The Hindu 17.07.2009
Copies of dictionary distributed to Corporation school students
Staff Reporter
| The scheme was announced in the civic body’s budget |
— Photo: Chennai Corporation 
Eager learners: Students of Corporation High School in Thyagappa Street in Kilpauk go through the dictionaries that were distributed on Thursday.
CHENNAI: Over 39,000 students of Chennai Corporation schools studying in Standards VI, VII and VIII received free copies of English-English-Tamil dictionary on Thursday.
Mayor M. Subramanian, who launched the scheme, said the decision to provide dictionaries to the students was announced in the civic body’s budget this year. An expenditure of Rs.56.67 lakh had been incurred for the scheme. The objective was to help provide better understanding of English and Tamil to the children, he added.
Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni, who urged students to use the dictionary extensively, said it would help them understand difficult words. The Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation had brought out the dictionary.
The dictionary, which has been prepared by a team of experts, has around 11,000 words, synonyms and antonyms, word usages, derivations and proverbs, Mr. Lakhoni added.
It also has expansions for abbreviations, foreign words and phrases, cries of animals/birds, manias and phobias, tenses.
Deputy Commissioner Education M. Balaji, Education Officer Mohan Kumar and Zone Chairman S.Suresh Babu participated.
Students of Standard VII in Corporation High School on Thyagappa Street in Kilpauk, S. Kavitha and S. Nandhini, who received the first few copies of the dictionary, said that they had small copies of dictionary at home, which they were using from time to time. P.Pravitha, their classmate, however, said that she did not posses a dictionary and that it would be useful to her.
