I want to share few details of Sports Meet for 2009 - 10 conducted in NHPS campus, this is open discussion of both good & bad things which I found during the meet. I’m sure each & every parent present during the meet would have felt the same, being the first sport meet for me as a parent at NHPS I was looking forward for this event & was very excited as well.
Got up early in the morning & made my little one ready with her costume & a little bit of make up for the event. I had to drop off my kid sharp 9 a.m at the school as no transport from school. Programme was scheduled at 9.30 am & we took our positions in the ground after dropping our kids in their classrooms. Sun seemed too harsh on that day! i was looking around & saw beautiful toddlers with various costumes( Angel, butterfly, Punjabi kudi, Sheikh , Bride & groom, Bunnies, Shakuntala & Dushyanth, Doctors & Nurses so on) very colour sight must applaud efforts taken by teachers & kids to make the event so colourful.
Programme started at 9.30 a.m with Flag march by all groups followed by flame ceremony which passed through all 4 directions & then they placed the flame in a POT with a tripod like structure which was almost crumbling, quite dangerous must say with so many people & children around.
Chief guest for the occassion was:
Mrs. Radhika Lobo Principal High school NHPS div.
Mr. xxxx(Principal for NH college) Sorry I could not hear the name properly.
Mrs. Elizabeth Principal Primary div NHPS
The lady who was announcing was quite bad at her oratory skills, sound was scattering it was not very clear, I wonder why there were no speakers placed on all 4 corners. Sometimes we could hardly get through what they were announcing.
It would have been pleasing if some student from NHPS middle or high school was announcing . i’m sure student would have done better speaking than the lady who held the mike that day.
There was running race & other competitions for nursery followed by lkg & ukg, it was fun with all kids & their nakras.
In between there was another VIP chief guest Mrs. Manghnani walking in who was obviously late for the event & missed torch bearing & swearing in ceremony . (Chief guest & Trustee of the school with bad time keeping this is not what I expected ?)
As the event proceeded prizes were distributed for the winners by the chief guests . I think we were half way through the prog by then Principal of college pushed off & then Mrs. Radhika Lobo moved off from the venue I think they were not very keen on seeing the students performance or may be the sun was too hot for them to handle, but we parents were all excited for our children & stuck to our chairs with the temp. soaring. Let me make a point here don’t the chief guest’s leaving the venue atleast make an announcement to parents if they have any other important meeting or work before leaving campus?
After handing over few prizes chief guests were very tired to do it again & again. So some of the parents were called upon to hand over the medals to winners. I wonder how they chose few parents names of 1000’s present in the venue? Have these parents in some way done good to society or are they famous persons in locality? Or was it because they gave fat sums as donations?
I really wonder how the management chose to invite few parents to give away the prizes but nothing was mentioned in terms of their achievement or qualification for preference given to these special ones over the rest of the parents.
Announcements were being done that parents should not leave the venue & collect their children only after the programme was completed. Our Junior division principal did announce as a courtesy call to all parents to move to shady place.
END OF THE MEET, LESSON LEARNT BY ME AS A PARENT
a) Rules are only for students & parents not for vip’s or chief guests
b) All parents are not equal in the school .
c) Time keeping is again only for students not for chief guests
We parents struggled so much for the event running around to hire costumes which was given to some XYZ nominated places who charged double the cost & was quite far away & it was so much inconvenience for working parent like me. Over that all the nursery students were put in their class rooms after completing their events they were not allowed to see other’s perform or even to mingle with other children or parents in the event. I would have ideally wished the children handed over to their parents after the event so they could enjoy the event & we could take few snaps with their best friends at their school.
I would suggest NHPS to make the events more fun for children & respect parents. NHPS is what it is because of its STUDENTS & PARENTS. We understand discipline should be maintained in school but not like the example we got from higher ups!