GUWAHATI, OCTOBER 22: As the entire world is closely observing the US Presidential debates and the possible fallouts of the polls, a team of students from Guwahati-based NPS International School are camping in the poll-bound US to get first-hand knowledge about the much talked-about elections.
A team of 21 -- comprising 17 students and four faculty members -- from the school is in Florida, US, closely monitoring the entire process relating to the forthcoming Presidential Polls.
Florida is the ‘Tipping Point’ of the November elections.
“Apart from monitoring the electoral process, we have also got the opportunity to discuss various issues with the local populace,” said Satabdi Gogoi, a Class XI (Science) NPS student, who is a member of the team.
In the US Presidential elections, the voters do not cast their vote directly for an individual candidate. In reality, the voters cast their vote for a group of people known as “electors”.
The electors are the members of the Electoral College from the various US states and in turn they cast their vote for the preferred candidate. Once the general elections take place, the first phase of the election is completed.
In the second phase, the ‘presidential electors’ cast the votes to choose a President and a Vice-President. The President is elected if he or she receives an absolute majority of the electoral votes cast.
The NPS students have expressed surprise over the style of the election campaign process of the largest superpower of the globe.
“Unlike India, we have not seen a single election-related banner or poster here. Everything takes place here in a disciplined and planned manner. People or party supporters throng the university auditoriums etc, to witness the election debate of candidates. General people also closely watch the debates on TV,” Jyotirmoy Das of Class VI said.
This is not the first time when the management of the school has sent its student abroad to get foreign exposure. It had sent its students to various front-ranking institutions of Spain, London, Germany, Dubai, Sri Lanka and USA over the years.
“NPS International School is the first school from North East region to visit NASA as well as receive astronomy training there. The students went for a three-day astronaut training experience (ATX) in NASA whose mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research,” J.N. Das, Founder and Chairman of the school said.
During their visit to NASA, students were taken to US Astronaut Hall of Fame where they got a taste of firsthand experience of astronauts for real missions. Students felt the pull of 4gs in the G - Force Simulator, sat in a mission control console, touched a Mars rock and landed the space shuttle.
All of this provided a true experience of Space Flight to the students. NASA scientists also explained to the students about it’s vision for space exploration.
“In the year 2015 also, the school had sent its students to NASA’s John F Kennedy Space Center, world’s gateway to exploring, discovering and understanding our universe,” Das added.
