event.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. K.M. Cherian, said, “We are very happy to celebrate India’s 62nd year of the Indian Independence with the students of The Study. It’s a great pleasure to be a part of such a wonderful event, and witnessing a wide variety of students’ initiatives. The charitable food programme is a part of our educational society’s initiative to offer nutritious health benefits for underprivileged students. We wish to organise more such activities benefiting the community we live-in.”
Mr Ragesh Chandra lauded the students’ efforts and their coordination for the various activities.
The morning’s curtain-raiser events was followed by a speech by the champions of the school’s elocution competition, and a charitable food programme was inaugurated, whereby, around 100 underprivileged children from surrounding government schools, including the students of a local blind school were invited to The Study to collect nutritious food packages. The event promoted by the Society also sponsored the education of five girls from disadvantaged single-parent families at The Study.
The afternoon session witnessed the Middle School level students of The Study competing in India’s first British Parliamentary Debate hosted by Mr Alexander Rodney, a former scholar of English, now law student, at Cambridge University, marking the climax of the school’s celebrated exchange programme with Cambridge University in the UK. The motion for the debate – ‘This House Believes that School Uniform Should Be Abolished’ – for which the candidates had honed their advocacy skills for months in preparation for the auspicious event. The cream of The Study’s crop had been carefully selected to represent the school, and it is expected that the programme, one of the first-of-its-kind in India, will be the start of a long and fruitful relationship between “The Study” and the prestigious British university.
Mr Alexander Rodney, speaking about his cultural exchange programme said “I am astonished with the progress and development of the students. When I first came to The Study, the children were hazy as to the meaning of the word debate; now, two months on, we are preparing to field one of the strongest debating teams in India. As The Study expands, Mr Rodney expects that the debating team will continue to evolve at high school level. It is hoped that in 2012, the prospective XI standard will participate in the British Council’s Debating Matters initiative, with the view of competing against the school champions in London.”
For those lucky enough to have secured tickets, the piece de resistance awaits in the evening: a theatrical production at the Pondicherry University Convention Centre. The 1838 Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist, adapted for the stage by Lionel Bart in 1960, was performed by “The Study”, with an enlarged all-star cast, an encore requested by Shri Padmashree J.A.K.Tareen, the Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University, who enjoyed the performance by The Study last year. It is to be noted that the theatre performance by the school students last year received great critical acclaim from all quarters.