Tamil Nadu: Kids get noon meal at this 'verandah' school

VILLUPURAM: A private school in Tindivanam, Thaai Tamil Palli, has implemented ‘micro classrooms’ that follows the concept of ‘thinnai palli koodam’ (verandah classrooms) in houses and conducting classes in two shifts. All students attending classes will be provided with free nutritious noon meal as well.

The school will provide education to class I to VIII for 154 students, all from economically poor families. The classrooms will be in 11 homes, mostly in their front porticos or outside, providing space for students for their noon meal too. In response to an article published in The Times of India on July 20, on the lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic denying lakhs of children nutritious food, the Madras high court directed the Tamil Nadu government to take a serious view of the issue and ensure children get free nutritious meals.

Educational activist and founder of Thaai Tamil Pillai Prabha Kalvimani told TOI that the ‘micro classroom’ concept was a thesis prepared by Tamil writers Vizhiyan and Senthamil Selvan as an alternative to online classes and to reduce dropout of students even when normalcy returns.

“We rolled out the micro classroom system a week ago, during the birth anniversary celebrations of K Kamaraj who reformed the education system in Tamil Nadu.” Said Kalvimani. He had forwarded an application to Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, education minister and the principal secretary, education about the new system.

“We handed over representations to the Villupuram district collector and to the block education officer in person. We got no response. But we are running it successfully for the past nine days,” said Kalvimani. “My desire is to see all government schools in the state open up to the novel micro classroom concept so they can serve healthy food to the students as well,” he said.

For this experiment, the Thaai Tamil Palli management chose Roshanai, a backward area in Tindivanam town which houses 1,500 dalit families who could not afford quality education for their children. School headmaster A Maria Anthony said, “To implement the micro classrooms, we needed the support of the parents. So, we held four rounds of talks and started working on the concept.”