A group of 39 meritorious students from different schools of West Sikkim are currently undergoing a student exposure programme, ‘Explore and Learn’ in Kerala.
The exposure programme, initiated as per the vision of the state chief minister P S Golay, has been facilitated by the office of the district collector of West Sikkim with an objective to provide exposure to the rural students and showcase to them the larger world outside Sikkim.
The programme is being funded by REC Foundation as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.
“It was our endeavour to instil upon the young and meritorious students a sense of larger purpose, a spirit of higher competition and sharpening their abilities to be able to compete with the world outside,” said district collector Karma Bonpo.
“We believed that the best platform would be to send these students for an exposure to places where they could learn more,” Bonpo added.
“We zeroed upon Kerala as it is one of the model states in terms of education in India and we are positive that the students would learn and explore various facets and come back sharper and more confident through the engagements,” the district collector reiterated.
The 15-day study tour which started on January 3 entails visiting reputed schools across Kerala, student exchange programmes with local schools, classroom interactions at schools, friendly football matches with local school and visiting places of historical significance apart from the visit to places of local tourist interests.
“My exposure during this educational tour has been very good and educating. This is a blessing for each one of us to be here and learn things beyond our text book. It has been a very engaging and a fascinating trip so far,” said Rinchen Ongmoo Lepcha, a student from Darap senior secondary school.
Another student, Bindass Chettri from Soreng senior secondary school, stated, “The one thing I learnt from the people of Kerala is their mannerisms and decency. They are very committed and that, I believe, is the reason for their continued progress. We as students have to learn more from them for our progress in the future.”
The student exchange programme has been highly effective in opening up newer vistas of learning for the students and the district collector’s office has two more student exposure trips, one to Odisha and one to Gujarat, lined up in the month of January.
The entire exposure tour is being managed and coordinated by Dewakar Basnet, chief learning officer of 24hr Inspired, an Education company based in Sikkim.