Staff Reporter.TOD.Balurghat
For a group of schoolchildren in Balurghat, the night sky moved from the pages of their textbooks to the lens of a telescope on Tuesday evening.The special educational programme, “Akash Jokhon Hater Muthote” (When the Sky Fits in the Palm of Your Hand), was organised at the premises of Shalgram Primary School, near the India-Bangladesh border, with the aim of sparking curiosity about astronomy and encouraging a scientific temperament among students.
The programme was organised by the West Bengal Samagra Shiksha Mission in collaboration with the Balurghat Sky Club. Among those present were District Education Officer Banibrata Das; Arijit Bhaduri, Assistant Inspector of Schools of Balurghat North Circle; Assistant Inspectors of Schools Jyotirmoy Sinha and Rahul Shankar Seth; Tuhin Shubhra Mondal of the Balurghat Sky Club; and the school's headmaster, Pranab Pramanik.
The children took part enthusiastically, particularly when they were given an opportunity to observe the night sky through a telescope. With their eyes fixed on the instrument, they were introduced to celestial objects and learned about the Moon, stars and planets.
Members of the Balurghat Sky Club explained basic astronomical concepts in simple terms. They discussed the differences between stars and planets, their characteristics and their positions in the night sky, helping students connect what they had encountered in books with objects they could observe directly.
For many of the young participants, the experience offered a different kind of science lesson — one in which observation replaced imagination and the distant sky became something they could explore for themselves.The organisers said that the programme was intended not only to introduce students to astronomy but also to nurture scientific curiosity and encourage them to engage more deeply with science.
They expressed hope that such opportunities for direct observation would inspire the children to take a greater interest in scientific learning in the years ahead.As the telescope turned toward the evening sky, a familiar world of textbooks and diagrams gave way, for a while, to something far more immediate: a universe the children could see with their own eyes.
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