There are four icons on the wall - a handshake, a heart shape, a fist bump and a high five - each representing a gesture. Children, standing in a queue, could touch an icon and redeem it from the person seen in this video, which is supposedly from conflict-torn Palestine. For example, if a student chose the heart icon, he or she received a hug from the person who has been identified as their teacher.
This video, which surfaced a couple of days ago on the internet, has amused the netizens and has since gone viral. The positivity of this video was so overwhelming that a school in Telangana has started emulating this heartwarming greeting gesture.
This teacher in Palestine lets the children choose their greeting at the start of the school day. These children live in such dire, oppressive conditions which most of us will thankfully never experience, but their smiling little faces are heart warming. pic.twitter.com/RakPruc9oO
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) April 26, 2019
Five days ago, S Rupa, Principal of Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS), in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, reproduced the same form of greetings with her students during the summer camp, and she says that the outcome was ‘emotional’.
Speaking to TNM, Rupa says, “I didn’t expect that this act would bring us so close to the students. Students coming from marginalised communities go through a lot of trouble, which includes family problems. But they don’t share them with others. But after hugging them and giving them handshakes, many students wept. They couldn’t control their emotions.”
She adds, “They later shared their problems… it was really emotional for me that day.”
After seeing the viral of the Palestine teacher uniquely greeting students, Principal of TSWREIS, Addaaguduru, Rupa tried the same. The experience was 'emotional', she said to me. TSREIS schools across are replicating this. pic.twitter.com/qLvhN44HcB
— Bala (@naartthigan) May 10, 2019
Rupa had recorded the video of this and shared it on a WhatsApp group that also has TSWREIS Secretary RS Praveen Kumar on it.
Soon, after seeing the video, the Secretary directed all the schools in the state to emulate the same.
“It is a great exercise. Imagine beginning the day with such positivity,” Rupa says.
Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Society (TTWREIS) and the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Society (TSWREIS) are educational institutions meant for the upliftment of the Backward Classes, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes students.
Recently, students of TSWREIS and TTWREIS outdid the government and private colleges in the Intermediate examinations (class 11 and class 12).
Intermediate second-year students from these welfare institutions surpassed the state average with a pass percentage of 84.31% compared to the state’s average pass percentage of 64.8%. In the junior inter results, TSWREIS students attained a pass percentage of 79.63% as against the state average of 59%.
Moreover, scores of students from these institutions cracked the Joint Entrance Examination Mains and Joint Entrance Examination Advanced.