- M. P. Vijayakumar (civil servant)
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In this Indian name, the name {{{2}}} is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, M.P.Vijayakumar.
M.P.Vijayakumar 
Born July 11, 1948
[Malayandi Pattanam, Tamil Nadu, IndiaOccupation Indian Civil Service, Educationalist Religion Hinduism M.P.Vijayakumar (11 July 1948) is a former Indian Civil Servant known for pioneering Activity-based learning or ABL education system in India. He is regarded as one of the country's leading public educationalists. He was awarded the Prime Ministers Award for excellence in Public Administration for the year 2007-08 for introducing ABL methodology in Chennai Corporation.[1] The model was slowly extended to all government schools in Tamil Nadu. He is currently the advisor of the Academic Council of Navodhaya Vidhyalaya Samiti, Government of India and Elementary Education project (SSA) Government of Tamil Nadu.[2]
Contents
Early life
M.P.Vijayakumar was born in Malayandi Pattinam village in the Indian state of Tamil nadu. He did his postgraduate degree in Economics and joined Tamil Nadu Government Service in 1975. He also holds bachelor degrees in Law & Cost and Management Accountancy. He was conferred doctoral degree in Education and Management by the Alagappa University.
Early career
He has occupied various post in different state departments. In his early career, he was the general manager of various government undertakings such as SIPCOT, SIDCO, TASMAC and T.N.Spirit Corporation,totaling well over 16 years of service. He served has the deputy secretary of the then Chief Minister Dr M. G. Ramachandran between 1981 and 1983. He was also the collector of Vellore district from 1993 to 1996. His served as the director of departments such as women and child welfare,school education and maternal and child health between 1997 and 2003. In 2003 he took office has the Commissioner of Chennai Corporation and occupied this post for three-and-half years which was the second-longest serving term for any Commissioner in 350 years since its inception in 1688.[3] At the end of the tenure as the commissioner , he was personally requested by the state government to continue as the commissioner but instead chose to concentrate on his new-found passion - elementary education. Thus he was appointed project director of universal elementary education project (SSA) and he continues to be its honorary advisor even after retirement in 2008.
Chennai Corporation Commissioner
In 2003, he assumed the office of the commissioner amidst political turmoil. The Chennai corporation and assembly constituencies were strong DMK bastions. The ruling AIADMK government desperate to curtail the dominance of the DMK in the capital city enacted the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2002 to prevent M. K. Stalin from continuing as the mayor for the second consecutive time. The political unrest among the two parties saw the appointment of eight corporation commissioners in two years without any useful work.
The political chaos in the Chennai Corporation resulted in administrative failure in the corporation machineries, resulting in a gross neglect of public utilities and the condition of the roads had deteriorated. On assuming office, he undertook a massive renovation of public spaces including the cleaning of the Marina beach. Encroached areas around the Marine beach were cessed and the coast line was greatly extended and a public swimming pool was refurbished. In 2004, he conceptualised Adyar Eco Park to reclaim the marine estuary that was at the verge of destruction.[4] The process to create an eco park on the 300 acre estuary at the mouth of the Adyar river was initiated. The park was finally opened in 2011 by M. Karunanidhi as Tholkappia Poonga.[5] He introduced ‘door to door’ collection of garbage in Chennai city, refurbished all old parks besides creating new ones, and kept the city free from stray cattle menace by confiscating well over 3000 stray cattle. He also successfully implemented ABC Programme (Animal Birth Control) and kept the city free from stray dog menace.The infra-structure development in Chennai was enormous and was very much visible.
Public health care was also rejuvenated. Vijayakumar initiated various health scheme through the local corporation hospitals. All corporation hospitals were properly equipped and vacancies were filled resulting in a gross increase in public benefit as shown in the table.
Increases in medical benefits at corporation hospitals during M.P.Vijayakumar tenure Med.Service 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Delivery 11540 13592 16495 16516 Sterilisation 8443 11964 12469 12325 MTP 1856 2827 3590 4405 Caesarian 215 1076 1574 2154 He introduced Birth Companion Scheme permitting elderly relative woman to be present by the side of the mother during labour which was first of its kind for any public institution. His experience in public health service especially in maternal health care enabled him to create simple and effective schemes. The most important of them being cervical cancer screening using very economical VIA +ve method which simply involves the smearing of acetic acid in the cervical region to check for cancerous lesions. The scheme was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on 11/07/2005[6] and the scheme had over 8000 patients screened, of whom 661 tested positive of cervical cancer by the end of his tenure in 2006.[7] Both schemes have become models and state government has introduced them in state government hospitals.
In 2009, Vijayakumar was given the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence Public Service by the Vice-President of India for introducing child centric ABL methodology in Chennai Cooperation.[8] Vijayakumar led a project introducing ABL into 13 schools in Chennai in 2003. Its success led to the scheme being rolled out to 264 schools in the Chennai municipal corporation. The experiment in Chennai Municipal Corporation became a model for the State and it has been extended to all the 37,486 schools in the entire State of Tamil Nadu covering nearly 6.5 million children.[9]
He continued to be the Commissioner even under the new DMK government. The Local Administration Minister and Deputy Chief Minister M.K.Stalin went on record requesting him to continue as the Commissioner, but Vijayakumar wanted to concentrate a primary education. He requested the government to relieve him as commissioner and wanted to take up active field work in implementing ABL methodology in all government schools and was made the project director of SSA (Education for All scheme).
Activity-based learning and SSA
Post retirement
Tamil Nadu Government has retained him as Honorary Adviser to the Elementary Education Project (SSA) after his retirement. Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education and Literacy has nominated him as member of National Resource Group for Universal Elementary Education Project (SSA) in NCERT New Delhi. Union HRD Minister has made him as his nominee in the Academic Council of Navodhaya Vidhyalaya Samiti, Government of India.
He is also involved in community work in his native village of Malayandi Pattanam.
References
- ^ Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration - Govt of Tamil Nadu
- ^ Kapil Sibal bowled over by teaching methodologies - The Hindu
- ^ New Chennai Commissioner - The Hindu
- ^ My green city - The Times of India
- ^ Adyar Poonga all set to open - The Times of India
- ^ Cervical cancer screening drive launched - The Hindu
- ^ Over 600 in pre-cancerous stage of cancer cervix - The Hindu
- ^ Bouquets for ABL methodology - The Hindu
- ^ LIDC Podcast: A New Approach to Education in India
Categories:- Indian civil servants
- 1948 births
- Living people
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