Journalism for school students

If there is a fire at the Vidya Mandir School in Mylapore, I am in trouble.
I may even be taken into custody.
And like Rahul Mahajan, all the TV channels will be after me till the next news breakout.

I told the kids there that they should enjoy every extra-curricular activity that was available to them. Even if it meant experimenting with the compounds and liquids in their Chemistry Lab.
And to laugh away a freak discovery of fire caused by mixing two solutions.

This week, I was a guest at the inauguration of the various clubs at this school which has just finished its golden jubilee celebrations (There is a very interesting piece on the founding of this school posted on a blog we promote - www.my-mylapore.blogspot.com).

The function was smart and precise. Ten clubs launched in one go.
This is that time of the year when in most schools, all sorts of clubs for the students, are inaugurated.

At our end, a new kind of programme should take off in July.
It takes off from the Journalism Camp that we hosted in summer for school children at our office space in Raja Annamalai Puram.
We are taking this initiative further.

This new Journalism Programme is again intended for senior school students and will run through the year.
It proposes a combination of lectures and training sessions on the weekend and encourages the young people admitted to it, to collect information and file stories from their campus and from the neighbourhoods where they live and play.

It is targeted at students who have a flair for writing and are beginning to get interested in the media - newspapers, TV, radio or New Media. And for those who may want to pursue an undergrad or postgrad course in media.

The 'double-bill', as the promo managers at our theatres would put it, should turn out to be exciting and challenging for our young, creative minds. And since there are facilities and resources at our end that can be made available to them, we hope this programme will shape up to be yet another unique experiment in the neighbourhood.

So, if there is indeed a fire in the lab at Vidya Mandir, we do not have to rush our reporter to the site. Hopefully, the Student Reporter on campus will be following the story. And even clicking pictures.
A fire though, does not interest me. Seven-year-olds trying to basket balls does. And there is a story there our young reporters can file.