At the Chudar Education Centre in Kabali Thottam, Mylapore, a group of children listened intently and worked on deftly folding pieces of paper as part of an Origami activity. Near them, a group of younger children attempted to guess numbers and interacted with three teachers present there.
Their teachers for the evening were employees of the Oxford University Press(OUP), Chennai. “To mark Teacher’s day, we decided to give the regular teachers at Chudar a break and conduct an evening of activities for the children here,” said S.R. Rajan of OUP. While children from classes 3 to 5 participated in simple activities pertaining to numbers, English and shape formation, children of classes 6 to 8 were taught Origami.
Similar activities were planned at the Chudar Centre in Ambedkar Nagar, ICF.
Swapna Arulraj, who taught Origami, said that it was her first experience at being a teacher. “The children have so much energy and I was glad to teach them something creative and fun,” she said.
Shelly Sunny, who was also from OUP, said that they had been working on how to make mundane concepts interesting for the children. “Simple mathematics and english concepts were explained to them using fun activities and they were very enthusiastic and responsive. We’ll be putting up a puppet show and involve them as well,” she said.
The education centre functions as an after-school learning space for children in the area. R. Raghu Chandran, a program manager with Chudar, said that while children came to the centre to do their homework and interact with the tutors there, they also work towards ensuring the children understand concepts better and don’t just stick to the questions given in their books.