The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : `Ideal school' project keeps the team determined

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 19, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

`Ideal school' project keeps the team determined

Meera Srinivasan

Chromepet institution bent upon making the dream come true

INTERACTION: K. Santhanam, correspondent of Srimathi Sundaravalli Memorial School, Chromepet, with students. — Photo : A. Muralitharan

CHENNAI : If all that K. Santhanam has been planning for his 21-year-old institution materialises, Chennai will perhaps have an `ideal school' in the next couple of years. And, if one goes by the focus, determination and dedication of the team behind this vision, the project looks like anything but a far-fetched dream.

"Innovative ways of delivering content to children is the most important factor in the rediscovery of the joy of learning," says Mr. Santhanam, managing trustee and correspondent of Srimathi Sundaravalli Memorial School in Chromepet.

The `school of excellence' project, conceived by him at a cost of Rs. 6 crore, could be described as an educational system, which would ensure an effective use of technology as a teaching aid, good health and fitness of each student and holistic development of the child.

Software consultant D. Venkatanathan has been working on digitising lessons. "We have used animation and other tools to make the sessions as interactive and participative as possible. In addition to teachers' lectures, interactive exercises designed for each unit will be given to students during class," he explains.

Content would also be made available online so that students could access lessons, worksheets and self-evaluation tests from home. They also propose to design classrooms like conference halls, housing a computer and a digital display board each. Learning would be activity-based, with real life examples illustrating concepts in a simple fashion. The Montessori system of learning was introduced for lower classes to ensure the same.

"This is no attempt to do away with any of our traditional teaching practices. We only hope to supplement time-tested teaching methodologies with technology-aided tools," says R. Lakshminarayanan, who heads the content development team of the project.

The team is also working on course content for students upto Standard VIII, based primarily on the CBSE's (the Board to which the school is affiliated) curriculum. This would include, besides academics, extracurricular activities such as dance, music, yoga, swimming, karate, communication and soft skills, and sports. Students would be given grades as part of an internal assessment. "We are building a sports complex with high-class equipment and a swimming pool," says Mr. Santhanam.

The number of sections would be increased to make sure each class has only about 30 students. Educational tours and field trips would be made compulsory and students would be asked to prepare project reports based on these study-tours.

"With competition levels increasing by the day, we want our students to be prepared to face challenges with confidence and courage. Though our approach will not be entirely scores-centric, the system will certainly ensure an academic excellence," Mr. Santhanam says.

"With resource persons such as mathematician R. Athmaraman, former CBSE Director G. Balasubramanian and veteran educationist and correspondent of Sri Sarada Secondary School T.Vasanthalakshmi guiding us, I am sure this dream will come true soon," he adds.

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