On the morning of Friday, 5th June 2026, as Shahbaaz English Medium School gathered to mark World Environment Day, the skies cooperated, the temperature dropped to something almost reasonable, and the school got on with the business of the day.
That business included a prayer, a pledge, a pop quiz, a play performed entirely in silence until it was not, a drawing competition conducted under open skies, and an announcement from the President of the school that earned him the loudest applause of the morning…after a little prompting.
It also included a sapling. One for every single person in the building.
The Programme: Hosted by Class X Girls
Ms. Marwa and Ms. Ayesha opened the World Environment Day programme, introducing the day and its global significance to the assembled school. Ms. Aaniya followed with the news of the day, and Ms. Iqra shared the Thought for the Day.
Ms. Asma then led the school in a general supplication, students bowing their heads and praying for guidance, community kindness, and the wisdom to act well in the world.
Ms. Anam, also of Class X, then administered the environmental pledge: a collective promise to plant trees, reduce daily waste, and treat the planet as something borrowed rather than owned.
The Pop Quiz: Loud, Fast, and Instantly Right
Ms. Mehwish of Class X ran the pop quiz, and it moved at a quick pace. Questions on rainforests, dustbin colour codes, pollution, and the environment came one after another. The audience needed absolutely no warming up.
A few of the questions put to the school:
“What do trees absorb from the air?” (Carbon Dioxide!)
“Which is the largest rainforest in the world?” (The Amazon!)
“What colour dustbin is used for wet waste?” (Green!)
The answers came fast, loud, and, for the most part, entirely correct.
On Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
The 3Rs of World Environment Day 2026
Ms. Madeeha Fatima of Class X took to the stage to speak about the crucial balance of the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Her argument was straightforward: the problem of waste is not going to be solved downstream, at the recycling end. It has to be addressed directly at the source, by consuming less, by extending the life of what we already have, and by ensuring that what eventually must be discarded does not end up directly in a landfill.
For a school in a city that sees temperatures climb well above 40°C every summer, and where the green cover has been steadily thinning for decades, these are not abstract academic principles. Kudos to Ms. Fatima for a sharp, well-delivered speech.
Roots and Wings: A Play in Almost Complete Silence
The boys of Class VIII performed an original play. It had a title, a set, costumes of a sort, and a runtime that held the audience’s attention without a single spoken word for most of its duration.
The stage opened on a full forest, with birds and animals moving through it. Then came an axe. Then, silence.
The narrative turned when someone returned to the clearing, watered the ground, and slowly brought the trees back to life. With the greenery came the birds, the animals, and the noise. At the very end, the cast turned to face the audience to deliver the only spoken lines in the play:
Save Trees, Save Forests, Save Water, Save Lives!
The President’s Announcement: Degrees Over Rupees
Mr. Adnan Vazir, Proprietor and President of Shahbaaz English Medium School, addressed the school after the stage programme. He spoke plainly about Kalaburagi: the sweltering summer holidays, the intense heat the city experiences, the way a town changes when it loses its tree cover, and what that loss costs, not in rupees, but in degrees.
The best thing we can do today is not to talk about planting trees. It is to actually plant one.
Shahbaaz would be conducting an immediate tree-planting drive, he announced. One sapling would be planted right on the school premises. Furthermore, every student, teacher, and member of the non-teaching staff would be going home with one: either a fruit-bearing guava sapling or a lemon sapling, to be planted wherever they could find soil and a patch of sky.
Kicking Off the Tree Plantation Drive
Class I Does the Honours
Students of Class I planted the first saplings on the school premises, guided by the PE Teacher, Mr. Nawab Khan, while the rest of the school watched from neat rows on the ground. The young ones took to the task with muddy hands and the speed of children who have somewhere far more important to be, upending the water spout with gusto and almost burying the plants.
The girls of Class I took charge of planting a lemon tree sapling, while the boys of Class I planted a guava tree sapling.
A few healthy saplings were also set aside by the gardening staff for the Pre-Primary students joining on 8th June, ensuring both the returning students and those stepping into the Shahbaaz family for the first time will receive theirs.
Drawing Competition Under Open Skies
Earlier in the day, students participated in a drawing and colouring competition on the theme of World Environment Day. Given that the morning was, by local standards, exceptionally pleasant, the competition moved completely outdoors. Students spread across the school grounds, the corridors, the landscaped garden, and the stage, drawing wherever they found a good spot and clear light.
It is not often that a June morning in Kalaburagi invites you to sit outside in the open. Our students accepted the invitation with gusto. Winners of the drawing competition will be announced within the week, and exciting prizes have been arranged.
The Journey Home
A Sapling for Every Student
As the school day drew to a close, the corridors filled with a moving line of green as everyone walked out toward the gates, saplings in hand, ready to plant them in their own yards and neighborhoods.
The People Who Made It Happen
The idea began with our school President, Mr. Adnan Vazir. When World Environment Day came up in the school calendar, he was clear about how he wanted Shahbaaz to mark it: not with a routine notice on the board, not with a standard worksheet on conservation, but with something students would carry home, literally. The tree-planting drive and the mass sapling gift were his initiative, and the rest of the day was built around it.
The saplings arrived at school a few days before the event, delivered and kept watered by the non-teaching staff until the morning of the 5th. It is the kind of work that happens quietly, behind the scenes, and without which nothing else on the day would have been possible.
Student Leadership On and Off Stage
The Class X students anchored the entire day. While the girls took the lead on stage, hosting the programme, leading the prayer, administering the pledge, running the quiz, and delivering the speech, the boys facilitated the practical arrangements, maintained crowd discipline, and managed the logistics of the sapling distribution. Between them, they gave the day its shape.
The teaching staff coordinated the programme end-to-end, managing the sequence of events, student transitions, and overall timing. They also documented the day thoroughly with cameras and phones to make sure the milestones were recorded for posterity.
A Note of Gratitude
Shahbaaz is grateful to everyone who made the day what it was: to Mr. Adnan Vazir for the vision behind it, to the non-teaching staff for the unglamorous and essential work that preceded it, to the teachers for their coordination, and to the students of Class X for the confidence and competence with which they carried the responsibility. Well done!
Learning Beyond the Classroom Walls
Events like these underscore the Shahbaaz approach to holistic education. True development cannot happen solely within the pages of a textbook. By stepping outside the classroom, leading public assemblies, managing peers, and taking physical responsibility for a living plant, students engage directly with their civic duties. This balance of academic discipline and environmental accountability ensures our students grow into aware, responsible, and practical citizens who understand their immediate impact on the world around them.
World Environment Day has been observed globally on 5th June every year since 1974. This year, Shahbaaz English Medium School, Kalaburagi, marked it with a school-wide programme and a tree planting drive serving as the school’s commitment to turning awareness into action.
World Environment Day 2026 Gallery
