Music will lead the way for the expansion of Single Teacher Schools (STS) across the State, as the Swami Vivekananda Rural Development Society has joined hands with Milaap, for an online fundraiser through a series of concerts planned from August 22.
“The first musician to perform on August 22 will be Bombay Jayashri and this will be followed by online performances scheduled over the next few weeks,” said Akila Srinivasan, vice president, Single Teacher Schools.
Other musicians, including Jayanthi Kumaresh, Abhishek Raghuram, Lalgudi G.J.R Krishnan and Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi, Amritha Murali and Ashwath Narayanan will also be performing as part of the fundraiser. “The performances will be streamed online on the social media pages of Milaap and Single Teacher Schools,” id Ms. Akila.
R.P.Krishnamachari, honorary secretary , Single Teacher Schools, said that the initiative was started in 2006, with the aim to promote basic, primary education for children in remote villages in Tamil Nadu.
“These schools are like a silent revolution and are focused on providing supplemental primary education for children attending government schools in their villages. Local women from those villages are appointed as teachers and they take classes from 6 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. every day,” he explained.
At present, Tamil Nadu has such schools in 1,057 villages with over 32,000 children. Mr Krishnamachari said that they were aiming at opening 1,000 more schools over the next two years and that the fundraiser would help with the same.