Aliya Abreu
PANAJI
Three students from The Ardee School -- Keira Singh, Siya Sukhtankar, and Vardhan Sawant -- were on Saturday awarded the “Most Innovative Electoral Literacy Campaign (ELC) Activity” award at the National Voters Day celebration organised by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) at Kala Academy. The students received the award in the presence of Goa governor Satya Pal Malik.
At the time of the 2019 general elections, the three 13 year old students studying in Class VII at The Ardee School, developed a child-friendly model of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) using Scratch software (a programming language which is targeted primarily at children.)
What’s even more notable about the students’ accomplishment, is that the model EVM caught the attention of the Election Commission of India (ECI), who featured them in a brochure circulated nationally called, “Impact of ELCs on Lok Sabha Elections 2019.” A picture of the three students with the model EVM is featured alongside a description, “A child friendly model of EVM
was designed with a cardboard dummy balloting unit to familiarise the ELC members with the functioning of EVMs.” The students’ accomplishment is featured amongst many other accomplishments for ELCs in other States in the country like Sikkim, Mizoram, Kerala and others.
Speaking to “The Goan” following the felicitation, the three students expressed how happy, excited and proud they were on being felicitated. Vardhan explained, “We won the award for creating a working model of an EVM using Scratch software.”
When asked how the students who were not yet of voting age came up with the idea of a model EVM machine, Keira explained, “We had voting awareness in school because the elections were coming up. We have a “Makers Lab” in school where we can create stuff. That’s where we created the model EVM.” Siya added, “The Makers Lab is equipped with computers, 3D printers and other tools. It was a class project, and our team made a really nice machine.”
The students were presented the award by Additional Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Narayan Sawant. Their school, The Ardee School was also given the award for “Best ELC.” In total, 42 awards were given out at the function to those who helped make the 2019 elections a smoother, more accessible election.
