9 students act as MLAs for a day in mock assembly

Donning kurta-pyjamas and taking up issues from their Assembly segments and political parties, nine students from different government schools in the district had the opportunity to take part in a mock assembly session held at Anandpur Sahib on Wednesday.

The nine students included eight boys from schools in Shahkot, Phillaur, Adampur, Kartarpur, Jalandhar Central, Jalandhar West, Jalandhar North and Jalandhar Cantt, and a girl from a Nakodar school. “Since we have a woman MLA from Nakodar, we picked a girl to take her position in the Vidhan Sabha session,” said Ram Asra, coordinator of the event and Principal of School of Eminence, Adampur.

He shared, “Under the guidance of our District Education Officer Gurinderjit Kaur, we held a block-level competition. Students from all 19 blocks were tested for their oratory skills, body language and conduct. We screened them to have two students to represent each Assembly segment. Finally, we picked the best student from each halqa.”

Pawan Kumar was selected from Adampur, Rajvir Kaur from Nakodar, Gurwinder from Phillaur, Rohan from Shahkot, Nitin Goria from Kartarpur, Jashandeep from Jalandhar West, Nimit Chopra from Jalandhar Central, Shekhar from Jalandhar North and Samrinder Singh from Jalandhar Cantt. All are students of Classes XI and XII.

Once selected, the students underwent training. “We shared with them the videos of the MLAs whose roleplay they were to do. They were also taken to Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh, on November 19 for a training session conducted by the Secretary of the Punjab Assembly. A day-long practice session was held for them to explain to them the conduct of the session,” said Principal Ram Asra.

The students said that it was a great learning experience for them to don the role of their respective MLA and to be able to sit on the chair where they had sat yesterday during the special session.

Santosh Kumari Bangar, guide teacher, and Vijay Kumar, assistant, also mentored the students and accompanied them to the mock session today.