Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram, Chennai

Managed by the Chennai kendra (branch) of the Mumbai-based Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, BRV offers an excellent environment for academic achievement and exposure to Indian values and culture

Located on a sprawling 5.5 acre campus in Kilpauk, an upscale residential area in the heart of Chennai city, the CBSE-affiliated K-12 Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram (BRV, estb.1977) is managed by the Chennai kendra (branch) of the Mumbai-based Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB), a charitable public trust founded by eminent philosopher and freedom fighter Dr. K.M. Munshi in 1938. Today BVB manages 78 K-12 schools across the country.

The spacious campus of BRV was donated to BVB Chennai in 1972 by V.  Pattabiraman, former vice-chairman of the Chennai kendra and a great promoter of cricket in Tamil Nadu. Since then, this culturally rooted co-ed school with an aggregate enrolment of 3,200 students and 156 teachers, has striven to provide an ideal environment for academic achievement and exposure to Indian culture, values and traditions.

“Our students are schooled to acquire a modern global outlook while taking pride in India’s cultural heritage. Though we value academic excellence, the greater emphasis is on holistic education and  development of our students through integration of co-curricular and extra- curricular activities, club activities and a full-fledged sports programme. We pride ourselves on having a good team of teachers committed to mentoring students to develop as leaders and responsible citizens of society,” says J. Ajeeth Prasath Jain, senior principal of the school. A maths postgrad of Madras University and education graduate of Annamalai University, Jain began his academic career as principal of the Teacher Training Institute in Dindi-vanam, before joining BRV in 1985 as a maths teacher. He was appointed principal in 2000 and senior principal in 2005.

Testimony of the management’s commitment to co-curricular education is provided by high achieving students who have consistently bagged medals and trophies in several city, state and national level competitions. In the year 2010-11, the school boasted 12 gold medal winners in the Informatics Olympiad; a champion student in the 10th All India UCMAS and several outstanding performers in art and craft, drawing, music, Bhagavad Gita chanting, veena recital, oratorical contests, essay writing, quiz, spelling bee, debates and other activities. The BRV Yi Net (Young Indians — a Confederation of Indian Industry initiative for students) was adjudged the second best Yi Net in the country, and the school won the national award for its ‘adopt a neighbourhood’ project. Moreover in the Design for Change School Contest 2010, the school’s entry was adjudged among the top 20.

Likewise BRV has nurtured a plethora of champions at the state, national and international levels in volleyball, football, tennis, swimming, skating, basketball, athletics, handball, cricket, sailing, squash, chess and carom. The school’s roller skating champion K. Aarathy has won 97 medals in various national and international skating events; Lakshmi Chidambaram, a class III student bagged the Asian title in chess in the under-seven category (2010-11) and V. Kiran Raj of class III came second in the All India Karate Championship (2010-11).

“We accord great importance to sports education which instills positive values such as discipline, responsibility and accountability in students. But at the same time our teachers work hard to ensure that young extra-curricular achievers don’t neglect academics by conducting remedial classes and separate exams for them,” says Jain.

Evidently the BRV management’s belief in mens sana in corpore sano (healthy mind needs healthy body) is paying off. In the CBSE class X and XII exams of 2011, the school recorded impressive cent percent results. Of the 214 students who wrote the class X exam, 28 scored a perfect 10 points, 57 students 9.00-9.9, and 68 students 8.00-8.9 points. And of the 134 students who wrote the CBSE’s class XII school leaving exam, 26 percent passed in the first class with 108 students awarded distinction.

“We follow activity and project based teaching, and the classroom experience is supplemented with multimedia education in three well-equipped audio-visual rooms. We also periodically test online to assess learning outcomes of all children, with the results shared with teachers to identify students’ weak areas and take remedial action,” says Jain.

BRV’s academic and extra-curricular education endeavours are supported by excellent infrastructure. The school’s main ground plus-three-storey structure is equipped with separate computer labs for primary, middle and senior secondary schools with 30 personal computers in each lab; three audio visual rooms; an online testing centre equipped with over 40 computers; a well-stocked library with 16,000 books and 30 journal subscriptions; air conditioned staff rooms; a primary science lab; three science labs for middle and senior secondary students; language lab and math labs; and a 800-seat auditorium to conduct cultural events.

Even more impressive is the sports infrastructure of the school which includes a huge playground, net practice for cricket, four volleyball courts, a basketball court, two spacious squash courts, a badminton court and a room for chess and carrom. Professional coaches mentor students after school hours in several sports.

Nevertheless Jain believes that this 33-year-old school is a work in progress. “We plan to add two more audio visual rooms, improve math and science education and add archery to our long list of sports activities. We have signed a partnership agreement with Nokia to integrate technology in education with Pearson Longman  providing the content. We believe in aiming high and hope to be acknowledged as one of the best schools in the country in the near future,” he says.

And from the way things are shaping for this culturally rooted K-12 school offering holistic integrated education, that’s an eminently attainable objective.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)