Borivali

JBCN International School

Debika Chatterji

Dahisar

school stops use of ballpoint pens among staff to encourage students to follow eco-friendly measureIf you thought that the fountain pen is history, think again. An attempt is being made to popularise the use of the good old fountain pen at thein Borivali.In an internal circular issued this January, the school has asked its teachers and staff to do away with ballpoint pens and use fountain pens in their routine work. “In our subsequent meetings with the Admin team and the heads/coordinators, held over the course of this year, with a view to be more environment-friendly, it has been resolved that the staff members would begin using fountain pens instead of ball point pens and replace all plastic bottles in the school with either steel or glass bottles,” the circular read.Teachers and school staff welcomed the move aimed at reducing the school’s carbon footprint. “For the past two months I have been using afountain pen for all my work. Students will be eased into the change gradually,”, principal of JBCN, told Mumbai Mirror.Furthermore, the school, located along theRiver, is also negotiating a tie up with Mumbai’s River March movement – a citizen’s initiative to revive the city’s dying and sewage-filled river bodies to educate children about garbage segregation. “There are two main types of solid waste that pollute rivers – debris and plastic waste. Debris is not something that the citizens can be asked to tackle. However, plastic, which makes its way into river streams can be segregated at the source,” said Tejas Shah, member of the River March movement.As part of the initiative, the children would be asked to bring plastic waste used routinely at home, such as milk packets, rulers, ball pens, pencil boxes, mosquito repellents etc.The citizen’s group and the school are in the process of looking for vendors who will recycle the waste plastic. “We believe in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. As a school we have decided to work more closely with the River March Movement. A couple of years back, we did not even know that there is a Dahisar river,” Ms. Chatterji said.