The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Thinking out of the box

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Thinking out of the box

By M. Dinesh Varma

CHENNAI, FEB. 10. Schools where examinations are taken without invigilators and teaching is done with visual clips are some of the innovative methods followed in schools run by a charitable trust.

The beneficiaries of this system where "both teacher and student are encouraged to think out of the box" are first-generation learners from fisherfolk families or children of daily wage labourers and plantation workers.

At the four schools run by the Murugappa Group, the emphasis is on making learning interesting as well as comprehensive, said R. Ramkumar, general manager and secretary, AMM Foundation.

The AMM Foundation, of which M. V. Murugappan is managing trustee, is the philanthropic arm of the group founded by A. M. Murugappa Chettiar. It sponsors education through subsidies and scholarships from LKG to Ph.D.

The Vellayan Chettiar HSS in Thiruvottiyur with 3,800 students, the TI Matriculation HSS in Ambattur with 1,150 students and the AMM Matriculation HSS in Kotturpuram with 1,100 students are ISO 9001 certified schools while the oldest school run by the group is the Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar HSS in Ambattur with 2,900 students.

The two matriculation schools are being upgraded as models of excellence by focusing on academics, co-curricular activities, life skills, value systems and career vision.

Feedback from all quarters — teachers, children and parents — is not only encouraged but taken seriously at all stages of developing new education practices. By the middle of an academic year, Class X students sit together with counsellor, parents and teacher to evaluate the best career option.

Another feature of school education is the special education cell comprising teachers, counsellors and special educators to help differently-abled children.

The Murugappa Polytechnic College, founded at Avadi in 1957, seeks to set an example of the linkage between academia and industry. For the Foundation managers, what is equally important as the high placement rate at the polytechnic is the level of employer satisfaction. .

Education apart, healthcare is the focus of the AMM Foundation's charitable work. It has expansion plans for all its four hospitals that cater for the rural population. The hospitals include the Sir Ivan Stedford Hospital in Ambattur, the Valliammai Achi Hospital in Kadayalumoodu, Kanyakumari, and the AMM Arunachalam Hospital in Nellikuppam in Cuddalore.

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