The program was organized on “CURRICULUM PLANNING AND ENRICHMENT” to give a comprehensive training to all the members of the Project Operating Team of Vidyarambam Trust. About 30 participants from 8 districts took part.

The training program on the first day the May 3rd, 2010 started with Prayer and in the first session Mrs. Prema and Mrs. Uma Sankari gave detailed guidelines how to prepare the theme-wise Lesson Plans. The participants were divided into groups and asked to prepare for one full week as a sample and demonstrate the same. The Curriculum for the next year was briefly discussed since we await the decision of the Govt. of Tamil Nadu to announce their introducing the SAMACHEER KALVI (Uniform Curriculum). Then, they asked each group to read a story in English and answer the questions asked at the end of the story to test the comprehending ability of the participants.

In the afternoon session of the first day Mrs. Amukta Mahapathra and Mr. Rathinavel took the participants to a Corporation school in Indira Nagar and showed the material used in the ABL system by the Tamilnadu Govt. Ms. Selvi, Senior Staff of the school explained the success of the ABL system in their school. Mr. Rathinavel spoke about the evolution of the ABL system from the year 2002 and its current status. Later at the Venue, Youth Hostel, Mrs Amukta got the feedback from each of the participants of their experience in their childhood while studying primary classes. Most of the participants narrated the nightmare they met at the hands of their teachers who were not at all interested in giving the right education to children. Mrs. Amukta said that was the kind of attitude the teachers in India (especially Tamilnadu) had developed and the ABL has been introduced to change that attitude of the teachers to a positive mode. She said the effort is slowly giving good result and children are picking up the skill to gain the knowledge themselves with very little assistance of the teachers.

Second Day

On the second day the 4th May, the morning session, Mrs. Mina Swaminathan Senior Trainer of teachers for about 40 years and a renowned consultant for Children Education policy demonstrated how a teaching through drama will be effective. She simply made the participants close their eyes and enact as anything that they could imagine. Somebody imagined herself as a crocodile, somebody as a bird, somebody as an elephant, one as a tree, the other as a vegetable vendor and so forth. If the children are given opportunity to think themselves and express, it would be natural rather than the teacher enacting and asking the children to emulate.

Then Mr. Kaviko Gnanachelvan conducted a session on how to teach Tamil to children of Pre-school and Primary level without error. He explained the grammar nuances of the three kinds of consonants namely HARD, NASAL AND MEDIAL CONSONANTS OF TAMIL TRIPARTITE SYSTEM. He gave many useful tips to the participants to avoid errors while writing. He also elucidated the best Lesson Plan for children from Pre-school to Primary level.

In the afternoon session of the 2nd day, Mrs. Kamini and her assistant Ms. Thilaka demonstrated how toys, puppets, picture story cards etc can be made with low cost material. She also showed ways to make many shapes and create patterns. The participants learnt with great interest to make many items and have gained the technique to teach the children the easy methods of creating toys of their own imaginations.

Mr. Santhosh Kumar Subramanian from “bambaram MI toy library” introduced their new concept of running a Toy Lending Library in Chennai city. He said that they have plans to expand it to rural areas with the help of Vidyarambam.

At the end of the 2nd day, Mr. Ranganathan held a meeting with all the Assessors, Coordinators and school staff and discussed about the plan for the next year. The discussion was very exhaustive touching all the aspects of the programs like Easy Learning English course, regular centers in the existing and as well new villages, recruitment of teachers, assessors, trainers and office staff, training programs, deciding curriculum and books, ordering or printing of Teaching and Learning Material (TLM), preparing lesson plans etc. A schedule of action plan and time limit was concluded consulting all the relevant persons of project team.

Third Day

On the third and last day the May 5th, the session was started with Mrs. Swathantra Sakthivel on “Integrated Education in Primary Classes”. Mrs. Swathantra dwelt deep into the meaning of the Integrated Education and its importance. The education for a child starting from pre-school level to the Primary level has to be inclusive. A child proceeding to the next class level should have an idea of what she would be taught there. The education is first of all the development of the child in all directions and not necessarily loading up the knowledge only. The tutor has to ensure that the child develops emotionally, physically, socially, morally and cognitively.

In the afternoon of the last day Mr. M.S. Krishnan from Mathbuddy, Ahmedabad gave a DEMO of their online math lessons and the worksheets etc. He gave good guidelines how to approach the children while imparting education. To get them involved with enthusiasm to learn is the key to success, he explained. The Mathbuddy has developed a software to teach Maths from STD I to STD V. Innumerable samples of sums have been given showing alternate ways of getting the answers.

One of the special invitees for witnessing the Training Program Ms. Madhura Raghavan who is completing B.Tech this year and desiring to a take a break of studies for one year before she proceeds to US for higher studies, has volunteered to involve herself for about a year in all the activities of Vidyarambam. She met Mrs. Prema Daniel, the coordinators and assessors and had an interaction discussing her plans.

Madhura has said in her own words:

“I wanted to join an organization which works at grass roots level, working for the development of rural areas. I like the work done by Vidyarambam Trust, focusing on even the remote villages in Tamil Nadu and providing a good education and livelihood to kids. Hence, I believe that joining Vidyarambam would give me an opportunity to teach children as well as understand the social development scenario in villages.”

With Mrs. Prema Daniel summing up the 3-day proceedings, the program came to an end.

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