Greater Houston Tamil School Westheimer Branch Moves to a New location

HOUSTON: Westheimer Tamil School (WHTS), a branch of the Greater Houston Tamil School (HTS), has moved to a new location –  8925 Lipan Road, Houston, TX 77063! The inauguration ceremony was conducted on Dec 20. HTS president Gopal Krishnan inaugurated the location and presided over the function. Westheimer Tamil School Principal Jegadesh Sankar Selvasrinivasan gave the inaugural address. HTS Treasurer  Venkat Ponnusamy, Pearland Tamil School Vice-Principal and Accreditation Task Force Lead Sankar Kannan, Westheimer Tamil School Parents, Teachers and Students attended the program.

Greater Houston Tamil School is a non-profit school run entirely by volunteers with the objective of teaching Tamil, an ancient and literature-rich South Asian classical language, to individuals in the greater Houston area. Currently, it conducts classes to around 350 students at five locations (Pearland, Katy, Woodlands, Westheimer/Houston and Sugarland). Westheimer Tamil School was started in Dec 2013 at the Robinson-Westchase Neighborhood Library with 14 students and 2 teachers. Since then, the school has grown to 32 children attending various levels from Kindergarten to level 3. The School currently has 9 dedicated teachers and various volunteer groups. To provide more quality education to the students, the school has moved to new location with class room style amenities starting Dec 6 2014.

During the event, former HTS board member, Malar Selvan, gave a brief overview of the history of HTS. WHTS Principal, Jegadesh Sankar Selvasrinivasan, briefed the audience about various school functions, school curriculum, evaluation methods and graduation criteria. He also thanked “Houston Tamil Church” and its board members for graciously agreeing to rent the facility. Sponsors were also honored.

After the Principal’s speech, HTS Accreditation Task Force (ATF) Lead Sankar Kannan talked about the future of Tamil learning in American Schools. He mentioned that, as a first step towards getting recognition for Tamil Language as a credited course in the regular American School System , ATF has helped three HTS member schools (Pearland, Katy and Woodlands) to get accredited by Advanced ED (a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts rigorous, on-site external audits of PreK-12 schools and school systems). The information was well received by the Westheimer Tamil School stakeholders and has inspired them to get accredited in coming years.

HTS President Gopal Krishnan then talked about the importance of teaching Tamil language and explained how the HTS branches were dedicated towards providing quality education to children in the greater Houston area. Westheimer Tamil School Parent Teacher Council (PTC) Representative Murugan Arumugam explained the role of PTC. A new library was also inaugurated with the Librarian Jai Murugesh handing over the first book to former HTS Treasurer Professor Radha Krishnan. The event ended with a vote of thanks from the Principal.

For further information on Greater Houston Tamil School, see http://houstontamilschools.org/.