Admissions to the new 
divisions are already complete
Says Laxmi Subramoniam, principal of the school, "The management felt the need to start a full-fledged English school because most Gujarati parents are keen to educate their children at English-medium schools. But most of them also want their kids to understand their culture and be familiar with their mother tongue. That's why many prefer to admit their wards in our school."
According to her, the new school will also ease the pressure on the old school. She says, "Right now we are working in a shift system where English-medium students attend school in the morning and Gujarati-medium students attend the afternoon session. Also, since we are the oldest Gujarati school in the locality, there are about 2,500 students in the Gujarati section. This automatically takes a toll on the space and other resources.
"So three years ago the management decided to build on the land we had retained for an English-medium school. We also acquired an adjacent strip of land that was in the custody of the Collector. Since we had the initial funding we began the work on April 19, 2002," informs Subramoniam.
She claims that the new school has all the latest facilities that are essential for the right academic grounding for a child. "The classrooms are large and airy and can accommodate 55 students at a time. But we are only enrolling 45 in a class so that we can maintain the quality of teaching," says Subramoniam.
"Admissions to the new divisions are already complete. Right now we have moved only the nursery classrooms to the new building. At the beginning of the new academic year, the English section will operate from the new school. But we still need people to come forward and help us with the funds to set up the library and other rooms."
Says Dilip Ravani, one of the secretaries of the Trust, "The Trust works for the benefit of the community. We began the construction on the new building with help from the Trust. We approached generous people in our community and ex-students who are now doing extremely well in business or their professions." Ravani says that during the bhoomi pujan they had devised a scheme for donation.
As per the scheme, the school was named after the person who donates the maximum amount of money. Also, people who sponsored the nursery, secondary and other sections of the school will have those areas named after them. They could also sponsor classrooms or furniture. He says, "Apart from these, we also have donation slips of Rs 5,000 for people who want to contribute in a smaller way."
saroj@mid-day.com
