Towards a people's education movement - Tamilnadu science forum (TNSF) and school education

Venkateswaran, T.V. (2009) Towards a people's education movement - Tamilnadu science forum (TNSF) and school education. Learning Curve (12). pp. 45-48.

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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.

Item Type: Articles in APF Magazines
Authors: Venkateswaran, T.V.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Education, Elementary education, Early childhood education
Subjects: Social sciences > Education
Divisions: Foundation Publications
Full Text Status: Public
URI: http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/710
Publisher URL: http://apfstatic.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-...

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