Mustifund High School was one of the seven Goa-based schools selected under the Central Government’s NITI Aayog project to develop solutions to problems affecting their schools.
PANAJI
Bagging the funds, the school will get an initial sum of Rs 10 lakh this year and subsequent Rs 2 lakh for the next five years.
According to the programme, schools were invited to present innovative solutions to problems they face in their schools. Students from Mustifund High School chose three problems that faced their Cujira complex. These included sustainable energy management in the schools toilets, using rain water to generate electricity and traffic management in the entire school complex.
Presenting the project, students Oum Kuvelkar said the solutions had the possibility to be scaled up for larger projects. According to the plan, the students want to install SONAR powered devices and the concept of an Arudino board, where lights inside the washroom will turn on and off only if a student enters or exits the washroom.
Currently, the energy consumption in washrooms per day equals 6kWh and has a potential saving time of 400 minutes a day. The solution aims to save 4kWh of energy every day.
Harvesting rainwater to generate electricity during the monsoons is also part of one of their solutions that will cover 2,400 square meter with an estimated annual rainfall of 120 inches. “We plan to use a series of drain pipes to be lined up in a manner that will turn the turbines that would eventually supply electricity to a battery grid,” said Kuvelkar.
On handling traffic in the complex, the students proposed to introduce RFID cards to anyone entering the complex and fining those that had failed to leave the premise within a particular period of time.
“We will also write to the government to consider opening the Lusofonia stadium to be used for parking buses owned by schools so that there is easy movement of traffic,” he said.
Under the project, the funds would be provided to setup ATAL labs in the school equipped with 3D printers, breadboards, PCBs and other infrastructural facilities.
Other students that were part of the project were Atharva Kenkre who was assisted by Sarvesh Lad, Gautami Mahale, Aarti Kamat, Sparsh Sanzgiri and Manali Manjarekar. The teachers that helped represent the students were Jayesh Naik and Aparna Chari.
Other schools that were granted the ATAL funding were St Xavier's Higher Secondary School, Mapusa, Pope John XXIII High School, Quepem, MES Higher Secondary School, Fr Agnel Multipurpose High School, Dr K B Hedgewar School and A J De Almeida High School.
