Vedamani Manual Paranaja Jokes - A Volume to be released Soon- Contributions Invited

The Vedamani Manuel School of Education wish to bring out a commemorative volume of Jokes shared by N.V.M. as its first publication. Those who remember such narratives are requested to post it soon to the blog or send to bendict67@gmail.com. The contributions will be duely acknowledged and all possible credits will be made available. The narratives will be analysed and re-framed from an academic and integrated educational theory dimension before publication. Entries can be in any language-English, Malayalam, Tamil or Hindi. We wish to bring out the volume by the end of 2012.

FIRST VEDAMANI MANUEL AWARD FOR RESEARCH ON SOCIALLY CHALLENGED POPULATIONS PRESENTED TO DR. VIJAYALAKSHMI

The maiden Dr. N. Vedamani Manuel Award for Research on Socially Challenged Populations was presented to Dr. Vijayalakshmi, former principal of S.N.Training College, Nedunganta, Varkala by Padmasree Dr. K. Viswanathan of Mtihrnikehan Vellandu in the commemoration seminar of Dr. N. Vedamani Manuel held at the Department of Educaion , Universiy of Kerala yesterday the 22nd of May 2012. The award carries a Memento besides a cash prize. The seminar was inaugurated by Dr. A. Sukumaran Nair, former Vice Chancellor of M.G.University, Kottayam. The commemoration programme was part of the Dr. N.P.Pillai Centennial Celebraion. Many agencies like Council for Teacher Education (CTE) Kerala State Chapter, Sivadasan Pillai Foundation for Educational Research and Development (SPFERD), Vigyan International Foundation for Education, State Resource Centre and Department of Education collaborated in the organisation of  the commemoration programme. Dr. K. R. Sivadasan, former Dean of Education, University of Kerala presided over the meeting. Dr. C. P. Sreekantan Nair, Chirman, CTE, Kerala Chapter launched the Blog - Vedamani Manuel School of Education (drnvedamanimanuel.bogspot.in) The theme of the seminar 'Education of Marginalised-Role of NGOs' was presented by Sri. Pratheesh from Mithranikethan. A gathering of over 100 comprising Students of Dr. N.V.Manuel, Academicians, Teachers, Research Scholars and Master Degree Scholars was part of the august assembly gathered to retreat the life and contributions of a rare specimen of a researcher par excellence of the contemporary history of India like Dr. Nathanael Vedamani Manuel. Dr. K. Viswanathan was also honoured in the occasion as a mark of respect to his contributions in the developmental education movement through Mithranikehan a fond area of Dr. Manuel's academic pursuit. - Benedict

Picture gallery of Commemoration meeting on 4th Anniversary of the Demise of Dr. N.V.M. held on 22nd May 2012

Images speak 1000 words..............

N V M Commemoration Brochure 2012

A glimpse of the legendary life of Dr. N. Vedamani Manuel

Dr. N. Vedamani Mauel

Born(Ne) : 24 August 1923 at Sawyerpuram,

Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu

Designation : Retired Professor of Education, University of Kerala

Date of Demise: 11.08.2008

Last Office Occupied :

Dean CETED

No 8, Soorya GardensSasthamangalamTrivandrum 695 010

Permanent Residential address at Trivandrum :

40 Kairalinagar, Kanchiramapara, Trivandrum 659 5030, Tel : 0471-2361965

Academic Qualification

B.A. (1942) Triple Second class; Chemistry main (III Part); Madras University

M.Ed. (1946) First Class, First Rank, Thesis on Science curriculum, Madras University

M.A. (1950) Second Class I Rank, Tamil Language & Literature, Madras University

M.A. (1953) Second Class I Rank, Philosophy, Madras University

Certificate in French (1966), Alliance Francaise, Madras;

Lang lab course (1967) L.ADIF, Lyons

Diploma in German (1972) First Class I Rank; Kerala University

Diploma in Russian (1973) First Class II Rank; Kerala University

Attended hundreds of Extension Programmes for teachers for nearly five decades- Highlights:

1. Bloom’s (First) Evaluation Workshop, Baroda, 1957 (Participant)

2. Summer Institute in Chemistry, CHEM Study, Annamalai University (six weeks) with Californian team as resource (Participant)

3. Attended several workshops and conferences in India and abroad in education, psychology, literature, linguistics, science, development, environment, habitat, music, musicology, cultural, history, philosophy etc.

Experience

Demonstrator in Chemistry in Intermediate Colleges: 3 years

School Teacher: high school: 3 years; training school: 1 year

In Training Colleges: Lecturer 7 years; Professor; 5 years

In University Dept. of Education: Reader 4 ½ years, Professor 7 ½ years

Research Officer, South Indian Teacher’s Union Council of Research: 3 years

Research Officer, World Confederation of Organisations of Teaching Profession, Delhi 1 year

UNESCO, Chief Technical Adviser (D1), National Teachers Institute, Nigeria, 1 year.

After Superannuation, Founding Director Academic Staff College: 1 year

Director, Centre for Educational Research, Innovation, Development, Mirtraniketan: 4 years

Held several nonformal positions of consultancy, of special lectureships, guidance.

Now Peripatetic Participant Researcher Dean and Dean, CETED (Centre for Technology for Development, Trivandum-10 (Tel:2726034)

Directed or served as resource person in several workshops-Highlights:

Stephen Corey’ Action Research workshop for teachers, Coimbatore-20 1959

Directed Curriculum Workshop with Marcella Lawler as resource person (Columbia Uni) ‘60

While participating as resource person in scores of workshops organized by NCERT/SCERT, attempted to make them democratic, interactive and relevant to real issues on the ground wherever possible: In the early phase of Academic Staff College work as Director and as Resource Persons tried out the intersection of modern developments in processing deep and abstract concepts in a form suitable to young mind and in disadvantaged settings focussing of the structure of various disciplines (which could embrace and generate a mass of content) The thrust in this approach is to use pedagogy and other processing/communication disciplines in interaction with the content disciplines taught in colleges and schools-rather than presenting content and method/pedagogy as separate inputs, expecting them to get integrated in the trainee somehow: in environmental approaches including the setting and the contexts too as interaction factors. In this way interacted with the late 1960s experimental curriculum groups in Chemistry presided by Dr. (Fr. Yeddnapalli (Loyala College, Madras)- overall co-ordination and guidance by Dr CNR Rao, Bangalore; The latest in this area is National

Chemistry Symposium (Chennai) 7-9: In physical education and sports interacted with National Seminar on Trends and Challenges (University of Kannur) February 2003.

The maximum of such pedagogy-discipline interaction was in Linguistics and Language at International School of Dravidian Linguistics and in music with Kalaimamani Dr. Vasantha Srinivasan, Tuticorin and her circle of distinguished musicians and with Dr. A. Sukumaran Nair.

In 1990 master-minded and organized the workshop on Mapping of Educational Innovations from Below at CERID, Mitraniketan with financial support from NCERT.

Held positions in apex bodies relating to Teacher Education:

Member, UGC Teacher Education Panel, 1973-76

Member of many committees of NCERT, particularly those dealing with teacher education from about 1974-84. Member of Governing Board of NCERT 1982-85.

In research, guided about 100 Masters’ level theses and 35 Ph.D theses; most of them were done from a teacher-like/participant stance, adding some new theoretical contribution applicable in practice. The important areas are : Science education, environmental education, music education, language education, developmental education, education of the disadvantaged, philosophy, cultural history, cultural variations and educational adaptations-especially with the  tribes and other ‘culturally different’ groups. Just now giving more ‘grounding’ to the approaches with the collaboration of creative teachers, and Kerala Sastra Parishat workers. It is also planned to direct Habitat Education activities and tribal education research on these lines, Deep constructs have been developed during the past four years at CETED in educational integrations with tribals and forest personnel: facilitated by Dr.C.V. Ananda Bose when he was principal secretary holding SC/ST and forest portfolios.

Life Member: All India Association for Educational Research, HQ Buhubaneswar; Pondicherry Institute of Language and Culture: Dravidian Linguistics Association (International School of Dravidian Languages, Trivandrum; “INDIS”, Trivandrum; Madras Philharmonic Society.)

Member : Libraries of British Council, Alliance Francaise, Kerala University and SCERT

Publications/Papers:

Published ten books/booklets, most of them relating to education and research. Published or read in scholarly conferences about 150 papers. A few exemplars from the early, middle and the latest phases are given:

Early Phases : To major papers

The concept of dreams in early Tamil literature, Madras Psychological Society, 1955.

Indian Psychology as Revealed in early Tamil literature (Indian Science Congress, Agra, 1956)

Some major landmark papers in education from 1972 to 1999:

National Lectures in Education (UGC-sponsored) 1980-81:

Reconstructive approaches to education in the context of an ancient heritage

Environmental approaches to education: a means of enlivening formal and nonformal education.

Tapping the hidden curricula in work experience and folk art forms: a way of positive intervention, favouring the very disadvantaged groups.

Innovation, diffusion and distortion in education.

Education as dialogue: an analysis of multiple forms in formal and nonformal education.

Models of adaptation of education in multilingual and multicultural contexts.

The relevance of Piaget in the modern educational context.

Other important papers in this period:

1. Some aspects of the theory of communication and teaching in Tamil literature, First All India Dravidian Linguistics Conference, Trivandrum 1972.

2. Research in Textbooks, National Seminar on Research, NCERT, 1973.

3. Trend Report on Research in Philosophy of Education. In Buch (ed) Survey of Research in Education, Vol. I &II, 1974, 1978

4. Sociology of Knowledge as Revealed from Malayalam Sources, World Malayalam Conference, 1977.

5. A comparison of English syntax and Tamil-Malayalam syntax from the reference point of scientific and mathematical syntax, and its implication for teaching, world Malayalam conference, 1977.

6. Professionalism as an input in Teacher Education. Paper commissioned by Research Cell of National Commission for teachers 1, December 1983.

7. (a) Formative use of intelligence tests for the culturally disadvantaged ; (b) Constructs for culture-fair measurement of intelligence in a multilingual society. National Seminar on Intelligence Testing , NCERT, 1984

8. Teacher’s and Mental health professionals’ Collaboration. Dialogue paper, National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences, (NIMHANS) Bangalore 1985

9. Sikhamen paryavaran-upagame:aupacharik aur anaupacharik siksha men nava jivan sanchar ka sadan (Hindi version of paper on Environmental Education as means of enlivening formal and nonformal education), NCERT Silver Jubilee Souvenir, 1986.

10. Education in the Sangam Age, Dravidian Encyclopaedia, Vol. I. International School of Dravidian Linguistics 1990

11. Innovations in Integrated Education developed at Centre for Educational Research, Innovation and Development, Conference on Mapping of Educational Innovation, CERID and NCERT, Trivandrum, 1990.

12. Educational Research in the 21st Century: A Reconstructionistic and Transdisciplinary View, Golden Jubilee of Entering Service Seminar, Trivandrum, 1992.

13. Reconstructionistic analysis of the social and productive context of Mitraniketan as a learning environment for science and mathematics (CASTME award paper, Manchester, UK) 1992.

14. The Naturalistic-Amoristic Philosophy Reflected in Early Sangam Literature and its Educational Implications. Indian Philosophy Congress, Trivandrum, 1993. (Published in PILC Journal of Dravidic Studies 8:2, July 1998, Pondicherry)

15. Reconstructionistic and hermeneutic approaches to educational history with special reference to Kerala. International Conference on Kerala Studies , A.K.G. Centre, Trivandrum

N V M was the pioneer in Research on Models of Teaching in India

A Professor Who Lived Until His Last Breath!

A FOND REMEBERANCE BY DR. RAVI SANKAR S. NAIR (March2010)

Prof. N. Vedamani Manuel who served the Department of Education, the University of Kerala for over twenty years was the quintessential professor of Education for a generation of students. His immense erudition, ability to apply pedagogical principles to a variety of subjects ranging from Chemistry to Musicology, uncanny knack for establishing conceptual links between subjects as different as Mathematics and Literature and  his constant quest for novel and unorthodox approaches to educational practices made him stand out among the academics of his  generation. True to the adage that a teacher never retires, the fascination for classroom teaching never left him. After his retirement from the University, he taught at many schools in Waynad and Palghat districts, on a voluntary basis, to help low-achieving students. Prof. Manuel was a true polymath whose scholarship in education, philosophy, psychology, Sangam literature, English literature, Biblical studies and musicology had amazed many. He had an admirable command on/over Russian, French and German, in addition to a reading knowledge of Greek, Latin, Hindi and Kannada. Another consuming passion in his life was music. He was a competent violinist and was well versed with the Carnatic and Western musical systems. A passionate teacher and research guide, Prof. Manuel left a deep impression on his students.

Vedamani Maunel was born on 24^th August 1923 at Sawyerpuram, Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu. He took his bachelor’s degree, B A, in 1942 from the Madras University with a triple second class (Chemistry Main (III Part) and took three master’s degrees, one in Tamil language and literature and the other in Philosophy from Madras University in 1950 and 1953 respectively with a second class I Rank and also a Master of Education from the Madras University on the subject ‘Thesis of Science curriculum’ with first class and first rank in 1946. He has to his credit, a certificate in French (1966), [Alliance Francaise, Madras], Language lab course (1967) [L.ADIF, Lyons], Diploma in German (1972) [First Class, Second Rank; Kerala University] and Diploma in Russian (1973) [First Class Second Rank; Kerala University].  He worked as a Demonstrator in Chemistry in the Intermediate Colleges for 3 years, as a School Teacher at high school level for 3 years and at a training school for 1 year. He also made his footprints in Training Colleges as Lecturer for 7 years, Professor for 5 years and in the University Dept. of Education as Reader for nearly 5 years, Professor for nearly 8 years.  Prof. Vedamani also worked as a Research Officer in the South Indian Teacher’s Union Council of Research for 3 years, as a Research Officer in the World Confederation of Organizations of Teaching Profession, Delhi for 1 year.  He was the Chief Technical Adviser (D1), UNESCO, National Teachers Institute, Nigeria for one year, Founding Director, Academic Staff College after Superannuation for 1 year and Director, Centre for Educational Research, Innovation, Development, Mirtraniketan for 4 years. He also held several non-formal positions as consultant, special lecturer and research guide.  He served as Dean, Centre for Technology for Development, Trivandum, (CETED).  He held several positions in the apex bodies relating to Teacher Education.  He was a Member, UGC Teacher Education Panel, for a period from 1973 to ‘76.

 It was the Department of education, the University of Kerala that provided the ideal setting for him to bloom as an educationist, researcher and teacher. The department was headed by Dr. N. P. Pillai and was, at that time, a beehive of activities. It had a research forum called Forum of Educational research and studies, Kerala (FERSK) and used to bring out a journal of its own. Dr. Manuel had as his colleagues, eminent academicians like Prof. Pushpita John, Dr. Mohan Mathew (who took the first Ph.D. in education from the University of Kerala) Dr. A. Sukumaran Nair (later Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University and then Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam) and Dr. K. Sivadasan Pillai (a leading figure in non-formal education). Teaching, research and academic collaborations that took place during this period was crucial to the educationist in Dr. Manuel coming of age and he in turn had much to offer to his colleagues. His scholarship and variegated interests left a mark on the activities of the Department and his colleagues. 

As a teacher, he impressed the students through his deep scholarship, but he was not a good communicator. One reason for this was that he was always brimming with ideas from too many subjects and would jump from one point to another and sometimes even wander away from his original point to many other subjects. Students who had knowledge and interest in one or two related areas might not have had much interest in the examples he drew from totally different fields. He was prone to explain a concept in Chemistry or Mathematics using analogies drawn from Music or Linguistics. For students who did not like to wander away from the conventional boundaries of their chosen subject, this certainly might have been something of a dampener. They would very often get the feeling that his classroom presentations were disordered and not systematic! In reality, his lectures contained a wealth of ideas for anyone prepared to make the effort to listen. The analogies he drew from different subjects were particularly striking for those students with a wider perspective. To explain the octet rule in chemistry, Prof. Manuel always made use of the musical scale. He would explore poetic metre through the musical concept of Tala. He would frequently make use of the concept of etic and emic units in Linguistics to delineate concepts in Education or Sociology. He always threw in a good dose of humour, especially verbal humour drawn from a variety of languages. The high speed shuttling between different domains of knowledge and the sheer depth of the ideas that he attempted to convey had the effect of making his lectures veer away from neat, highly organized and pointed presentations that most students got used to in usual classrooms. His favourite subjects were philosophy and sociology of education, comparative education, science education and history of education. But, anyone who had the opportunity of knowing him even for a short time would have found out that he had a fine grasp of almost all areas of education and related disciplines. He had certain ‘models of education’ for which he used humourous names like EVP model (Enikkum Venam Paayasam) or Subrahmanya Model (Name drawn from the story of a quarrel between Ganapati and Subrahmanya). Beneath the humorous tags, the models enshrine deeply significant principles of education.

Though well versed in quantitative research methodologies, Prof. Manuel showed a preference for qualitative methods in the doctoral and post-graduate dissertations that he supervised. He was fascinated by the educational ideas and principles latent in our traditional culture. Pedagogy of Indian Music was another pet theme. Under his guidance, students like S. Venugopu and Vasantha Sreenivasan carried out significant studies in this area. The language of science in Malayalam is analyzed from the combined perspectives of Linguistics and Education in the study carried out by Dr. Radhamony, another Ph.D. student of Prof. Manuel.  He guided over 38 Ph.D. theses in the areas of Science education, environmental education, music education, language education, developmental education, education of the disadvantaged, philosophy, cultural history, cultural variations and educational adaptations–especially with the tribes and other ‘culturally different’ groups. In 1990, he master-minded and organized the workshop on Mapping of Educational Innovations from Below at CERID, Mitraniketan with financial support from NCERT.  He was also the member of many committees of NCERT, particularly those dealing with teacher education from about 1974-84 and was a member of the Governing Board of NCERT from 1982-85.  He was a Life Member of All India Association for Educational Research, Pondicherry Institute of Language and Culture: Dravidian Linguistics Association, “INDIS”, Trivandrum; and Madras Philharmonic Society. 

While participating as a resource person in scores of workshops organized by NCERT/SCERT, he attempted to make them democratic, interactive and relevant to the real issues on the ground wherever possible. In the early phase of Academic Staff College, working as Director and Resource Person, he tried out the intersection of modern developments in processing deep and abstract concepts in a form suitable to young minds. The thrust in this approach was to use pedagogy and other processing/communication disciplines in interaction with the content disciplines taught in colleges and schools-rather than presenting content and methodology as separate inputs, expecting them to get integrated by the trainee, somehow.

Prof. Manuel was popular in the University circles for some other reasons also. He was known as the ‘Professor who rides a bicycle’. From the time he joined the University, he commuted by a bicycle. He never owned a car. He never cared for power or position. While he was teaching in some schools on a voluntary basis, Prof. Manuel would spend lavishly to buy books, music instruments and sweets for poor students. Students have fond memories of this ‘strange man’ who came to teach them with sweets and gifts, and spoke in a mixed language of Tamil and Malayalam. (In spite of his phenomenal linguistic abilities, he could never come to grips with spoken Malayalam even after more than forty years of life in Thiruvananthapuram!)

Commemoration seminar on 4th anniversary of demise

DR. N. VEDAMANI MANUEL COMMEMORATION SEMINAR ON 'EDUCATION OF MARGINALISED SOCIETY: ROE OF NGOs' AT DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF KERALA AS PAR OF DR. N. P. PILLAI CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION-MONTHLY EVENT OF MAY 2012

22ND AT 2012 AT DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION HALL 10 AM TO 3.30 PM

Department of Education, University of Kerala paid tribute to Dr. N. Vedamani Manuel

The august gathering assembled on the occasion of open defence of the Ph.D. thesis of Sm. Jayasree of G C T E, Thycadu, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala paid tribute to the everlasting memory of the veteran reductionist of India Dr. N. Vedamani Manuel on the fourth anniversary of his heavenly assumption on 11th May 2012 at the Kerala University, Department of Education Auditorium.