The TNet Mela 2010 in Bangalore

The TNet Mela organized by TTF at the picturesque and spacious Army Public School in Bangalore turned out to be a resounding success with about 80 teachers turning up for the event.

Discussion on the RTE 2009

All the apprehensions that the organizers had about teachers' ability to fathom the content of the famed Right to Education Act 2009, turned out to be totally unfounded. The manner in which the teachers engaged themselves with the Chapters of the Act and the intelligence with which they summarized it as a team, came as a pleasant surprise. It only showed that teachers need to get a more active role in policy making, for they do have a strong and valuable voice in the matter. Here are some of the smart points, questions and comments that came up in the presentations -
Are we emotionally equipped as teachers to take any and every child into our classrooms?
Do teachers have adequate training and the time to handle grown up children in age-appropriate classes while the child has to struggle with basic literacy skills?
Involving high school students into hands-on, practical projects that makes them aware of their Rights as children and also to sensitize them towards the children from the challenged sections of the society
Some of the groups even commented on the structure, design and content of the curriculum and questioned its objectives.

What comes through clearly is that the teachers are the ones who are the closest to the children and no one understands their needs better. It shows the importance of involving the teachers in designing the clauses and curriculum.

The discussion was not an end, but a beginning to take a close look at the RTE and make an attempt to understand the mindset of the educational policymakers. TTF hopes to continue the discussions through its online platform – the Tnet.



Expressing & experiencing ' JOY OF LEARNING' through art!

It was a time to literally dabble and play with colors. There was an explosion of creativity as the teachers put their heads together, blend various materials and mediums - from colors to their hands and fingers and fabrics and twine to paper cuttings to make their canvas come alive with the 'joy of learning'. The teachers who were a moment ago discussing the RTE in all seriousness, suddenly became animated as each participant tried to ensure to impress their 'hand' on the canvas. To the TTF team that busily fluttered around helping the 'artists' with materials, every moment of the chaos was worth watching.

Heads Together...
Post sumptuous lunch, the Heads from various schools in the city gathered for a presentation by Maya Menon on tips and techniques to transform schools from ' Good to great'! Anuradha Puri gave a brief talk on the various programs conducted by TTF. The session concluded with Prakash asking the participants to visualise their schools in 2020 and getting them to share their visions. The visions shared generated a lot of good humor and laughter as Heads envisaged themselves heading schools where technology had pervaded to such an extent, that even if a child missed school, she would be able to look at the classes online!

Posted by Sandhya Gatti,  Project Head, Safe and Sensitive Schools, TTF, Bangalore