Nearly one lakh government teachers identified for TN's 'Ennum Ezhutthum' mission

As the 'Ennum Ezhutthum' mission to be launched across Tamil Nadu to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy, nearly one lakh teachers were identified to teach the children.

Apart from the school studies, the aim of the mission is to improve basic literacy and numeracy among children studying from Class one to Class three and to ensure that every child attains the fundamental skills of reading, writing, and doing basic arithmetic.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT NEXT on Friday that a total of 94,629 teachers working from government and government-aided schools were identified and given training for the scheme during the first phase. "In Chennai alone, 1,729 teachers have been selected for the scheme", he added.

Stating that the state government has already allocated Rs 66.70 crore for the 'Ennum Ezhutthum' mission, he said the training primarily focuses on capacity building of teachers and provision of teacher resource material.

"The training modules will specifically contain portions on bridging the language barrier and teaching in mother tongue so that children, especially from the rural areas, participate in the mission effectively".

The official said play-based school preparation module for the children, who participate 'Ennum Ezhutthum' scheme will be adopted as per the requirements.

Pointing out that over 15 lakh children studying from Class one to Class three will be benefited from the mission, he said teaching module for them would also consist of the activities and workbooks around the learning of alphabets, sounds, words, colours, shapes, and numbers, and involving collaborations with peers and parents".

The official also explained that the 'Ennum Ezhutthum' mission is totally different from 'Illam Thedi Kalvi' (education at doorsteps). "In llam Thedi Kalvi, the children will be taught regular school syllabus and portions", he said adding "the 'Ennum Ezutthum' scheme is to give a strong base on basic alphabets and numeric to the children".

He said state level and district level education authorities will monitor the scheme activities through IT-based solutions which shall include field-level child wise monitoring.