If English education had long known to be the exclusive forte of convent schools and high end private schools, it certainly did not seem so at  Teach for India’s (TFI) annual educators meet organised in Chennai on recently.

The event saw students from various Corporation schools, in and around Chennai, putting together a host of stage programs, delivered  in  English.

The event was organised by TFI, along with the participation of senior officials from Chennai Corporation and head masters/mistresses of various schools in the city. The students were tutored by the fellows of TFI over a period of one and a half years, alongside their school teachers. From delivering paragraph length dialogues to compering, there seemed to be no area where students, many of them still in primary school, did not venture out with the foreign tongue. But English was not the only aspect that made audience sit and take notice.

The skits brought out a variety of new learning techniques and methodologies to make learning fun and interactive. Interactive games that helped students learn the principles behind addition and concepts of inference, and co-teaching models were put together by students in their skits and classroom demos for the benefit of the audience.

Speaking at the event, headmasters pointed out that learning should be more activity-based and fun-based compared to the current concept of one-way instructions from teacher to students. Joint Commissioner for Education, T N Venketesh said that efforts must be taken to incorporate such practical methodologies into the school curriculum. Similarly, teachers and headmasters must work towards evolving more of such tools to help students learn better.

TFI began its collaboration with the Education Department of the Corporation of Chennai one and half years back.

Under the program, TFI fellows are appointed to schools that are under- resourced. As of now, TFI has over 20 schools in Chennai.