Jaykrishna Kayal has founded a primary school in his home village near Kolkata.
He himself grew up in poor circumstances. With the help of hard work, he managed to get a good school education and a job with the West Bengal government. As a student, he started to set up an evening school in his village and taught himself at weekends. In the beginning there was only a straw hut, but now there is a two-storey building with sanitary facilities and a well.
Almost all students belong to the Scheduled Castas and Muslim community, the economically and educationally weaker sections oft he society and a good number oft hem are first generation school comer. They are selected once in a year only for lower preparatory stage on basis of vicinity of their residence to he school.
Mr Kayal works selflessly to improve the curriculum and teaching methods.
The school follows the state-prescribed curriculum. In addition, other courses such as painting, dancing and music take place regularly during school hours. The aim is to make the school hours as enjoyable as possible and to interest the pupils in other areas. They can also take part in extracurricular courses such as writing, storytelling, debating, cultural events and much more.
The schol is aimed at achieving an all-round manifestaion of children’s mind through a balanced growth of their merit and human quality. It has been following a method of teaching which is based mostly on conception. Instead of simply memorizing a lesson, students are guided to understand it and express their mind through group discussions amongst themselves. Optimum attention and care is extended to indiviudla students through division of classes into small sections.
The Vivekananda Shisusiksha Kendra School enjoys a very good reputation and now has 20 teachers and around 400 students.
Project partner: Gramonnayan Milan Samity
Funding year: since 2013
Project no.: 16-13