AKRA Schools Annual Sports:
The annual inter-school sports for AKRA schools held at Shergarh in December every year are a popular event. These events last for five days. Prominent personalities are invited to attend so as to encourage partcipating primary level students from different villages. Village school committee members, parents and teachers are also invited. 
Each day starts with prayers and then the guests release balloons which float up and away over the fields. There is a grand march past and then the competitions begin. Spoon races, sack races, 3 legged races, relay races, leap frograces give enjoyme nt to competitors and spectators alike. The children are also pleased to see their teachers taking part in a game of musical chairs and a chatti breaking competition.
After a tea break when children are able to buy treats from the various stalls, there are performances of skits, dances, tableaux and an art competition. Children handle the microphone like professionals and work hard to produce interesting items. Then prizes are presented by the guest to winners. Like the Olympics, the theory is that it is the fun of taking part, rather than the winning that is important. However each competitor receives a "Discoveree bar" to make sure the small children do not feel left out if they are not the winners.
As well as providing a showcase for AKRA village schools to show what they can do apart from just teaching the curriculum, the events are an opportunity for the teachers to exchange ideas and to meet up with colleagues they trained with. When they only meet up once a year, one can understand that the chat never stops; children, too, meet with friends from other villages. At the end of the games, children pile into the school buses to go home-most smiling and happy with the day’s outing, one or two already nodding sleepily.
Without the support of Mitchell’s Fruit Farms Ltd. an event like this could not take place. Mitchell’s staff can be sure that th e help they have given in preparation for the events is very much appreciated by TTC staff and especially by the hundreds of children for whom this is the one day in the year when they see some thing of the wider world.
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