The Hindu Business Line : Prem Group launches another `mobile school' in Tirupur

The PGC Industries introduced the novel concept of `mobile' school four years ago to provide informal education to the street and destitute children

MOBILE SCHOOL: Mr Derek Lineham, Director of Switzerland-based College Alpin Beau Soleil SA, inaugurating the second `mobile school' inTirupur

Coimbatore. Nov. 3

The Rs 150-crore fashion garment exporting group from Tirupur - Prem Group Companies or PGC Industries has widened its corporate social commitment apparatus by commissioning a second mobile school that goes around the knitwear town's peripheral areas enrolling street-children and destitute children — potential child labourers — for informal education.

The PGC Industries in association with its Swiss business partners Switcher Quality Textiles introduced the novel concept of `mobile' school four years ago to provide informal education to street and destitute children by taking the school to their doorsteps. The group took to this idea as part of its corporate social responsibility to wean away child labour.

Mobile School

The first `mobile' school — a 50-seater bus converted into a class-room with individual student seating, writing pad annex, writing-board, play materials, tent material and cupboards with locker facilities to keep notebooks, teaching materials — was introduced in 2002. The mobile school picks up the poor children in the 5-10 years age group — wards of workers and destitutes who could not afford to provide regular education — from Iduvampalayam, Murugampalayam, KVR Nagar and Periyandi Palayam villages and offers informal education through play and dancing methods involving art and craft. The four-member teaching/attendant staff hold classes from 10 a.m to 3.30 p.m, which are often conducted beneath a banyan tree at a designated village. The staff also impart health and personal hygiene including `psycho cleaning' to remove any feeling of `inferiority complex' among the children.

Meeting Expenditure

The second `mobile' school — which was commissioned on Wednesday — is supported jointly by the Prem Group and the Switzerland-based international boarding school `College Alpin Beau Soleil SA,' which according to its Director, Mr Derek Lineham, would meet the recurring expenditure of remodelling the bus and the staff expenditure.

Mr Lineham talking to Business Line over phone from Tirupur soon after inaugurating the second mobile scheme said his college — which has 180 students from 40 different nationalities in Europe — has established a regular exchange programme with the Prem Group-Switcher partnership-run free schools. Besides the mobile school, PGC industries runs seven free schools under `Switcher Prem Gardens School' programme with a total student strength of 1,400 and 65 teachers.

These free schools are run jointly by the PGC industries' social service arm Durai Charitable Trust named after its promoter and the Chief Executive Officer of PGC, Mr S. Duraisamy; and Swiss textile company Switcher SA's Switcher Foundation, according to Mr M. Suresh Jerry, Chief Manager, Compliance and Integrity, PGC Industries.

Exchange Programme

The students from the Swiss education institution visit Tirupur campuses twice a year and "this is our 10th visit in which 11 students from the Swiss school are participating under the exchange programme," Mr Lineham added. The Tirupur exchange programme being the largest of overseas participation for the Swiss international boarding school, it is also now planning to undertake similar programme in Madagascar, he said.

More Stories on : Education | Tamil Nadu

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page