The Thrissur Corporation is in an effort to place the city in the league of learning cities in the world. It has earmarked funds in the current Budget for pursuing the idea.
The Municipal Corporation in October 2021 submitted an application to the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIIL), Hamburg, Germany, to be recognised as a learning city, says Mayor M.K. Varghese.
The Learning City Network has 230 cities around the world. There is no Indian city that is currently a member of this network established in 2013. The Thrissur Corporation is also associated with the Pascal International Observatory Learning Network, the Mayor notes.
To pursue the idea, the Corporation has planned some ideas.
The Corporation will work with the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) to develop selected neighbourhoods as ‘Infant, Toddler, Caregiver Friendly Neighbourhoods’.
It has applied for the ‘Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator 2022’ launched by the Global Designing Cities initiative in partnership with KILA and the School of Architecture and Planning, Government Engineering College, Thrissur.
It will establish a Forum of ‘Learning City Thrissur Ambassadors’ by inviting 10 leading national and international scholars, educationists, policymakers, entrepreneurs and philanthropists who are natives of Thrissur/adjoining regions in the State.
Since Thrissur is celebrating the centenary year (2021-22), it was decided to launch ‘Thrissur Young Learner’s Parliament’ by inviting 100 school students in the 13-17 age group within the Corporation area. They will periodically meet at the Corporation to ideate on the future of Thrissur city apart from bringing children’s perspectives in the key planning and governance strategies of the Corporation. They will be the young ambassadors of ‘ITCN-friendly Learning City of Thrissur’.
Apart from integrating these ideas into the draft Thrissur Amruth GIS master plan, the annual Budget of the Municipal Corporation has allocated separate funds to develop Thrissur as a learning city through convergence of various above strategies, Mr. Varghese says.
