Setting a new record, a student and the principal of a Navodaya school in the outskirts of the south Indian city Thiruvananthapuram have bagged national level performance awards.
Principal of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidhyalaya (JNV) at Chettachal K O Ratnakaran and 12th class student of the school, Vijin Venu have won Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) Incentive Awards 2009, competing with all Navodaya schools in India.
It is for the first time in the history of Navodaya Vidyalayas across the country that a principal and student were winning the prestigious awards from the same school, management sources said.
While the student got the award for his academic brilliance and top marks got for the science subjects in CBSE board examination, the principal won the honour for his contributions to the NVS in his 20-year-long service.
"I could set up a five acre farm inside the school and various agriculture initiatives. It helped a lot to nurture the love for nature and earth in the minds of students," Ratnakaran said detailing his innovative ventures in the school.
An academic exchange programme with school students in the United Kingdom under the United Kingdom India Education Research Initiative (UKERI) was also done recently under his lead who joined JNV at the Kerala capital in 2006 after serving schools in Sikkim and Chikmagalur.