Student’s Council Election 2017 - 18

'Vote for the change you need'
 Student’s Council Election 2017 - 18 and its announcement

School services will benefit if they are informed by children’s opinions and concerns. Learner participation in school governance can assist in identifying problems and solutions because the learners have unique knowledge and perceptions of their schools, and about learning, teaching and schooling. Moreover, learner participation in decision-making processes yields positive effects for the child regarding: life skills, behaviour, self-esteem, developing democratic skills and concepts of citizenship, and tolerance for others. Elections and its procedures provide the learners with the required learning experiences as to how to elect a candidate who is nominated for the post at any level of governance. Being democratic in its ideals and as everything is accomplished in the spirit of openness, and not secrecy, the students of Podar World School, Sherkhi, filled and submitted the nomination forms by 15th June'17 for different posts such as School Head Boy, School Head Girl, Sports Captain Boy, Sports Captain Girl (From Higher Secondary Sections), House Captains(Boy & Girl) and Vice Captains (Boy & Girl) for all the four houses (for both Middle and Secondary sections) and Cleanliness  and Cultural Prefects for all the four houses  so that they not only exercise their right to vote and thereby know what is going on within the school as their representatives by actually being a part of the Students' Council through the process of election which is fair, just and conducted in  a purely objective manner  so that a duty bound and responsible group get elected to control the School.

The nomination forms where a student can nominate themselves for maximum 3 posts, were distributed as a part of the first stage of the election procedure. The filled nomination forms were scrutinized by the SEC (comprising of overall Secondary Academic In-charge Ms Sunanda Dattetreya, and a few senior teachers) not only for Headship or Sports Captainship but also for the house posts such House Captains, House Vice Captains, Cultural Prefects, Cleanliness Prefects etc. The respective House Mistress and House teacher then chose minimum 2 or 3 students who qualified for the Election round for each post.

All posts including Head boy, Head girl & Sports Captain Boys, Sports Captain Girls were required to give a speech to the house assembly of why he/she should be selected for that post, and what is his/ her vision for that house. This stage was also accomplished as the student candidates were all geared up and ready with their speeches in English. As each one of the candidate were aware of the position of their houses in sporting activities and other scholastic activities, the speeches were based on what further would they do to promote their houses so that they reap maximum number of points for their houses to be the winning House.

 On 19th June'17, the short listed students for each of the posts were escorted to all the
classes the next two days as a part of election campaigning process from grade 5 to 12 with posters and badges carrying their symbols and using slogans and banners to woo student voters to elect for their candidate. This was mainly done during zero period, which was formed by deducting 5 minutes from the first four periods and during the recess time under the vigilance of a few teachers. It was fun watching the student supporters of each candidate actually carrying their candidate on shoulders at times and speaking about them to the class students while the candidate too added to their speeches promising of better facilities at Podar World School, Sherkhi and better sporting activities and finally requesting the students with folded hands to vote for them or for their candidate.

Besides a debate was held for the most prestigious posts that of Head boy and girl and Sports Captain Boy and Girl respectively in the line of the debate held at Conclave with the Introduction by both the Proponents and Opponents at the first stage, then the actual debate at the second stage where they actually give justification as to why they should be elected and their vision and at the third stage, what would be their mission if given an opportunity to serve the school. As one of the judges of the debate was the leader of the school, Ms Preeta Pillai , she played an active role in the rebuttal session posing questions such as,' If elected as the Head Boy, what  would be your mission for the school'?  'Our school is quite good at sporting activities and we do have a good number of students playing at the State and National level, what strategy will you adopt to attract more students into sports?'   and also encouraging the children to raise questions to the speakers.  It was indeed a cut throat debate with each candidate promoting themselves enumerating the laurels they have won for the school either in Scholastic or Co- scholastic activities in the previous years to impress upon the audience about their skills and achievements in different activities.

On the Election Day, under the guidance of the class teachers and the House Mistresses a very calm, fair and just election was held. Prior, portal message was send informing of the election and insisting of mandatory presence for election to the Students' Council. All the students from class 5 to 12 were advised to vote for the Head boy and Head girl; Sports Captain boy and Sports Captain girl (one pair of candidate from each category) and the students from each house would select their House Captain and Vice Captain for their respective House alone. The election process was carried out through traditional voting method of Ballot boxes which went of peacefully with 95% student voters casting their votes. For the counting of the votes, the teachers who were assigned the job and the one who was assigned the second counting of the same was carried and recorded in complete secrecy. The final list of the winning candidates for each of the posts and the list of the class prefects, monitors and councilors prepared by class teachers and subject teachers based on selection procedure was eventually handed over to the Principal Ms. Preeta Pillai. The Student Election Committee and the Principle based on the counting report together determined the members of New Student Council and kept the same confidential till the announcement of the Election Report due on Tuesday, 27th June 2017 at a special assembly, of the whole school.

The election report was announced on 27th June’17 at the assembly held in the school ground where the names of all those who were elected through election procedure to different posts of Student council were to be declared. Soon after the assembly,   the Co-ordinator of the Secondary section announced the names of students who have been selected for the posts of Monitor (1 in each class), Prefects of each houses (4 in each class) Councillor (1 in each class), Safety patrol officer(two from the Middle and Secondary section), two Editors for English(from Middle school) and one Editor(from Secondary and Hr. Secondary section ).  Ms Sunanda Dattetreya announced the names of House Captains, Vice Captains (two each for each of the houses from the Middle and Secondary section) and the names of the Cleanliness Prefects (two for both the sections) and Cultural Prefects (two for both the sections).

Now it was time for the announcement of the most significant posts of the Student Council Election 2017-18  i.e the posts of Sports Captain Boy & Girl and the names of the Head Boy & Girl. Posing the usual questions about the guesses for the post, the Principal eventually announced the names of Manav Patel & Amrita Joseph(Sports Captain Boy & Girl) and the names of Abhishek Raghav & Shirin Sam (the names of the Head Boy & Girl) for the Academic year 2017-’18 amidst thunderous applause. Then each of the four winners expressed their gratitude to the gathered school for having instilled trust on them and elected them to the posts they adorned.

Before calling it off, the Principal, Ms Preeta Pillai made an important announcement about the new responsibility that the ‘Sahodaya’ (a group of private CBSE schools in Gujarat) had entrusted upon her having known her calibre and the dedication towards her work. She has been designated as the Joint Secretary. She added that she will be playing a vital role in promoting Sports activities and conferences. It was indeed a great declaration and her team members felt proud to be one among her team.

Finally the Principal congratulated the new Student Council members and reminded them of their responsibilities and wished them all the success in their endeavour in creating a congenial atmosphere for imparting Scholastic and Co-scholastic activities at school. Thus overall it was a fair and just election carried out in the true spirit of democratic principles.

STUDENT COUNCIL MEMBERS :2017-18