Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (RD)
 
Bantwal, Jun 1: It’s the aspiration of the state administration to create awareness about the concept that villagers have to consider that state-run schools are their own schools. Accordingly, the school betterment committee of Keddalike Higher Primary School, near here, and teaching staff embarked on a special programme on reopening day on Wednesday May 30 to offer head-load offerings from education enthusiasts to the school to motivate the parents of students to be actively involved in school activities.

The head-load offerings of varieties of vegetables poured in to the school, accompanied by traditional music. The religious celebrations and free food offerings were also held at the school.
 
It was an innovative way of welcoming the children on school reopening. The celebrations that were held in Keddalike School exemplified the significance of children enrolling at the school. The students, their parents, teaching staff, and village elders gathered at the Anganawady near the school and welcomed the newly-enrolled students by garlanding them with flowers. MLA B Ramanath Rai inaugurated the procession by garlanding a newly-enrolled student.
 

Head-load Offering:
 
The state education department aspires to include the villagers in the activities of state-run schools, and expects them to consider the school their own. The teachers of Keddalike School planned the reopening day in a meaningful way by organizing head-load offerings by education enthusiasts in the village. It was a mega success and the villagers offered TV, mixers, keyboard, chair, notebooks, tender coconuts, coconuts, plantains, spinach, okra, and other varieties of vegetables as head load offerings to the school.
 
The head-load offerings were stacked in an open automobile and accompanied the students to the school in a grand procession.
 
The offerings were placed in a barn laid in a ‘pandal’ in front of the school which TP member B Padmashekar Jain inaugurated by lighting a lamp. The teachers welcomed the newly-enrolled students for Class I and seated them in a prominent place and offered ‘arati’. The village elders offered fruits as a sign of respect to the newly-enrolled students. The mothers drew the alphabets on a large plate full of rice.
 
The education meet was held in the pattern of a religious meet with guidance from village elders, distribution of notebooks and writing materials, and concluded with mid-day-hot meals shared by all students; which equaled the religious celebrations usually held in temples.
 
MLA Ramanath Rai, TP member B Padmashekar Jain, Keddalike gram panchayat president Yacqoub Saheb, KDP member Mohan Achar, school betterment committee president Divakar Das, vice-president Uma Bhat, Keddalike gram panchayat member Vishwanath Shetty, headmaster Eamesh Nayak Rayee, teaching staff, and parents of students witnessed this mega school re-opening celebration.