Dr. K. Sivadasan Pillai, Emeritus Professor/Fellow of UGC (1998 onwards) residing at Harishree, Nandavanam, Trivandrum was born in April 1935 in a remote village Kadavoor in Kollam District. Possessing various degrees such as B.Sc., M.Ed. M A(Sociology & Politics), PhD ( Education), A.I.E (London), Adult Education (West Germany), Dr. K. S. Pillai was well versed in Malayalam, English, Hindi and German languages.
Working as a Graduate Teacher in Secondary Schools for about nine years, Dr. Pillai had a record of meritorious service as Research Assistant (NCERT Project), Senior Research Fellow (NCERT), UGC Junior Research Fellow, Lecturer, and Reader in Education (University of Kerala) and Professor cum Director of the Centre for Adult Education & Extension and also Population Education Resource Centre. Wherever he worked, he left his own imprint there.
The mastery touch of Dr. Pillai in research guidance is revealed in all the 25 PhD theses produced under his guidance. Dr. Pillai successfully guided 54 M.Ed. theses, 2 M.A. (Sociology) theses, and 49 Research reports/case studies of Post Master’s Diploma in Adult and Continuing Education during his professional tenure.
Dr. Pillai is credited with preparing and publishing several research projects, studies, modules and evaluation reports sponsored by UGC, DAE (Government of India), UNICEF and CPR. Not only that, Dr. Pillai has received laurels from the academicians and student community for publishing many books, souvenirs, and periodicals in English and Malayalam (more than 400) for and on behalf of CACEE, KANFED, Literacy Forum, LAEWP etc. Dr. Pillai’s write-ups, research papers and articles (more than 200 in English) in International Journals published from London, Paris, Bonn, Tehran, Canberra, etc. and National Journals published from New Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai, Coimbatore, Bihar, Baroda, Mumbai, Machilipatnam, Simla, Allahabad, Pune, Bhopal, the Hindu Education page etc. and State level journals from Kottayam, Trivandrum etc. ranked him among the leading educationists of the time. His reviews on more than 75 books (both Malayalam & English) appeared in leading periodicals and journals.
As a widely travelled person in connection with educational activities, Dr. Pillai has fully utilised the whole year of 1976 in studying organisation and conduct of the University Departments and centres connected with Adult Education in England, Scotland and Germany. He led the 18 member Afro-Asian delegation in Adult Education and visited folk schools and Community Colleges in Denmark. Dr. Pillai’s visit to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea under ASPBAE travel fellowship helped in securing first hand experience on education in general and adult education in particular. He was one among the members of the Indian delegation to the 5th ICAE Conference held in Nairobi.
The positions that Dr. Pillai held range from regional to International levels. He is the Associate Secretary General and the Indian National Chancellor of the IAEWP and its Kerala State Chancellor. Dr. Pillai is one of the Founder Members of CAETA, Member and Executive of IAEA, its South Zone Committee and the Chairman Kerala State Unit. Member of the Editorial Board of UAE, Task Force for formulating the SCERT in Kerala, Research Board of Governors of American Biographical Institute, Expert Committee constituted by the Government of Kerala to reformulate School Curriculum in the State and Board of Studies and Education faculty of many Universities, Life Member of IUACE, CTE and Chairman of Kerala State Centre, AIAER, ICREM, Acharyakulam, AICEIW, ISCE and its regional representative for South India, Representative of the ICUAE for India, Chairman of the panel for selecting Best District/Co-ordinator /Project Officer of TLC, Kerala, Chairman of NICE and of the Advisory Committee of many Educational Journals/Institutions, President of IPRS and Literacy Forum, Trivandrum, Hon. Chief Editor of KANFED Newsletter and General Secretary of KANFED, Co-Editor of International Educator, Regional Co-ordinator of Studies for the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, Fellow of the United Writer’s Association of India, regular Resource Person at Academic Staff Colleges, Colleges of Teacher Education, University Departments and Examiner for Ph.D, M.Phil, M.Ed, M.A and Post M.A in many Indian Universities and so on. Dr. Pillai is listed in Reference Asia on p.488 (Vol.4) and Asia’s who is who ( Vol.1on p.582).
Dr Pillai is the recipient of many National and International awards for his meritorious service in the field of Education such as Imperial Relations Trust Fellowship(1975),Vidya Visarada(1976),ASPBAE Travel Fellowship(1982),Nehru Literacy Award(1994), Diploma of Honour of IAEWP(1994),Fountain of Universal Peace Award(1994), Rotary Award(1994), UGC’s Emeritus Professor Fellowship(1998), Albert Schweitzer HumanitarianAward (2001), Sardar Patel International Literacy Award (2002). As an active member of the Literacy Expert Committee he was instrumental for Kerala Library Movement securing the Krupskaya Award in 1995.
As an educationist, Dr. Pillai has touched almost all fields of education. But his specific area of interest lies in Adult Education. As a trainer of trainers, he directed a number of training programmes for different levels of Adult Education functionaries including Project Officers, Principals, Programme Officers, Supervisors and instructors of various agencies at the State and National levels; launched many innovative programmes in adult education (appreciated and copied by many Universities, Voluntary Agencies and Government departments); as the General Convener, organised the 38th All India Adult Education Conference and the National Conference of IAEWP at Trivandrum (1991), the ITFL sponsored Book Voyage Scheme in Kerala (1990) and Programmes sponsored by ASPBAE, UNICEF, IUACE, ITFL etc., participated in the SARC year of girl child seminar, 5th meeting of the ITFL (1989), International seminar on Adult Education (2002), NIOS seminar on networking of agencies in Continuing Education (2003), Criteria Developing workshop organised by the Directorate of Adult Education, New Delhi (2003), workshops, conferences, seminars etc. at National and Regional levels; Convener of Conference papers of the 4th Asian Conference on Educational Technology (1989); Resource Person at the National Seminar on Environmental Education etc. are some of his exceptional abilities.
Dr. Pillai presented commendable performance as member of the Advisory Committee of the International Conference in lifelong learning and Social development organised by the Loyola College of Social Sciences (2002), State Advisory Board for Education and chairman of the State Policy Preparation Committee, Executive Committee of Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority (KSLMA) and Chairman of its Evaluation Sub committee, Academic Director of the Equivalency Programme; Distinguished Professor of International Institute for Literacy and Life Long Education, Course Director of Isa Viswa Vijnana Trust’s School of Teacher Education and also the Chairman of the Advisory Board for Utradam Thirunal Trust.
Thus Dr.Pillai was a masterful social engineer and a real model to teachers and teacher educators, who left a lasting impression until his untimely departure on 8th Nov.2007.
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