Prakasha Moodithaya

Prakasha Moodithaya P is a science and mathematics teacher at the Government Higher Primary School, in Papemajalu village in Dakshina Kannada district. He is also a Yakshagana artist and an active theatre practitioner. He is the member of the Committee for Science and Mathematics Textbooks of Karnataka Education Department. He has been a facilitator at national level trainings on theatre, yoga, science and mathematics. Prakasha has also organised training programmes for teachers at state and national level seminars. Alongside this, he has created a Yakshagana and theatre team for students in his school. Prakasha has received many awards for his contribution to the field of science and mathematics.

Students generally consider mathematics a difficult subject. To break this mindset, Prakasha has planned a series of activities to make the students remain open to understanding mathematics. He will involve the eighth grade students of the school to focus on problem solving ability and decision making which he hopes will enhance the learning capacities in students. He believes that it is difficult to provide in-depth knowledge on subjects like mathematics through conventional teaching methods. Therefore involving theatre techniques opens new doors for students to widen their learning abilities. With this idea, Prakasha has selected the texts which can be integrated with Yakshagana-Talamaddale, mono-acting and craft work. Since the Talamaddale form is built on skills of logic, argument and dialogue, it is hoped that these skills can be adapted to the teaching-learning process as well.  Prakasha has planned to invite local resource people to run a series of workshops to trigger their interest in mathematics.

The outcome will be a stage performance in the presence of teachers and community members. The deliverables of the grant would include photographs and video documentation.

This grant is made possible with support from Citi India.