How a lot can a easy Instagram web page change lives? This was what I.S. Sumathi, a teacher from Panchayat Union Middle School, Therkamoor, in Madurai district, thought whereas beginning the @_.future_genius._ Instagram web page in September 2022.
“The students were thrilled because it was something they had never done before,” mentioned Sumathi to The Hindu. Fast ahead to 2025, the web page has lakhs of followers and a blue tick due to its recognition.
Deepika, consider your self!
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Special association
At a time when lecturers, dad and mom, and all authorities are asking students to keep away from gadgets, social media and whatnot, Sumathi stands aside for utilizing the exact same for rising her students’ confidence. Helping them develop wings to their goals, Sumathi ensures that every one students get an opportunity to be in entrance of the digital camera. She spoke about how social media is an important software in right now’s age and the way students ought to be taught to use it responsibly as a substitute of avoiding it.
The first step
“Before I started Instagram, not many people were posting videos. My only motivation was that since others use social media for different reasons, why can’t I use it for education instead of competing with others?”
Under authorities schemes like Ennum Ezhuthum scheme (Numeracy and Literacy scheme, which ensures students beneath the age of eight get fundamental arithmetic and literacy schooling), lecturers are anticipated to share exercise movies in instructional Telegram teams. These schemes have a learner-centric, activity-based curriculum that’s distinctive. This is the place Sumathi thought aside, “Why not post the same videos on Instagram?” That considering introduced 1000’s of followers to the web page and faculty, to the extent that many personal faculties additionally adopted the activity-based educating strategies.
From being reluctant and uncertain of how the web would possibly react to the content material to understanding the significance of exposing them to the actual world, the channel grew. The students now all try to develop into prepared for the actual world on the market ready for them.
The journey
With 26 years of expertise, Sumathi fondly remembered her grandfather, who was a teacher and the way she took up educating to fulfil her father’s dream. Inspired by her personal teacher again in college, Sumathi had one objective. Become like him — probably the greatest lecturers doable. She’s following his path by means of her revolutionary methods of educating and guaranteeing her youngsters achieve confidence and the life abilities wanted to go forward with their aspirations.
The viral impact
The viral movies have been primarily associated to a ‘Believe in Yourself’ exercise that they did in class, the place every pupil is seen pointing at themselves whereas saying ‘Believe in yourself’ with their title.
Thus got here the well-known ‘Believe in yourself, Shivadharshini’ and ‘Deepika, believe yourself’ developments that gained tens of millions of hearts.
While these grew to become fashionable due to how catchy and confident the students have been whereas speaking, there are a number of different actions, together with the students speaking about English grammar utilization by means of actions and describing what they’re doing.
Sumathi’s reels are principally lesson actions that one would possibly get simply attracted to indulge in whereas doom-scrolling. By utilizing handmade chart paper cut-outs of the varsity, stickers and drawing boards, she ensures the expertise is a enjoyable exercise for her students.
The web page gained tens of millions of views, and the students acquired fairly a little bit of fame. But the efforts didn’t cease there; the web page continued to be energetic and fairly constant in placing out content material.
niranjana.ps@thehindu.co.in
Published – September 08, 2025 10:38 am IST
