Schools for Auroville

Kindergarten

Started in 1984, the Kindergarten today provides for 46 children in four groups. About half these children are Tamilians, though ten other nationalities are also represented. The coordinating team consists of 7 main teachers and assistant teachers plus 5 specialized teachers for music, Sanskrit song, swimming and body awareness.

In the rhythm of the day, the Kindergarten alternates between rigorous activity and quiet activity, directed activity and free choice activity. The aim is to develop the whole child, their concentration and each of the senses, while at the same time keeping a balance between meeting the needs of the child and meeting the needs of the group. Children have opportunities for self-expression and the exploration of their own interests, but at the same time they are expected to be considerate toward others, to respect the environment, to participate and to share. The children learn in English, but all children are also taught Tamil and French plus songs in Sanskrit.

Deepanam School

The school started in May 2000, when a group of people interested in and experienced in education took over the premises of the former Mirramukhi School. After some changes, the school began operating in July 2000 with around 30 children from 2½ to 12 years of age, divided into 5 groups. The present coordinating team includes 8 permanent full time teachers, and several others who come for specific classes.

As part of the educational approach, the school places special emphasis on artistic education, in addition to the usual formal curriculum. Subjects such as painting, music, dance, singing, drama and gardening are considered as important as any other daily activities. It is also Deepanam's aim to have the four key languages mentioned by The Mother implemented at all levels. With this in mind the bigger children are already studying Tamil, Sanskrit, English and French, and the smaller ones are exposed to the same languages, though they are too small to have regular classes.

Last School

Located near Aspiration community, Last School is a middle/high school which has existed in Auroville since the year 1985. Students are in the age group 12 (sometimes younger) to 18 years and above. The school is open 5 days a week from Monday to Friday, during which students are required to maintain a full timetable. They are also expected to follow some physical education activity after class on all school days.

Education is based on the method that the Mother called 'Free Progress'. The spirit of this approach demands that the school organisation and programmes be as diverse and supple as possible to remain plastic enough to respond to each student's line of progress. The main object of this method is to help the adolescent find that part of himself that can then take up his own education. Last School's educational process wants to develop the students' faculties of the mind, the powers of the will, the refinement of the aesthetic and emotional being, and build all of this upon a strong and balanced physical being. There is an attempt to address each of these elements of the youth's psychological nature as consciously as possible. The teacher's task is to suggest, not impose, and a broad process of consultation is fundamental to the school's approach.

The programme available covers languages (the 4 mentioned by Mother to Auroville, plus others); literature and poetry; the pure sciences and mathematics; the social sciences (history, geography, economics, philosophy); and the arts - on which there is a special insistence and considerable interest among the students.

The students need to be self motivated, and can - if they wish - be involved in the decision-making process and changes affecting the school, since their opinion and feedback is very much respected.

Super School

Since some years there has been discussion on the next steps beyond high school level education. It was concluded that the name 'Super School' which is part of Mother's list of four names  lent itself very well to the higher education component that had still to be created and which would then be the Aurovilian equivalent of college level study. Such a higher education programme has now been in existence from the past 2 years. It is at present situated in, and is partially a part of, the Last School free progress experience even though it has its own particular approach and identity.

It is at the super school stage that students are more and more linked to the larger collectivity through field trainings, apprenticeships and other work and study experiences which may be available through people and units of Auroville. The programme is still in a stage of exploration and all its elements have not yet fully emerged, but already it is seeding Auroville with new approaches to education as well as distributing within Auroville some unique learning-teaching material.

Super school is a school where the subjects are of the higher levels of human thought and action and are treated in a holistic manner. The programme is pursued at a 'super' level and at a 'super' or accelerated speed. The aim is to 'summarise' the human past so quickly that one can have all the energies to pursue the development of the future. This requires a great deal of 'schooling'. Super School prepares the being to enter into 'No School' which is the condition when the instrumental nature is fit to pursue on its own integral growth so as to create the four-fold personality spoken of by Sri Aurobindo: i.e. in the domains of wisdom, heroism, harmony, skill in works.