1. Children’s Day Celebration (14th November 2009)
District Resource Centre (DRC), Purulia
On the auspicious occasion of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday celebrated as
Children’s Day, 14th November was a milestone for District Resource Centre, Purulia.
DRC celebrated Children’s Day with four neighboring schools at Jhalda II block on
this auspicious day to create a difference in the
children’s outlook on their textbook. The DRC
team on behalf of Pratham, invited the four
schools namely Kotshila Girls’ High School,
Bamnia High School, Adardih High School and
Jhilinglohar High School. The team requested
the Principal of each school to send five
students each from fifth and sixth standard
guided by a teacher on this historical day to
Kotshila High School, the venue for the celebration. The Principal of the said schools
passionately supported our initiative and the event.
Quiz Competition was the tool to the
celebration on this day. Through this quiz
competition, the DRC Team primarily aimed
to increase children’s interest on their text
books. Keeping the objective in mind,
questions for the quiz was made from their
Bengali, English, History and Geography
books. Apart from these, questions on
general knowledge were also posed to
increase their general awareness.

2. The quiz, according to the subjects had five rounds. Each round had three questions.
Each question had 5 points. If a group was
unable to answer a particular question then
the question would be passed onto the next
group. If the next group succeeded then the
group would get a bonus of 2 points. From
the ten children of each school, a student
from fifth standard and a student from sixth
standard would form the group to contest for
one round. Again in the next round, the pupils
from the group would be changed by their respective school with the same
combination of one student from fifth and sixth standard respectively. Therefore,
students from each group would change in each round. Hence, all the children would
get a chance to participate in the quiz.
The program commenced with a song by
the teachers of Kotshila Girls’ School. The
schools, as per the direction from the
Pratham team, formed groups of two
pupils—one from fifth and one from sixth
standard to contest the first round of
Bengali. The students seemed confused as
to attend this kind of an inter-school quiz
competition. The expression of a new
experience was not difficult to reveal from their face. Students were excited and
ready to answer all the questions that would come their way and take away the
trophy for ‘their’ school. Questions from
their text books such as ‘Name a poem
written by Michael Madhusudan Dutta’,
‘Who is known as the Vishwa Kabi?’, ‘For
which work did Kabiguru Rabindranath
Tagore get the Noble Prize?’, ‘Given a
sentence: Ram is Rahim’s father; who is the
father and who is the son?’ and spellings of

3. certain English words were asked. Some were confident with their answers, some
stressed their grey matter to surf through their memories, some urged to answer but
didn’t get a chance, and some looked blank with no answer. On the run, the DRC
team guided the children and gave them the space to answer questions without fear
and promoted healthy competition.
Gradually the Bengali, English, History, Geography and General Knowledge round
passed, and now the students waited for the winner to be declared. Finally, the
winner was declared and Jhilinglohar High School rejoiced with the Trophy of the
Inter-School Quiz Competition organized
by Pratham West Bengal. Each participant
of the winning school got a box of color
pencils as a memento. The other
participants got a pen for actively
participating in the quiz competition. This
joyful event ended with a closing song by
the teacher of Jhilinglohar High School
and a vote of thanks from the Pratham
West Bengal DRC Team.
An ideal day for the ideal cause was the feedback of the teachers of the four invited
schools. Children went home rejoicing, discussing on the quiz questions, the songs
by their teachers and their enjoyment throughout the programme. The biggest
feedback to the Pratham members was the smile on every child’s face and their
enriched expression, reflecting the objective of the program, fulfilled.
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