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.