NAGAPATTINAM:About a decade ago, this government middle school just within 500 metres from the reach of sea water in Keechankuppam fishing hamlet was the worst hit educational institution in the State when the devastating tsunami struck.
Having lost 80 of its students and its infrastructure razed to the ground overnight, Keechankuppam middle school has literally risen like a phoenix.
Wi fi enabled smart classrooms have drawn students in hordes and there is already a 58 per cent surge in enrollment in the ongoing academic year. Thanks to the door-to-door campaigning by nine school staff, who demonstrated the smart class facility to parents in coastal hamlets.
According to Head Master R Balu, 275 students, including 139 boys and 136 girls, have been studying in various classes from I to VIII in the Keechankuppam school near Nagapattinam town.
For three years since the tsunami of December 26, 2004, the school was temporarily running with minimum strength in the nearby Akkaraipettai hamlet.
It was only recently that the school management floated the idea of smart classrooms (aided with a projector and laptop). In April, 2015, with `7.5 lakh from the district administration’s self sufficiency scheme, all the nine classrooms were equipped to impart electronic mode of learning to the students.
However, the nine staff, including the Head Master, did not stop with that and are now preparing an e-curriculum for students.
