Glory be to Jesus who has done great things in Elementary Education Board during the Biennium 1999 - 2000, The Board of Education functioned in one unit till September 2001.

As per our Bishop's vision it was bifurcated into two boards :

• Board of Higher Education

• Board of Elementary Education

So as to pay more attention to primary and middle schools.

1. Statistics of the Staff and School Children

There are 137 Primary and 26 Middle schools totally 165 schools in Elementary Education Board. In these schools there are 819 teachers and 50,251 children at present. These schools are aided by Government, Teachers grant and maintenance grant are sanctioned by the Government for these schools. Maintenance grant is remitted to the Diocese and through the Correspondents this grant is re-imbursed for the maintenance of schools such as repair, white-washing and blackboard painting. Construction of new building and renovation work are done under the direct control of Diocese. To supervise schools 18 Correspondents are appointed by the Diocese, Our Bishop is the Manager for all the schools. Under him are two officials the D.E.O and Convener to supervise these works.

These schools which were started by the sacrifice of the dedicated people to render education, discipline and good citizenship training to the poor students.

2. The Elementary Education Board of Education

The Elementary Education Board is functioning with the following four objectives :

• All the children of age 9 and above especially in the rural areas should be admitted in the school and those who were admitted should not stop from school in the middle of the year on any account. Every year they should be promoted to higher classes. To fulfill these objectives the Bishop and the Manager of schools convened H.M.'s meetings and gave instructions to H.M.'s to try their level best to uplift the children.

• Syllabus should be simplified, book load should be lessened. The creativity, intelligence and talents of children should be brought out and utilised. Computer education was introduced in chennai. seminars were conducted in Madras, Thiruvallur, Arakkonam, Chenglepet and Kancheepuram centres for teachers handling English, Science and Maths as per the direction of the Bishop.

• Infrastructure facilities should be provided to all schools. It is essential that there should be sufficient space, free air and good seating arrangement in schools. For this more then 40 lakhs of rupees hove been spent last year. Inter linking programme of High and Primary schools go a long way in improving elementary education.

• The High and Higher secondary schools adapted school of the primary schools and took the initiative to conduct rural sports in the High school grounds. Primary children don't have ground facility in their schools. So they enjoyed this inter schools sports and won prizes donated by donors, Under this school linking programme it is planned to get the help of high schools to construct noon meal sheds and toilets to primary schools. The High school laboratories are also used by the Middle school teachers. 3. LITE Programme

3. LITE Programme

Through this scheme the Education department is also going to be benefited. Through this thousands of teachers will be trained in research centers.

4. Teachers Day

Teachers are the instruments to shape the children and to bring them out of darkness. They have the capacity to deal carefully with those who are not able to study well and also with the slow learners. So, to encourage and to give importance to teachers Teachers. Day is celebrated in all schools.

5. Awards Day

The Bishop has suggested to celebrate, 'Awards Day' in our Diocese to encourage the teachers. So, for the past 3 years 'Awards day' celebrated in Diocese and all teachers of rural schools are also invited to chennai and retired teachers are honoured by the Bishop with a shawl and thousand rupees each.

6. Best Teacher Award

It was proposed to award best teacher award to the teachers who are, sincere and hardworking. This year 2 Headmasters end 8 assistants by Primary and Middle schools were awarded best Teacher award.

7. Special Prizes for the Students

This year common diocesan Exam for std V was conducted for the Annual Examination and centre valuation was done in different centres on the same day, to create an awareness in them. Addition to this, Diocesan Competition common exam was conducted for selected children and prizes were given to 14 fifth standard students and 5 eighth standard students. We are thankful to our Bishop and Treasurer for allotting Rs. 70,000/- for the expenses of 'Awards Day'.

Ungradation of Schools C.S.I Vadavour which is a feeder school in Madurantagam area has been upgraded as primary school.

8. Future Plans

In the coming years we propose to improve the infrastructure. H.M.'s should be encouraged to raise funds so that buildings of more than 80 years old should be constructed and renovations wherever needed should be done.

• To conduct more Orientation classes with deeper involvement of teachers.
• To Conduct more workshops to prepare working models and aids with cheap and waste materials.
• To introduce Bulbuls, guides and J. R. C. Wherever possible.
• To conduct spoken English classes for English Teachers.
• Needle work teachers to be encouraged to prepare dolls, flowers and decorative materials.