An exclusive social networking portal ‘www.skoolbook.in’, designed and developed by a Coimbatore-based entrepreneur, provides an open forum for bringing out innate talents in school children and to make them gain knowledge.

According to S. Kathiravan, Director Hi End Software Integrated, this has received immense response from both students and teachers since it is a first of its kind initiative.

Talking to Covai Post Mr. Kathiravan, with a doctorate and teaching experience, wanted to launch a website for school children as he felt it was the best method of reaching out to them since most of the school-going kids were IT-enabled.

“Catch them Young’ seems to be the buzzword for Kathiravan, who wanted to tap the talent even while students are at school. “It is the right place where they would get an opportunity to show their skills in different spheres of activity. Around 107 schools across Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Erode, the Nilgiris, Kumbakonam, Madurai, and Tiruchi are making use of the social networking portal.”

Kathiravan said that he ensured school students made the best use of this innovative portal, which is aimed at developing their skillset in the field of IT, science, sports, mathematics and general studies as it is would be of great help while pursuing their higher studies. Response poured in from several quarters as majority of the school teachers and management showed interest for the novel learning method.

As many as 1500 students from 5th standard to 12th standard were users of this portal ‘www.skoolbook.in’ which gives plethora of information including details of various competitions facilitating the students to take part in their chosen field of activity. Weekly contests are being held online for the students. Winners are awarded certificates to encourage them to attend similar competitions elsewhere.

It is really interesting to note that Kathiravan’s ‘www.skoolbook.in’ had conducted around 25 competitions since the launch in July this year and is going places with many schools across Tamil Nadu expressing their willingness to be a part of it.

“The school managements need not spare time for making the students browse through the portal and to take up contest online since it has been framed in such a way that it is part and parcel of the curriculum. No extra effort need to be put for this new concept,” Kathiravan said and added that the students found it very convenient and enjoyed using it as it also served as a source of infotainment.

He said the portal was user-friendly and students were made to browse it during their routine classes without hampering their regular studies.

Kathiravan along with his spouse Yamuna, who founded Hi End Software Integrated (HSI) started publishing IT text books for schools and colleges catering to 400 plus schools besides 50 colleges across the state. The couple had published around 67 titles in information technology for schools and three in engineering mathematics.

They had also tied up with Karpagam University, Bharathidasan University and Bharathiar University as part of ‘School-University-Industry’ collaboration initiative by which they have enrolled 30,000-odd students from 67 schools across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.