On April 11, 2025, the XVIII school scientific and practical conference "Tagore Readings" was held on the basis of the Secondary School No 653 with in-depth study of foreign languages (Hindi and English) of the Kalininsky district of St. Petersburg named after Rabindranath Tagore. The conference was opened by the director of the school Elena Tkacheva, who emphasized the importance of the event for the educational and upbringing process.
This year, 29 students of grades 2-11 took part in the conference, presenting works affecting a variety of areas: history and local history, ecology, botany and genetics, information and communication technologies and social networks, philology, literature, music, etc. The work was carried out in three sections.
The jury members included representatives of the scientific community of St. Petersburg: from the St. Petersburg State University of Railway Engineering named after Emperor Alexander I: Abu-Hasan Mahmud - Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Building Structures, Elena Makarova - Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Electric Traction, Marina Baydarashvili - Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Engineering Chemistry and Natural Science, Dmitry Tretyakov - Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Descriptive Geometry and Graphics; from St. Petersburg State University: Anna Chelnokova – Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Indian Philology, Nadezhda Kharlampeva – Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of World Politics, Faculty of International Relations, Senior Researcher of the Department of Hydrology of River Estuaries and Water Resources, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), Vichara Aniket - Master, Mumbai, Republic of India, from Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences - Ksenia Maretina - Candidate of Philological Sciences, Researcher at the Laboratory of Museum Technologies.
The highlight of the conference was the performances of the dance groups of the school: the dance group "Aurora", the leader is Olga Brovikova and the Indian dance studio "Ratna", the leader is Irina Sokolova.
When summing up the results of the conference, the most interesting works were noted and the winners were awarded.
As part of the conference, the guests visited the school museum, where they were able to learn more about the history of a unique educational institution - a school with in-depth study of the Hindi language, which began operating back in 1956 and since then continues to maintain close ties with the friendly Republic of India and foster respect and love for the culture of the country of the studied language.
