GENESIS
Our Founder Mr G Venkatachalapathy started the basic school in 17th January 1946 and the first two teachers were deputed to Wardha for training in Basic education. They were blessed by Gandhiji and started the work in the ashram basic school. This school over the years transformed in to a primary and higher secondary school with a total strength of 2,200 children drawn from in and around T Kallupatti. The higher secondary school started as a post basic secondary school started as a post basic school was merged into the regular schooling system of government of Tamil Nadu in the year 1965 since then it is brought under the private school act of the government of Tamil Nadu. The school is run by Gandhi niketan ashram and it has been named as Gandhi Niketan
Nearly eighty percent of the students are from economically and socially deprived families and poor children and are supported with uniforms, note books and other materials. Their academic achievements are on par with students from many of the urban schools due to the commitment of the teachers and the standard of teaching.
It is managed by a school committee headed by the president of the GNA and the correspondent and secretary a representative of the managing committee of Gandhiniketan ashram. The school committee consists of six members from the Gandhiniketan ashram managing committee, four members of the school including head master and three other senior staff and one member from the parent teacher association and one senior staff of the school office.
Staff pattern: The school is headed by a Head master who is the senior most among the post graduate teachers selected by the school committee and approved by the state government.
There are 1 Headmaster, 7 PG teachers, 19 BT teachers, 4 Tamil Pandits, 2 Vocational Teachers, 2 Sec.Gr. Assistants, 3 PETs, 1 Artist, 1 Junior assistant, 1 Record Clerk, 1 Lab Asst., 1 watchman, 1 Office Assistant and 1 Part Time Sweeper. The school is aided by the government and comes under Tamilnadu private school act.
INFRASTRUCTURE
There are 34 class rooms. The class rooms are spacious and well ventilated. Nearly 2 crores of donations was collected and new class rooms were built. Sanitation is taken care off. Modern toilets with running water is available FOR THE STAFF and the students. In the toilet for girls an incinerator run on electricity is installed.
Drinking water is provided with RO water equipment.
Cleanliness of the campus
Students maintain the cleanliness of the campus. The waste is segregated by them into bio and non biodegradable waste. They are then disposed. Waste is utilized for compost manure. All the students participate in the mass cleaning and this practice has been there from the school’s inception 1940s.
Academic education is well taken care off. Concept based teaching is practiced rather than rote learning. The school officers six different courseS in the 11th and 12th standards namely A1, A, B , C, D, E.
| A1 | Tamil, English, Maths , Computer science,,Physics, Chemistry |
|---|---|
| A | Tamil, English, Maths , Physics,Chemistry,Biology |
| B | Tamil, English, Physics, Chemistry ,Botany ,Zoology |
| C | Tamil, English, Commerc , Accountancy,Computer science, |
| D | Tamil, English, Agripractices , Biology |
| E | Tamil, English, Maths , Electrical Machines and,Applaiances |
There is a separate Audiovisual class room where both academic and life skills are taught. Nearly 1400 children from all classes have an opportunity to attend audio visional class once a week wherein lessons are taught through animations and experiments in various subjects. Thanks to Mr Gopal Srinivasan of TVS electronics for donating this lab.
We have two libraries: one for the Primary school and the other for the high school children and the staff of the institution.
General library with 3000 books are available in the founder’s centenary library for the staff and students. It is manned by a qualified librarian. Each student has an opportunity to go to library one hour a week. Every year new books are added to the library with an area of 2500 sq feet The libraries are provided with Internet facilities built in the year 2008 out of donations to the tune of 10 lakhs. This was named as KO VE centenary library and declared opened by former president of India late Sri APJ Abdul Kalam.
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Computer labs are available for 10th 11th and 12th students who visit the labs all thorough the year to learn the practical’s in their subjects during designated classes. In this way these students are exposed to the science experiments. For lower classes the science experiments are demonstrated in their classrooms.
Students are encouraged to prepare their own science projects and taken for competitions arranged by the various institutions particularly the department of science and technology of the state government. Annual science exhibitions are organised in the school. We plan to establish labs for mathematics and English language.
Value education: Institution gives great importance in inculcating good values to the students. We have regular common prayer on every Friday where songs from all religions are sung and one of the teachers narrates the stories from our great epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha.
Every day starts with a value education period where the teachers narrate the life history of great national leaders, spiritual leaders and social reformers and the good values for which they stood. Every student is having an opportunity to learn about their founder of our ashram during these periods and the values he stood for.
In addition we give them the life skills through audiovisual classes.
Physical education is a third pillar of our school. We give lot of importance to physical education.
We have one Physical Director, Two Physical Education Diploma Holders , one of them is a lady who looks after the girl students.
We have good infrastructure. We have two basket ball courts; one is a modern concrete floor ground. In addition we have 6 courts for games like Volley ball, badminton and shuttle cock. There is a separate Kho kho ground for girl students. There is a foot ball and hand ball courts. For indoor games we have table tennis court. In addition they have JUDO and boxing games. Yoga is given a lot of importance. All the students go through yoga learning classes once a week at least.
Our children participate regularly in District, divisional and state level sports. Our aim is to identify talents in sports and games and develop them to state and national level so that the really talented can be prepared for taking sports as their carrier in later life. Every year we conduct sports day and conduct interschool competitions every year.
Regular yoga classes are conducted to the staff of our institution.
“Environmental education” is part of our schools. “Go green” is our slogan. Our students have planted hundreds of trees in our campus. During the last seven decades they have made the campus to look like a green forest. Nearly 2500 trees are there. Still there is scope for trees. We have shade giving trees and wood value trees like teak, kumil, vagai, etc. 12 teams each headed by a teacher take care of our plants and one teacher takes care of shanthivan housing founder’s samathi, D. JC Kumarappa samathi and his kudil and this is one of the most beautiful spots in our campus. The Gandhimandapam and KOVE manimandapam are surrounded by a beautiful garden.
We plan to create more and more greenery and we have created water shed programming to save underground water in our campus. We plan to give horticulture training to our artist teacher so that we can have a planned creation of greenery in our campus.
Co Curricular activities.
Along with academics our children are taking part in co-curricular activites.
Self reliance
Self reliance is the hallmark of our activities. The boys and girls take part in keeping the entire campus clean by sweeping, nurturing plants and trees. We have Khadi as uniform for both staff and students. This Khadi yarn is spun locally by around 35 spinners belonging to the villages around and we weave them with our own weavers before distributing the clothes to the students and staff for their uniform. We produce school bags, chappals, bathing soap, washing soap for our own consumption.
Our students participate in various cultural programmes both inside and outside the school in the surrounding places. The children are trained in heritage cultural arts such as Karagattam, Koalattam, Kavadiyattam, Oyilattam, Kummiyattam with the help and guidance of department of culture, government of Tamil Nadu. We would like to thank the encouragement given by Mr Irai Anbu, IAS, Secretary, Department of culture and tourism.
Department of culture and tourism.
Seven academic clubs are formed and they are functioning well. They are Tamil, English, Maths, Science, Social science, Computer Science and Environment clubs. They meet regularly once a week in turn. We invite special guest speakers to speak on a topic of importance in the subject but the participation of the students is the most important part. Every club starts with the narration of life history of a noble Laurret or a great contributor in the field.
Regular competitions are held in public speaking , composing poems, drawing, music, writing essays once a term. This encourages students to exhibit their talents.
During founders day the students perform various folk arts and one act modern plays.
Regular music chorus classes are held and we perform them in various villages on various national days.
Learning skills
8th and 9th standards are exposed to soap making, spinning, embroidery, tailoring, creating fancy goods like making small purses. They are exposed to the production of leather goods, Steel fabrication. We have regular conducted tours of the entire ashram and its lands for the students to learn about the ashram.
Science exhibitions To stimulate interest in science we hold periodical science exhibitions. These exhibitions bring out the innate talents among our children.
Organic farming We introduce students to organic farming and bio gas plant. We have an organic lemon garden wherein children interested in agriculture are taken in groups and they are given demonstration on organic farming, drip irrigation, and other agriculture activities etc.
We have a student’s hostel having strength of 60 students. The infrastructures are very good. MR A Radhakrishnan Chancellor Meenakshi University Chennai a good friend of our founder has donated a sum of 30 lakhs to build the hostel with fifteen rooms. Hostel Students participate in the morning and evening prayers. They keep the campus and surroundings clean. The food is simple and nutritious at a very nominal amount. We do sponsor very poor students through the fund donated by Mr. T.Lakshminarayan IAS a well wisher of our ashram and KO VE PUBLIC CHARITABLE TRUST.
The students are looked after by a junior and a senior warden. During their stay here they are inculcated good values in life.
We have a student’s hostel having strength of 60 students. The infrastructures are very good. MR A Radhakrishnan Chancellor Meenakshi University Chennai a good friend of our founder has donated a sum of 30 lakhs to build the hostel with fifteen rooms. Hostel Students participate in the morning and evening prayers. They keep the campus and surroundings clean. The food is simple and nutritious at a very nominal amount. We do sponsor very poor students through the fund donated by Mr. T.Lakshminarayan IAS a well wisher of our ashram and KO VE PUBLIC CHARITABLE TRUST.
The students are looked after by a junior and a senior warden. During their stay here they are inculcated good values in life.
PARENT TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
The parents and teachers meet at least once in a term where the teachers explain various problems. They face with the students and how the parents can help them to solve. Similarly a cross section of parents comes forward and explains the problem they face. The meetings help to resolve many problems.
More than that the individual class teacher meets each and every student with their parents on “one to one basis” and discusses all aspects of their children. This helps to bring out various issues concerning the problems of their children like health problem, the economic problem they face the performance of their children and the concerned teachers along with the HM and management. We try to help them wherever possible.
For example if the student faces any health related problem due help is given. These sessions help in identifying the talents hidden in them and guide then suitably. In addition we try to follow then over 2 or 3 years by posting the same class teacher.
We have a student’s council where each class chooses its representative. One for boys and another for girls. They constitute students council. The council chooses its student president and secretaries. They meet once in a term and inform the school committee thorough two or three designated teachers who guide them and all their suggestion and grievances with regard to academics and various facilities provided in the school are taken care off. The class representatives help in maintaining discipline in the class room and see that needed facilities are maintained properly. Students during their stay in the ashram are exposed to various service activities and during national celebrations. Our teachers along with groups of students visit the neighboring villages and take part in various activities. We stress awareness on good health, hygiene and sanitation. We conduct Bhajans and perform dramas.
There is regular interaction between the teachers with the president of the ashram with regard to all activities in person or through Skype.
