Chennai: Computer labs and smart classrooms are no more a thing only in private schools. For, State-run institutions are making headway since the past one year to be on a par with their private counterparts in terms of offering quality education and extracurricular activities.
One such institution in Tamilnadu is a Corporation Middle School in Coimbatore that has gained popularity in recent times. A handbill explaining its facilities has grabbed several eyeballs across the country (thanks to social media) and the officials have received great response.
However, that was not meant for social media circulation, says a senior staff.
In conversation with News Today, he shares more about the school and the need to upgrade government schools.
“It was our long-time desire to promote our school in an amiable way better than previous years. We see several advertisement gimmicks of private institutions in the media and strongly wanted to propagate that our institution was no less,” he says.
With his colleagues and sponsors pooling in resources, the team went ahead with designing a creative ad. And one of the copies that the designer shared with them on WhatsApp had gone viral and the school became the talk of the town.
About the motive, he says,”The primary objective is to increase the strength and also to bring about holistic development. The extracurricular activities that we give, namely, karate, origami, parai and puppetry, among others, are taught by local artistes without expecting monetary favours in return. They do not compromise on quality despite offering free service.”
He has received more than 1,000 calls from all over the country since the time the poster went viral.
While June is the admission season, just in April, around 30-35 students have sought seats for LKG and UKG. He hopes to enrol more students in the coming months.
Closer home, Chennai Primary School in MGR Nagar is one among the lot that has undergone colossal changes in the last one year.
Headmistress Indra Devi said, “We have spruced up the entire school in terms of infrastructure and teaching methodology. Like private institutions, we have introduced activity-based learning – 40 per cent of the mark is allotted for project work and 60 per cent for written test.”
From the side of physical activities, the institution has provided a lot of equipment and conducts activities on a regular basis to motivate children and make them more responsible.