Update on Kuyilappalayam School Trust

School with 540 students

In a rural area where up till now literally only a handful of people has been able to study beyond High School level, and where many remained uneducated and illiterate (specially women) throughout their lives, the Kuyilappalayam School Trust has grown from scratch in 1993 to a High School in 2002 with presently 540 students ranging from 3 till 16 years old.

Exceptionally high results

Since 1997, five batches of students have finished their 10th standard S.S.L.C. exams which is everywhere recognised in Tamil Nadu and India. They all passed 'first class' with more than 60% marks (in India you pass with 35 %). In June 2002, of the 8 boys and 8 girls that went for the test, the lowest got 67% average and the highest (a girl from Edaiyanchavadi) got 93 %.

The students come from Kuyilappalayam, Bommaiyarpalayam, Edaiyanchavadi, Chinna Mudaliar Chavadi, Kottakarai, all villages in the direct vicinity of the township, and even further away. It is evident that the teachers are all dedicated and well qualified, including the ones for music, sports and classical dance. Some come all the way daily from as far as Villapuram (some 40 kms south-west of Auroville).

New developments

• A long lease for an additional 2.6 acres of land brings the total are of the school to 6.75 acres with which we fulfill the government condition for minimum area for a school from kindergarten all the way up to 12th standard.

• In June 2002 we'll start with an 11th standard group and may become a Higher Secondary School. This will help a lot of students who until now were forced to go to expensive schools far away which are not necessarily always good schools. (Additional bureaucratic hurdles like often non-existing birth & nativity certificates required for further schooling have stopped 60% of our local students despite their good marks; we can be helpful with this in future.)

We will start with four streams:

1. math, physics, chemistry and computer science
2. math, physics, chemistry and biology
3. physics, chemistry, botany, zoology and
4. business math, commerce, accountancy, economics

• Also in June '02 we open our second location campus on a stretch of Auroville land close to the village of Bommaiyarpalayam, see separate page.

• We got donations for a big school bus, as we have now two school locations and many small children from different villages. Also, to get a better choice of teachers, it is good to be able to pick them up from various bus stands.

• We are a Tamil medium school, but are now putting additional emphasis on English by starting to communicate with the children in English from Kindergarten onwards.

Acknowledgements

All this is only possible because of the original initiative of various Aurovilians and friends, the unceasing efforts of a number of dedicated teachers and staff, and, importantly, the financial support from especially Palmyra with the German DIK organisation as well as the Austrian OIK.

KST has now 6 trustees of which 4 are Aurovilians.

Contact: guna@auroville.org.in  or anton@auroville.org.in