‘Vanavil mandrams’ in schools

In an attempt to inculcate the habit of scientific thinking and enhance interest in science and mathematics among students in government schools, the state government has decided to form ‘Vanavil mandrams’ in schools with a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.

The Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday inaugurated the mandram at government Adi Dravidar welfare girls’ higher secondary school near Kattur-Pappakurichi in Trichy district.  He also flagged off 100 mobile laboratories. He also inspected the science experiments that the students had carried out at the school before interacting with students and teachers.

The announcement was made during the demand for grants for the financial year 2022-23 during the state legislative assembly session. The state government has allocated Rs 25 crore to promote STEM education among 25 lakh government school students in the state.

The mandrams were formulated to educate students from classes between VI and VII in all the 13,210 state-run middle, high and higher secondary schools. It is to make students enjoy mathematics and science and make them learn with experiments.

The education department, earlier, said that about 12,000 teachers have voluntarily expressed interests to be a part of this programme and have shared topics that were found to be difficult for the students to understand within stipulated time in the classrooms. 

They have also shared their ways of making these topics interesting and engaging for the students with the help of simple experiments.  The department is also planning to rope in experts and to organize exposure visits.Commencing the programme from Monday, the department has directed the schools to demonstrate simple experiments in the classrooms to begin with and have allocated a sum of Rs 1,200 per school to purchase initially mandatory equipment and other materials for demonstrating the experiments.

During the inaugural function, school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi while delivering his welcome address said that about 710 STEM experts were already been trained by educationists to include them in the programme. 

These experts would visit the schools not just to conduct experiments but also to make the students understand the principles of science and mathematics. State ministers KN Nehru and Thangam Thennarasu, Trichy corporation mayor M Anbalagan, MPs Tiruchy Siva and  Thirunavukarasar, MLAs S Enigo Irudayaraj and S Kathiravan, principal secretary to the school education department Kakarla Usha, commissioner to the school education department K Nandakumar, project director to SSA Sudhan, collector Pradeep Kumar, commissioner Vaithiyanathan and other officials attended the meeting.