A grand meet of about 500 Vidyarambam volunteers from 10 districts of Tamil Nadu took place on 20, 21 of September 2008 at AVC Thirumana Mandabam in Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam District.  The events started with cultural programme conducted by Vidyarambam children.

Prof. Lion S. Sivaraman, Honorary Coordinator, Nagai District welcomed the guests and the participants. Rtn. R. Selva Nayagam presided over the function.  Mr. A. Thanikodi, Director UCG Academic Staff College, Bharathiyar University,  Coimbatore addressed the gathering.

After that, the prizes for the children were presented and all  Cooordinators and Assessors were honoured for their best performance.  Then the  gathering dispersed for lunch.

In the afternoon session, Mr. K. Subash Chandran,  Director, Isai Ambalam School, Auroville and his team tested the Rotary Vidyarambam School students for reading English words and letters using the phonemes.  Later Mr. Subash gave a lecture explaining how one can easily learn to read English fluently using the phonemes. After that about 130 tutors were given BEST TUTOR certificates and Cash Awards.

Following that a musical programme was conducted by a team of blind persons under the banner of Anurag from Trichy.

With that the first day events came to an end.

The second day started with cultural programs by pre-primary children of Vidyarambam Trust.   Mr. S. Sivaraman presided over the function.  The children were awarded with presents appreciating their cultural performance.

Mr. V. Natarajan, District Elementary Education Officer, Nagai district gave an address on the topic “Share of the NGOs in the sphere of education”.  He exhorted the audience which is mostly of tutors and assessors to work hard and help under privileged children to improve their skills.

The special guest Dr. N. Seshadri, Director-in-charge, Distance Education, Sastha University, Thirumalaisamuthiram gave a lecture on “Education is a two-way path”  He won the repeated applause of the audience by his humorous speech.

Following that,  Mrs. Prema Daniel and Mrs. Uma Sankari Chandrasekhar both consultants in Early Childhood Education conducted a special training by organising a few play roles by Vidyarambam assessors who enacted them spontaneously and won the clapping of the audience.

The forenoon session ended with half hour meditation of the entire audience guided by the specialist Mr. D. M. Sadacharam.  There was spell bound silence in the hall for about 15 minutes.

The afternoon gathering which was the concluding session of the two-day events started with Dr. Virudha Giri, Pediatrician who emphatically conveyed the need to handle the children with love and care.  A book “Basic & Practical Hints in Child Care” written by Dr, Virudha Giri was presented to all the Vidyarambam volunteers of the audience free of cost.

A stiff competition among the teams of supervisory staff brought out great talents of art and culture.   There were lively and glamorous group dances and folk songs performed by almost all teams.  The judges found it difficult to name the winner.  With a small margin of points, the Nagapattinam team won the award and took the revolving shield this year.

The crest of the events was a debate on “Whether only Money can fetch Education”.  Vidyarambam volunteers chosen in two teams debated for and against while Dr. Kodai Idi Gopalakrishnan, Professor of Rajas College, Thiruvaiyaru played the role of the moderator.   Both teams vehemently argued their points.  Finally the team saying “Hard and sincere effort (without money) can also fetch Education” won the deal and the revolving shield was presented to them.  This year it went to Nagapattinam district.

With vote of thanks given by Mr. A. Kannan, District Coordinator, Nagapattinam the events came to a happy end and all the participants departed for their destinations.