A Successful Model for Indian Language Schools – Sri Rama Vidyakendra

rIt was a last minute invitation from my friend Balkrishna Bhandari that led me to Kalladka near Mangaluru for the annual sports event of Sri Rama Vidyakendra, a Kannada medium school about 30 kilometres from this famous city in Southern Karnataka.



Before the spectacular evening program of Annual Sports Day was unveiled, the visitors from outside were taken around the primary school classes to showcase their training methodology and the learnings imbibed by the young children.

Many of the training methodologies for nursery students and primary students were quite different from the instruments and gadgets used from what we see in elite schools with the kind of results that the new age schools strive to give. They were typically traditional Bharatiya learning tools.




Young preschool students are allowed to do chores that they wish to but are not allowed to do at home. These very activities train them in using their faculties – physical and mental very well. Their lessons begin with folding the yoga mat after doing simple yoga. They sweep and mop the floor. They are shown a vegetable or fruit in school to be brought from home (there is no note for the parents). They are then allowed to cut and chop vegetables, clean rice or lentils, use them to learn measures by pouring them into glasses and cups. Various simple wooden gadgets are used to explain to them the idea of length, width, height, matching shapes, learning basic arithmetic from those traditional wooden gadgets, threading a bead through big holes and progressively smaller ones and so on. They do puja, blow conch, all on their own. We were assured that not one child has got injured while using knife, nor have any instrument or even Conch shell has been broken due to mishandling by children.




We were welcomed by KG students in Sanskrit, then we heard standard I students reciting Geeta from memory and students of standard IV enacting the famous Panchatantra story of the thirsty crow in Sanskrit in an enjoyable manner. The primary classes are organised in cottage like structures where around 600 students study. Their games are innovative, they have a splash pool too.



The seniors’ school is a simple no-frills, non-airconditioned building. The school has 3500 students. Yes, it is not an experimental small school, but full-fledged big school founded in 1980. The school has been nurtured by Dr Prabhakar Bhat, a MD by qualification, who left his medical practice to get into education as a life mission. He was a senior RSS office bearer before he took this leap of faith.

While we were digesting the success of this innovative school, we were taken to the grounds for a display of the prowess of the students in other aspects of education that the school excels in. Frankly speaking, I never expected a school sports day to be such a huge event. The temporary stands were packed with thousands of parents and well-wishers who had come all the way from Mangaluru and 22 villages from where the students come. It is a day school with a huge playground.



The programme was unbelievably professional, performances were fascinating, breath-taking and thrilling. It was organised with clock-work precision where not a moment was wasted, smallest of the details were minutely planned. The simple looking humble teachers were full in command with their pupils enthusiastically out to make them proud.



The scope the ‘show’ was varied that it lasted three hours of wonderful excitement with “what next” anticipation. The military music band for parade that was an ensemble of hundreds of students (may be more than a thousand), the yogasana drills, para-military parades with stunts that you see in professional army and applaud, traditional martial arts like Malkhamb, Niyuddha (based on Kalarippayattu – the Indian martial arts that gave birth to martial arts in China, Japan etc), dare devil stunts by both boys and girls on cycles, bikes and with fire, scintillating dances, and highly imaginatively done formations, throbbing drums and kirtanas – you name it and it was there. From youngest of the child, to the senior boys and girls everyone participated.




I would dare say that it was at par with any national or international opening or closing ceremony of Asian games and similar events. The awe-inspiring part was that the entire event was not organised by any professional event management company with trained artists, but one ‘desi’ high school, managed by teachers and students. You will find here some short videos and a few pictures from my poor camera phone, shot in the dark evening. Such is the popularity of this event that CM of Karnataka Mr Bommai was present along with 4 state ministers and scores of visitors from Mumbai and other areas to watch it. This event took place after 2 years of Covid enforced restrictions.
The introduction on its website says the institution is determined “to inculcate national thought along with developing physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual potential of the students, with humane values.” Looking at the results, we can surely say that Dr Prabhakar Bhat with his selfless team of educationists, karyakartas, teachers and well-wishers has been able to translate this vision in action. The school has added higher education to its portfolio and constructed a new building for it.

I would urge educationists and volunteer organisations in education field to find time to visit this school and learn age old ideas and, may be, unlearn some set ideas about what constitutes a good school and educational model. For more details, please feel free to visit their website - http://srvk.org/institutions/