Schools with a future

AN INTER-SCHOOL competition and workshop. Thirty schools in fray. Two top prizes in all the categories - the excellent and the best. One mega prize. That summed up Futurecast 2001, that concluded on Saturday.

This competition, organised by Futureschools, was of a different kind. Teachers of various city schools vied with each other on the methodologies to integrate technology into the classroom environment.

Futureschools, partnered with Futurekids, organises events and runs programmes in various city schools to produce resources to develop teaching modalities.

Mr. Annamalai Muthiah, Founder of Futureschools says there are 35 schools enrolled under its banner, and it will expand to Bangalore, where a branch has just opened.

There is a three pronged approach to the process of learning: this includes services towards administration such as tracking parent-teacher-student interaction and managing records, students' programmes to help them learn more through Information and Communication Technology.

The role of teachers in the Futureschools concept gains importance because it gives a human touch to the process of learning.

Efforts to popularise the concept had begun long ago. And the month-long workshop showcased the results. Innovative programmes explaining finer aspects of various subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Language Arts were created and demonstrated by the participating teachers. The programmes were in C++ and power point.

``The response has been very encouraging. Three schools from Bangalore including Carmel High School participated here. Soon after this, Futurecast will be held in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai,'' he added.

It was a demonstration on computer-based model of teaching with the teacher being the facilitator.

While Padma Seshadri Schools at T.P.Road and K.K.Nagar jointly took away the Futureschool award for the most promising school, performance of SBOA, St. John's Besant Nagar and PSBB Main were also good.

Ms. Eunice Crook, Director-South India, British Council, gave away a laptop computer to the Dean and Chairperson of PSBB schools, Mrs. Y.G.Parthasarathy. She urged the educationists to stress the need to develop a National Grid for Learning, much like that available in UK, to equip schools with infrastructure for Information and Communication Technology.

Dr. M.Anandakrishnan, Vice Chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education, gave away prizes to the winners.

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

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