On 27th July, 2024, we were pleased to hold a session, remotely, with Dr. Xiaoyan Liang, Lead Education Specialist, World Bank. Dr. Liang is an international education professional with experience across many continents and author of the influential “How Shanghai Does It” report.  This was the first in a series of talks which will be organized by VMFT over the next few months on improving school education quality and to bring insights from other countries that are relevant for Kerala and India.

The offline session that was held at the VMFT hall, Trivandrum, saw a huge turnout of teachers, mentors
and students. Simultaneously, there were attendees who joined online from around the country as well.
The session was organised to turn the spotlight on the Teacher Research Group system in China that has been adapted to Tanzania and other countries. Due to the high performance of Chinese students on
international student assessments, there is considerable interest in this system.

Teacher Research Group (TRG) system is a collaborative framework designed to foster professional
development among educators through inquiry-based learning and reflective practice. It involves a
group of teachers coming together regularly to explore specific educational questions, challenges, or
innovations within their classrooms or schools. A typical TRG activity involves study and preparation of
lesson plans, classroom observation, and collective reflection. TRG creates a learning community, where
teachers can develop their subject or discipline knowledge and improve pedagogical skills.

The primary goal is to improve teaching practices and student learning outcomes. The group focuses ona specific research question or theme, which could relate to curriculum development, teaching strategies, classroom management, or student engagement.

Education researchers from Kerala, national and international speakers, teachers, NGOs and media
gather to discuss research to strengthen Kerala’s education system during a seminar held on 6-7,
December 2023 in Thiruvananthapuram, jointly organized by VMFT, Centre for Development Studies and Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Despite its tremendous advances in universalizing participation in school education, Kerala does
surprisingly little research on education in general, and on emerging challenges, such as teaching about
climate change and environmental sustainability. This important finding was presented in the opening
session, by Dr. Sajitha Bashir, Vice-Chairperson of VMFT, based on a review of thousands of research
articles published in peer reviewed journals and Indian Ph.D theses. She emphasized that high
performing education systems also do continuous research to improve pedagogy and curriculum, as well as the management of the education system. This is all the more important as our education system faces new challenges.

An impressive array of speakers addressed a multi-disciplinary audience of researchers, teachers,
students and media. The keynote speaker, G.M. Pillai, provided a compelling overview of the factors
behind climate change and its impacts at the global and local levels. Prof. V.K. Damodaran, President of
VMFT, Dr. Padma Sarangapani of TISS and Prof. C. Veeramani, Director of CDS addressed the audience in the welcome session.

Vakkom Moulavi Foundation Trust celebrated the historic newspaper ‘The Svadesabhimani’ and the 150th birth anniversary of Vakkom Moulavi On November 16, 2023, on the National Press Day, The event, held at the Foundation Hall, brought together a diverse group of individuals to explore into the theme, ‘Fostering a Democratic India: The Role of Media Then and Now. The thought-provoking discussion was organized by, the Swadeshabhimani Media Study Centre under the Vakkom Maulvi Foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Malayalam and Mass Communication & Dept. of English and Media Studies, St. Xavier’s College Thumba.