A week long international webinar on the theme “Every child matters, reaching unreached – strategies, challenges and success stories” was jointly organized by the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University, Chennai and IQAC of Crossland College, Brahmavar Udupi, Karnataka from 5/10/2020 to 11/10/2020.

The Inaugural programme the webinar on 5-10-2020 started with the welcome address by Dr. Sivasakthi Rajammal, Coordinator, Centre for Capacity Building programmes for School Teachers, TNTEU and the Organizing Secretary of the webinar. She welcomed the dignitaries and the participants with a great sense of warmth and respect. Dr. Robert Clive G, Associate Professor, Crossland College, Brahmavar explained the theme of the webinar. He stated that every child matters and no one should be left behind because of the socio economic background or because of a physical or mental disability. The webinar was inaugurated on by the honourable Vice Chancellor of TNTEU Prof. N. Panchanatham. He delivered a very powerful message on the theme of the webinar. Everyone was touched by his humility and the great sense of wisdom. The registrar of TNTEU Prof. V. Balakrishnan in his felicitation address, wished the webinar all success. It was followed by the felicitation message by the Dean of Faculty, TNTEU Prof. M. Govindan. The Principal of Crossland College, Brahmavar, Prof. Samuel K Samuel in his felicitation message thanked the TNTEU for the joint venture expressed his best wishes for the webinar. The inaugural programme came to the end with a vote of thanks by Dr. P. Subramanian, Assistant Professor, TNTEU. Ms. Wafa, a final year outgoing student from Crossland College compered the programme.

The first day’s session on “Seven emotional hurdles in the Classroom” by Ms. Aarti Rajartnam, a reputed Psychologist and author from Salem set the tone for the week long webinar with lot examples on the theme. It was a very interactive session appreciated by all. The second day’s session by the young Shashank Rao an Incoming student to Harvard Business School, Formerly Chief of Staff at African Leadership Academy, South Africa was a big hit with the audience with his passionate narration. He shared his experience on the theme “How do we teach students to be leaders?” with the African Leadership Academy and made the presentation very interesting and inspiring.

On the 3rd day Dr. Padmini Pai, PRMS Project Manager and Program Lead : ISLHD Be the Change initiatives (llawarra Shoalhaven LHD) Australia and Ms. Andrea Knezevic from the University of Wollongong, Australia shared their experiences on the theme “A Care Givers experience of ‘reaching the unreached ‘ in the Australian Bush Fire experience and the SEED program in Australia” . They connected their experiences with that of the life of our teachers.

On the 4th day Mrs. Vinitha Rachel Varghese, PhD Candidate, Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA won the thumps up from the participants for her work with the Project Akshara and PENCIL to help the government school children. Her theme of presentation was “Even YOU can bring a change, whoever you are - personal, organization and policy level interventions to inclusive education”. It was a much matured presentation from a young scholar.

On day 5, Prof. Laxminarayana from the University of Hyderabad shared his success story of how he could motivate the University students to get connected to the govt. school children to make a difference in their lives on the theme “ How to improve quality in Govt. Schools: some experiences.

On day 6, Mr. Krishna Ramkumar, Co-founder and CEO of Avanti Learning centres won the hearts of the audience with his passionate presentation about his work among less privileged children. He dwelt on the theme, “Improving College Access for Government School students through technology and large scale system implementation”

On the seventh and last day of the webinar, Mr. Sahib Tulsi from University of British Colombia (Vancouver), Canada made a strong pitch to make the teachers to become aware of their own positionalities before dealing with students on the theme “The challenges of Understanding our Positionalities as educators”.

The webinar drew to the close with the valedictory programme on 11-10-2020. Dr. Sivasakthi Rajammal, the dedicated organizing secretary of the webinar welcome everyone to this session. Dr. Robert Clive G, another organizing secretary presented a brief report of the webinar. Later three particpants shared their feedback stating that the webinar was organised very well and the speakers did a great job in providing a lot new insights on the theme. Prof. M. Govindan, Dean of Faculty and Head, Dept. of Educational Psychology, Tamilnadu Teachers Education University (TNTEU), Chennai has delivered his presidential address. The Principal of Crossland College, Brahmavar, Prof. Samuel K Samuel delivered the valedictory message with the statement that each one of us can make difference to reach the unreached. The webinar ended with the vote of thanks by Prof. Reebu Samuel, Vice Principal, Crossland College, Brahmavar. The programme was compered by Ms. Salwa, a final year outgoing student from Crossland College. The biggest take away from the webinar is that with the serious effort of Dr. Sivasakthi, a very big depository of knowledge is created on YouTube with all the proceedings of the webinars. The take away for the teaching community is that all are inspired and challenged by the presentations by the speakers. This webinar has put the spark at least in a few hearts to take some baby steps to reach the unreached.

The week long webinar was attended by educationists from all over the country and abroad. Earlier an MoU was signed by the Tamil Nadu Teachers University, Chennai and Crossland college to jointly organize webinars.