The one where it all began!

Know more about Shikshayatan Middle School

Free World-Class Education

Shikshayatan Middle School, from where QuadSeek has been originated, was started by M.R Raghavan and Aruna Raghavan on August 15th 1994. It is state of the art school that provides free world-class education to labourers’ children. Children work in an environment of freedom and joy, learning without pressure and at their own pace, without fear of home-work and examinations.

It is a free State Board school for the children of Arasavanangkadu (AVK) and other villages. AVK is 8km from Thiruvarur, Tamilnadu.

Other than learning the school provides food, books, stationery, art materials, uniform, field trips and charges no fees for this.

About Shikshayatan

The children come from our own village and from the neighbourhood. We take on even brain injured children because we believe in the efficacy of the system. After two years with us, people are hard put to find the child in a group of normal children. Of course this is especially true when the child comes to us as early as two years of age.

The Knowledge

The school is a project model to show how the system can be put to optimal use.

  • Our children have a wide understanding of the world.
  • They can add, subtract mentally up to 20 at the UKG (age 4 – 5 years).
  • Children who are in the third standard and have come through this method, are able to write compositions and short, imaginative stories of their own.
  • They read English and Tamil with equal ease.
  • They are able to read non fictional, essays and writings (‘Kalki’ Krishnamurthy, OASwaminathan, Vandu Mama’s books in science) and understand and write answers of their own.
  • They read and refer to encyclopaedias for children and can write short compositions.
  • They are ahead in math too and are working on the fourth or fifth standard math depending on the topic.
  • Our children (now in other local high schools) have scored more than 80% in the SSLC board exams. They are pursuing further studies. They are all readers and read fiction in English and Tamil (Gerald Durrell, Victor Hugo, K.M.Munshi, Kalki and Bharatiyaar…)

Why are we doing this?

Obviously there is a great void in the process of education today. The physical growth is not focussed on except to ‘look beautiful’. The need for the physical to be trained; that the physical is the ‘servant of the mind’ and will work as is expected of it is a concept that is rarely inculcated in the children.. The mental growth – we consider all languages, math and other subjects as part of mental growth of a child – is given great importance. However, the complementary growth of understanding and thinking is again given a miss. The emotional is hardly touched upon. Even the new jargon – emotional intelligence – talks of emotions as though removed from what one does or learns. To take an example, the third standard text talks of storms as ‘destructive’. Storms destroy, true, but what about what causes storms and what is released in the process. And finally the spiritual – which integrates all the other three to make a whole person.

Perfect emotions + perfect associations + perfect memory = creativity / a thinking mind.

We wished to take these ideas of the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Pondicherry) and see if we could truly educate the kids.

Our single criterion is that the children are happy. All of them are extremely happy coming to school. We can also say confidently that our children enjoy the learning process, that they are the least destructive of children and that we are making an impact in the village through them. The children are natural leaders in their own ‘streets’.

The Village

We came to Arasavanagkadu (Tiruvarur District) in December ’93 to make advance payment for the land and moved to the village in March ’94. We built a small house in the campus and moved in, end June. August 15th, we began the school in a small open thatched shed.

We did miss our people and listening to many languages. It was tough with reference to the village reaction the first few years. When we started school in ’94, we requested permission of the panchayat to light up the road to the school which they refused. Today we are accepted enough for the people to bring poles, ensure electrical connection and generally take care of the school properties.

We’ve taken to writing texts that are used in the schools we have helped start; we expect to make an impact in all the nearby schools with the mobile laboratory coming in. Each day brings its own lot of challenges and meeting them is fun.

The Facilities at Shikshayatan

  • The school has a library containing around 50,000 books at the preschool and primary level.
  • AV facility where children’s films are screened every week.
  • Science labs
  • A language laboratory.
  • Innovative self made teaching and learning materials with handbooks to guide teacher.
  • More than 60 computers used in Computer Lab, Language Lab, Library, teachers, AV room, science labs etc for around 200 children.
  • A large playground with expert coaching facilities for martial art, Cricket, Table tennis and Yoga.
  • A separate play area for younger kids.
  • An outdoor hall with a stage for kids to perform during annual day and play in during summer and rains.
  • A dedicated art room.
  • Teacher student ratio of 1:10 with only 20 children per class.
  • A laboratory/library on wheels that can be taken to other primary and middle schools in the area.
  • The mobile lab is also equipped with a computer with multimedia and a video – TV to screen educational films.
  • A video section where children’s films are screened every week.
  • We have created a complete teaching kit ourselves.
  • It is accompanied by a teacher’s hand book that gives details on how to use the materials. The kit is being used in all the schools that have adopted our system.
  • Teacher student ratio of 1:10 with only 20 children per class.
  • A separate play area for younger kids.

Linda Ceriello ( Seattle, Washington USA)

I feel so lucky that fortune guided me to come to India and to be here at your most wonderful school, specifically! I could not have even dreamed of being able to visit a school that so closely resembles the idea of my own educational philosophies. Your children are loved, respected, honoured as special beings, they are free to learn according to their own dictates (free in movement and mind) and so obviously joyful to be a part of the learning community. It is an amazing thing to see the bright light in their eyes. I had a lot of fun talking to them about USA, its geography and about schools in the US, teaching them songs and playing with them. I would love to come back again. The kids are absolutely delightful and all the teachers are warm and welcoming. What a wonderful atmosphere of living and learning! You have my admiration and respect, as a fellow “steward of young people” for the work that you do. Best wishes for continued success; spreading the gospel of alternative learning until it is no longer “alternative”

Dr. C Sylendra Babu, Inspector General of Police

I am amazed at the type of school that Shikshayatan is. It is an entirely different concept of learning by doing. What is more amazing is that the service rendered by Mr Raghavan and Mrs Aruna. It seems that they have dedicated their lives for the welfare of the people and depressed children of this village. I am sure if a few more people in the country establish schools like this, India will definitely become a superpower. I like to congratulate Mrs Aruna and Mr Raghavan and wish them well.

Shikshayatan,
II/197, Anugriha, Arasavanangkadu, Tiruvarur District, Tamil Nadu 612
603

Gallery

An Exclusive glimpse into our Shikshayatan Middle School.