a government school in a small village of godhra taluka has taken the concept of catching them young and watching them grow to a poll new level election has been an annual affair in nava nadisar prathmik shala where 365 students are enrolled the administration of this 47yearold school wants the students to be the change they want to see and grow up as democratically active citizens they elect their president and vicepresident just like citizens elect their political representatives managed by the gram panchayat the school is also progender equality if the president is a boy the vicepresident is a girl and vice versawhile the election commission of india launched the systematic voters education and electoral participation this year to acquaint schoolchildren with the nations electoral system the nava nadisarprathmik shala has been conducting its elections since 2007the concept was implemented by rakesh patel the principal when he was recruited as a teacher in the school in 2007 when i joined i was the only teacher here and we had 50 students the number has now grown to 365 it was necessary to involve students in the management of school affairs as it meant bringing in innovative ideas and making them aware of the challenges too pateltold toi that led to the formation of a student body and the introduction of elections any student who wants to contest the election can enroll himselfherself as the candidatethe idea behind conducting polls was to get students interested in the democratic process and develop their reasoning skills that are required to elect their leader patel saidthe electoral process is along the lines of the eci and includes announcement of poll registration of voters filling in nomination forms deadline for withdrawal of candidature campaigning voting and counting of votes students from classes 18 and teachers and members of the school management committee are the voters the student with the highest number of votes is made the president of the school the vicepresident is the student from the opposite gender with the highest number of votesif the president is a boy then the vice president has to be a girl regardless of the votes patel saidafter the president and the vice president are elected the remaining candidates are split into four groups with a president and a vice president appointed for each group based on the number of votes they garnered the term of the elected body is one yearthe students body has a say in routine management of the school such as maintaining cleanliness academic activities and other students issues they are also allowed to make suggestions regarding the chapters that need to be taught in great detailsandip mehra a class 8 student who was elected the school president in june cannot stop beaming when he says i defeated eight of my rivalsi got 90 votes and won i had promised to upgrade the garden and the playground mehra said he learnt all about the history of the school and his village