School Monitor Kerala Carmel School Thiruvananthapuram Rank SSLC

Thiruvananthapuram May 19: Carmel Girls Higher Secondary School is once again credited with scoring the maximum number of SSLC ranks for the year 2004. Eleven ranks in the SSLC Examination 2004 were grabbed by the smart Carmel girls! No mean achievement for the school and its calm and friendly principal Sister Renita. R.S.Priya KM correspondent in Thiruvananthapuram spoke to the soft-spoken principal about the school, its achievements and a few general issues affecting the state educational system.

Sister Renita is familiar to the academic fraternity of the state. She has received the state Best Teacher Award in 1992 and the best teacher award at the national level in 1998. Renita assumed the coveted post of Carmel School Principal only three years ago. The school has a history of producing first rank holders. It scored SSLC 1st ranks in the years 1996 and 2000. Carmel has always occupied top rank among the rank holding schools. Sr.Renita, a native of Paala, Kottayam hails from a middle class family of 3 brothers and 3 sisters. She did her schooling at St.Anthony's HSS, Kottayam and completed college education from St.Theresas College, Ernakulam. From a tender age, she has been keenly participating in both academics and sports with equal importance.

Best Teacher...Sister...Missionary..Principal..A combination of many qualities.Click to see her true .Sportswomen

A national sports champion at the school and college level, she was an upcoming athlete. Her keen interest in sports led her to focus on sports coaching in Carmel Girls HSS too where she has been working for a long time now. Christian missionaries have played a key role in the development of schools, colleges and other educational institutions in the state. Despite being criticized for partisan approach, these schools play a positive role in developing literacy and educational standards in Kerala, the most literate state in India.

Carmel School can boast of producing many sports and arts talents who have enhanced the school prestige by winning numerous prizes. Carmel students have participated in the national table tennis and won the overall trophy. They also won prestigious prizes at the state level Youth Festival, the principal says proudly. The school celebrates its school day by the end of January. "The school is part of a congregation consisting of over 22 schools under it throughout Kerala. It has also got many schools outside Kerala, in states like Karnataka and North India. Camrle has branches outside India in the USA, Germany and Africa," Sister Renita said.

Carmel School has been regularly producing Rank holders Ramya R.L.Arathy L and and Shilpa Shyam who got 10th and 11th ranks.. Click to view other three rank holders from Carmel - Heera L Vijay, Safia Salim (both 12th ranks) and Vidhya Subashi 12th rank.

Carmel Girls HSS with a total of 3500 students and 62 teachers is one of the most popular unaided schools in the state capital. The school was formed in the year 1963 with lower primary classes. It is 25 years since Carmel school was transformed into a High school. It was two years ago that the school introduced plus two system. Situated at Thycaud, the school has a very spacious playground, beautiful and well-maintained garden and spacious classrooms. The school has to its credit well-built science lab for physics, chemistry, biology and botany. The newly formed computer lab is yet another special feature of the school. Sister Renita is also planning to start work for a new language and audio visual lab, which would be implemented soon. The school has a beautifully constructed computerised library facility with a good collection of informative books. The construction work of the new auditorium for the school is progressing. The official website of the school, www.carmelschooltvm.org was constructed after Sr.Renita became the school principal. She has brought forth many more developments in the school. The school achieved 100 per cent pass in the SSLC examinations this year.

The school has a hostel to accommodate around 30 students. Many students from foreign countries also study there. The school gives computer training for students from the first standard itself and has boys in class up to 4th standard. The school has an association for old students called "Carma" which brings together the old students of the school and also publishes magazine and newsletter.

The school principal was quite eloquent, when was asked about the new educational modifications implemented by the state government. She doesn't approve highly of the grading system, which would be implemented from next year onwards."It would be quite a heavy burden on the students and reduce the kind of competitiveness that existed among students in the ranking system," she argues. Students would lose the fun of their childhood and get into more serious studies and tuition classes, she feels. "They would have to indulge more in projects and assignments from 5th standard onwards. Many of the students studying in government schools, who don't have enough food, proper shelter or any kind of means of entertainment would feel this to be a heavy burden. But for schools with all kinds of facilities it wouldn't be much of a problem, as students could slowly get adjusted to the new system. It would help students in getting more and more interested in reading books and doing research work.

When asked about the introduction of plus two system in Kerala, she said that it is becoming more and more successful, especially for unaided schools like Carmel GHSS. However, she hastened to add that for government schools, it would not be so successful.

"In unaided schools, there are more of laboratory facilities - something lacking in many government schools. There are no proper benches or desks. "Unaided schools can't introduce many groups. They can opt for only a single group each year. This year, they had chosen computer science group, and in the past years, they took science subjects in which students scored really well," sister said. "There is full strength in the computer group," she added. This year too Plus Two and SSLC results were quite good for Carmel GHSS.

She doesn't approve of students politics in school campuses and said she wouldn't encourage political activities in schools. It would reduce the interest of students in academics. In matters of studies and arts and sports, the students directly consult her and tell her their problems. According to her, tuition is not necessary, if the teachers in the schools teach properly. She feels that media play a great role in the character formation of students. Media, specially the visual media, can either make students good or bad.

Gracy one of the dedicated staff (click to view high tech computers)

"TV Channels showing too much of vulgar programmes could lead children in the wrong way. It is up to the parents and teachers to correct them and lead them in the right way. Media should also try to show good and informative programmes so as to help in the character formation of children," she opined. "Arts and sports should be encouraged at school level itself. Students who are interested should be encouraged to participate in arts and sports activities," she added.

It has been a general trend that girls get most marks in SSLC exams and plus two exams but is backward when it comes to medical and engineering entrance exams. This maybe due to girls becoming book worms, she says. Girls must read books other than text books and gather more information from other media like visual media like television and internet. Internet is one media where students can get lot of useful information. But students should be guarded by the parents from watching sites, which could negatively influence their personality and lead them in the wrong path.

More Carmel Talents .. Sooja one of the students

She feels that internet job is a new trend and internet portals are gaining wide acclaim. Internet is growing to be a new kind of media widely visited by people, especially the youth.

Now-a-days it is tough to get a job and media could help students in developing their character and also in their studies. This is the last year for the ranking system and after this, there would be a new grading system in Kerala. The Carmel School Principal, teachers, staff and students can feel proud of being a school, which got the maximum number of SSLC ranks in the last year of ranking system. The school principal is confident that in the coming years also, Carmel will produce more and more good grades. The school is well equipped to produce more and more talented students who will become productive citizens for the country -- (KM News Trivandrum)

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by R S Priya

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - May 17 2004 This rank is by the grace of god, the prayers of my parents and the inspiration given by my teachers, says Dhanya G, the Nirmala Bhavan girl bagged First rank for SSLC exams. It is a festive occasion for all who are close to Dhanya, who bagged the much coveted first rank for this year's SSLC examinations. Sweets and laddoos are being distributed to everyone. Dhanya. is the meritorious student of Nirmala Bhavan Higher Secondary School, Kowdiyar, Thiruvananthapuram who bagged 591 marks for the SSLC exams, leaving behind all other 4,69,702 students who wrote the examination Dhanya, the daughter of R.Radhakrishna Pillai and Girijadevi., shared this years first rank with Remya.K More School Monitor News

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