In an age and time when schools are all about fear, rote learning, marks and medals, it is refreshingly thought-provoking to find an institution that believes in propagating learning through freedom of thought and expression. The Children’s Garden School Society has indeed endured the test of time and has remained a name to reckon with despite the colossal change that the education scenario has undergone.
The school, which celebrated its Platinum Jubilee on September 7, was founded in 1937 as a small kindergarten with just seven students by Dr VN Sharma and Ellen Sharma. It has today grown to strength of over 3,000 students and 275 staff members.
R Seshasayee, Executive Vice Chairman, Ashok Leyland Ltd was the chief guest at the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations and Honourable Justice V Ramasubramanian, Judge, High Court, Madras presided over the function. They were garlanded by the school children and presented with mementos.
Students and eminent personalities, who also included the school’s alumni, planted 76 saplings to commemorate the years the schools has been serving the community. The occasion also saw a music recital by the Priya Sisters and a veena recital by Punya Srinivas.
Since the beginning, the school’s strong focus has been on providing free and subsidised high quality education, books, health-care, accommodation, food and clothing to countless underprivileged children. Way ahead of its times, it introduced inclusive education for ‘special challenged children’ in the early 1940’s.
According to School Correspondent and former headmistress Sakunthala Sharma, who took over the running of the school after her mother Ellen’s retirement, , the challenge now is to blend the use of electronic and other teaching aids with traditional methods.
“Children should explore the world not only through technology but through practical, hands-on methods which have stood the test of time and which together will enable holistic cognitive development,” she said.
During the celebrations, the school announced the launch of alumni channels including a teacher’s channel for alumni to voluntarily teach underprivileged children, a health channel for alumni who have become doctors to participate in medical camps, besides a creative channel, knowledge and values channel and an infrastructure channel.
The Annapoorni Teacher Prize, which is a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh for student excellence was also announced on the occasion.
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