Venkateswaran, T.V.
(2009)
Towards a people's education movement - Tamilnadu science forum
(TNSF) and school education.
Learning Curve (12).
pp. 45-48.
Abstract
This article traces the historical evolution
of TNSF's role in education from the mid-
1980s to 2008. From organising a few
training programmes on low-cost
activities for teachers, TNSF today is set on a mission to
galvanise the entire Tamil society to focus on school
education.TNSF firmly holds the opinion that while formal
school is given its due importance, one should not lose
sight of the informal - out of school - arena. It is in this
context that Thulir Illams became the main space for
such interaction. The least that was taken up in Thulir
Illams were reading and discussing Thulir- the monthly
science magazine brought out by TNSF. Slowly, at least
some children were keen to try out some of the 'Do - it -
yourself' activities. Tree planting, discussion, science
tours and many such activities became part of
Thulir Illams.Science' in the parlance of TNSF includes all areas
of enquiry that are scientific. Thus, social sciences
too form a part of CSF. In fact, in the recent years,
TNSF has been trying to organize special 'social
science festivals' which take up themes like caste,
religion, money, democracy, food, housing, habits
and customs, etc., and explore them in a scientific
way. While TNSF has faith in the activity-based
pedagogy, it also holds the commitment to social
critique as crucial.While the early forays of
TNSF into the education
sector was limited to
sensitizing the teachers in
use of low-cost/no-cost
-William Bragg experiments, since 1990s,
TNSF has been playing a key
role in increasing access, improving quality,
introducing child-centered and activity-based
pedagogy, community mobilization, etc.
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