COIMBATORE: A dozen female teachers from various government schools in different districts have the virtuous task of preparing the Morning Prayer activities at schools across Tamil Nadu since 2018. They belong to the group called Covai Women ICT that prepares topics for daily prayer sessions at all government schools by referring to the Thirukkural, proverbs, newspapers, etc.
The morning prayer materials are used by several government schools. I Anita, a member of the Covai Women ICT, told TNIE, “In June 2017, the school education department instructed that morning prayer activities should be conducted for 17 minutes on Monday and Friday but only for 10 minutes on the remaining days,” Anita said.
“We planned to create content for morning prayer activities coordinating with female educators. Our effort reduces the burden of school headmasters and teachers and also saves time. We started to prepare the morning prayer activities by forming the Covai Covaiwomenict_Bodhimaram in 2018 with eight teachers,” she said.
She stated that 11 teachers from government schools and one teacher from an aided school in various districts have been performing the task with the welfare of both the teacher and student communities in mind, without any expectation of reward.
Now, teachers prepare prayer material topics on Thirukkural, proverbs, general knowledge, English words and meanings, moral short story, daily headlines in English and Tamil etc. After Anita approves the content, it is sent to other schools via WhatsApp groups.
Around 5,000 teachers from the state are part of the Covai Women ICT Whatsapp groups, said another teacher, M Gomathi. She said that several teachers and headmasters use this material for morning prayer activities in schools.
“We have started an advertisement-free blog in the name covaiwomenict.blogspot.com in 2018. Apart from morning prayer activities, teachers upload content such as English handwriting practices, study materials for a scholarship examination, story books, etc for students, “she said.
Teacher G Palanimuthu who prepares today’s headlines section told TNIE she would spend at least two hours daily collecting the important news from the news media.
“As per the order, I select 10 important news items from categories such as world, nation, Tamil Nadu, education, sports, etc a day early. After selection, it would go to proof checking and translation from Tamil to English. Finally, it would be added to the morning prayer activities report. This work gives much satisfaction,” she said.
A secondary grade teacher R Ramkumar in Salem district told TNIE, “Much information is in the Daily Morning Prayer Activities prepared by the Covai Women ICT. We use them daily. It is useful to students and our time is also saved during busy morning hours.”