The PUMS in Kothavasal recently concluded a pan-village survey to identify children of appropriate age for school admission and subsequently enrolled 17 children in the hamlet by explaining to them the organic farming practised at the school with student participation.
As the new academic year is about to begin, private schools are employing several marketing strategies including sending bulk messages to random mobile users apart from advertisements in local television channels to score admissions. Avoiding such expensive methods, all the seven teachers of the panchayat union school in Kothavasal, a remote villagein Perambalur, navigated the streets of Kothavasalto reach out to all the 241 house hold sin the area.
Children involved in vegetable farming on a rotational basis.
Surveying the total number of children and their age, the teachers identified 17 children in the village who had crossed five years of age and subsequently enrolled them in their school with the parents’ consent. Instead of relying on advertisements, Kothavasal PUMS canvas sed with vegetable crops cultivated and harvested on school grounds to win the confidence of the parents. During the last two academic years, the acre age of organic vegetable cultivation has been increasing and so is the school’s student strength. “We initially cultivated vegetable crops to address the needs of the noon meal kitchen. As we started producing surplus vegetables,we began giving them away to children involved in vegetable farming on a rotational basis,” said S Elavalagan, teacher in Kothavasal PUMS.
Crops were cultivated and harvested on school grounds to win the confidence of the parents.
