Respected President, Mr Kumar, Mr and Mrs Padikkasu, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great privilege for me to place before you the 26th annual report of our school.
The school, which was founded by a great visionary, Amarar Kamban Adippodi Thiru Saw Ganesan, is now managed by a committee of nine eminent members under the dynamic leadership of Thiru RM.KP.Venkatachalam.
Let me take this opportunity to delve a little deeply into what we have done during the course of this year.
To improve the comprehension:
We conducted Science exhibitions (Chemistry, Biology and Physics), History exhibition, language exhibitions (Tamil and English) and also a maths exhibition. Large number of parents and some experts visited them and encouraged the students. Lions Club of Karaikudi awarded prizes for some of the exhibits in the chemistry exhibition.
The students were taken to a sugar factory and a Cement factory and the visits were useful. We propose to continue this in the following years too.
Group discussion has been introduced. Students are asked to lecture to their class on the topic recently taught to them. Most of the Science lessons are being taught by making the students perform the experiments. Marks have been allotted for the performance in the seminar/lecture class and also for the regularity in doing home work. This has improved the regularity of students in doing home work. In addition most of the home work is to be done by searching the book and not just copying some notes. This has made the students read the book more often than when they were doing the home work under the conventional method
Kindergarten children are taught using playway method. A few teachers have been specially trained for this purpose by M.S. Swaminathan research foundation. The teachers have also been trained in making toys out of waste materials. An exhibition was conducted using this and it was appreciated by the parents.
Method of teaching :
Fulfilling the promise made in the last annual report that we are introducing computer aided teaching , we have introduced computers this year and we can proudly say that we have acquired an excellent collection of 55 CDs covering all subjects and changes have been made in Time table where by students from even I standard will have at least one computer aided class in a week. This was first introduced at the higher level and it has improved the comprehension of the students in Biology, Geography etc apart from increasing the quest of the students in General Knowledge. We are proud to state that we are one of the few schools who have pioneered the method of computer aided education.
We are glad to inform you that the introduction of computers has been done entirely out of donations and not even a single rupee has been charged from the students for this purpose.
We have maintained a student - teacher ratio of 23 for 1 this year which is one of the best in any school in the state.
We have one computer for every 4 students who opted for Computer Science and our lab equipment to student ratio is also one of the best among the schools in the state.
Education will achieve its purpose only if both teachers and parents take equal effort in understanding the problems of the children. Having this in mind, after each monthly test and after each terminal exam parents were requested to come to the school for one to one meeting with the teacher and the Principal along with the student. This has enabled identification of problem areas and take corrective steps. These frequent parent teacher meets have increased the commitment of all concerned- Parents, teachers and the students and have reduced the response time for taking corrective action.
In order to improve the consistency of performance of X and XII standard students each teacher has been allocated 3 students and they take care of them. In addition, suitable changes have been made in the time table where by a teacher will be handling a class for 2 days fully going through the portions and clarifying and correcting. This has had a tremendous effect on the performance of the students in the recent revision tests.
Our teachers have helped develop the ability to participate in public speaking and article writing skills of our students. As a result, 6 articles sent in by our students were published in Sunday Observer, a popular newspaper from Mumbai and two out of the 6 also won prizes. More such participation is planned in the next year.
The students participated in the elocution, essay writing and painting competition conducted by the Lions Club of Karaikudi and won prizes in all.
The students, without any assistance from the teachers, organised the teachers’ day, and showed their leadership skills.
Tamil Ilakkiya Manram was inaugurated by Prof T.Murugasamy, Principal of Ramasamy Tamil College and Trustee of Kamban Trust. This has helped inculcate the habit of reading in students.
Our Presence in the Internet:
To disseminate information about our school and about the achievements of our students we have created a Home page in the Internet and about 250 people have visited the page up to now. Some of them have sent their letters of appreciation. We are proud to state that ours is the 12th school in India and 3rd school in Tamil Nadu to be present in the Internet. Due to our presence in the Internet we have been able to be in direct contact with institutions like National academy for child development, US (NACD), Maths Club of Cambridge University etc.
NACD has developed a software to improve the way in which brain functions, and we are glad to inform you that they were convinced about our intentions and sincerity and have donated the software for the use of our students. We have undertaken this as a research project and will be implemented fully in the next academic year. More such computer related donations are expected from the US as we are in touch with several institutions including Foxfire, Futurescan etc. I am sure that these will put our students at a great advantage in terms of depth of knowledge.
Awards :
Following awards are being given this year:
1. The entire fees in XI standard amounting to Rs 2770 each for two students namely G.Anbukathirmani and Ralina Parveen who secured the first mark in our school in the last year X standard have been contributed by the trustees of Kamban Trust.
2. Rs 750 each for the best boy student and the best girl student in the
school- This will take into account the performance of the students in studies,
sports and games, other extra curricular activities and also general behaviour.
This is donated by Mrs C.R.Alamelu wife of our trustee, Mr PR.C.Ramasamy
Ambalam.These prizes have been awarded to John Victor studying
in XI Std and Vineesha studying in IX Std.
3 Prof. S.Shanmugam, retired Professor of Civil Engineering, ACCET,
Karaikudi and Principal of Government college of Engineering, Tirunelveli
has offered to grant the following prizes:
1. Rs 100 each for the students securing the first mark in each subject
in the school
2. Rs 100 each for the students securing an average of 75% or above in the
aggregate.
3. Rs 250 each for each centum scored by the students.
The above prizes are independent of each other and are to be granted to the students of X and XII standard appearing for the 98 March public examination.
Sports:
We have created the infrastructure to play Table Tennis this year and are trying to provide special coaching for our students in Tennis and Chess. This year was a watershed year in our achievements in sports. A number of our students were successful in District, Division and pre division competitions . Vineesha, a IX standard student qualified in the division and came fourth in State level competition. We hope to achieve state level success in the next year.
Our sports day was celebrated on 7-2-98. Dr Ragavan, Director of CECRI presided over the function and Mr M.Y.M.Ramanathan distributed the prizes.
Strengthening the infrastructure:
This year has seen the building of additional toilet for the boys and the commencement of construction of additional toilet for girls. The Library has been strengthened with the addition of a large number of books and we are grateful to Mr RM.KP.Venkatachalam, the chairman of our trust who has been kind enough to donate his large collection of valuable books to the school. Six computers have been added, 4 of which are with multimedia capabilities. More laboratory equipment have been acquired this year and we are sure that we will update and upgrade whenever necessary and our student - equipment ratio will continue to compare favourably with the best schools.
Future:
Every effort is being made to make this school on par with the best not only in India but also in the World. It might sound utopian. But with the clarity of thought, correct planning and execution we are confident of achieving our goal. Our management is keen on being up to date and no stone will be left unturned to make the careers of the students of our school a success.
Career guidance:
The vision of the school is to make the students to face the world with confidence, create an atmosphere where pursuing careers in research or administrative services will be as natural as choosing the currently popular careers like Engineering or medicine. So we request our chief guest Mr V.S.Kumar who is in I.R.S and who speaks authoritatively on the administrative service in general and revenue service in particular to guide our students on the foundation to be laid in school to achieve success in competitive examinations.
We propose to have experts providing career counselling from next year. We also propose to use Internet for this purpose as also for providing information beforehand about the way world is moving and what kind of subjects are going to be in demand etc. This should put our students at a great advantage over others in facing the competition.
Computer aided training is planned for our students in respect of competitive exams.
Computer courses are going to be offered to our students from next year.
Before I conclude this report I thank the trustees of Kamban Trust, members of the school committee, correspondent and all the philanthropists who have contributed liberally to the growth of our school.
I also thank all the teachers with out whose dedication and support all this would not have been possible. Our thanks are also due to all the parents who have shown keen interest in our activities and all of you who are present here cordially responding to our invitation. We hope that the interest you have shown in this institution will continue in the years to come.
Thank you.
J.Nalinakumari.
Principal