Date:20/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/20/stories/2008052051150200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

The flight of learning, creativity

Staff Reporter

‘Wings of Evolution’, a film on a unique school for children, screened

— Photo: S.S. Kumar

Alternative system: (from left) Founder of Siragu Montessori School V. Uma, actor Parthiban, director Vasanth, film-maker Raghu Jeganathan and co-founder of the school R.N. Muthuram at the screening of a documentary film in Chennai on Sunday.

Chennai: A small crowd waited at the Sathyam Cinemas here early on Sunday. The queue was not for a blockbuster movie but for a documentary film on a unique school for children of brick kiln workers and pavement dwellers.

The film, directed by Raghu Jeganathan and Ramesh Mourthy, won the best short documentary award at the Lake Forest Film Festival this year. Titled ‘Wings of Evolution’, it tells the story of the children of Siragu, a school near Pattabiram, a western suburb of Chennai.

The children, active, smart and keen to learn, bear testimony to the value of an alternative education system free of rote learning and examination-based evaluation. The school ( www.siragu.org) was founded by V. Uma and R. N. Muthuram, two young social activists.

Ms. Uma said the school, started in June 2003, initially operated from temporary shelters. The school now has about 250 students from Classes LKG to Class VIII, with 60 of them residing in the hostel. The children learn by taking up various activities, which are featured in the film.

For instance, a lesson on food and calorific values would be taught by encouraging the children to make fruit salad. The school has also developed its own textbooks. “Our school has not had any dropouts till now,” Ms. Uma said.

A motley group of celebrities, teachers, social activists and IT professionals viewed the documentary and discussed it after the screening. Film director Vasanth said he was “dead against the Macaulay system of education” that curbed the creativity of children. Alternative teaching methods were being used successfully in some schools, he said.

Actor Parthiban, who had donated seed money for the school, said the children were growing up to be confident and happy individuals.