Newly formed trust plans to revive century-old govt school

Alumni come together to save alma mater from closure

The alumni of a century-old Government Higher Primary School at Chelairu in Surathkal are all set to revive it and run it along the lines of the Delhi government school.

The school is facing a threat of closure following poor admission of students. Upon realising this, old students Sudhakar Shetty and 14 others wrote to the government not to close down the school.

Shetty in the letter had also expressed their desire to form a trust and run the school. No sooner did the government give its permission to run the school, than the alumni launched a trust a few days ago.

The trust has chalked out innovative programmes to attract students to the school. It has decided to start LKG/UKG with English medium by appointing adequate teachers.

On why they embarked on a journey to revive a school, Sudhakar Shetty said, "My father had served in the same school as a teacher. I too studied in the same school."

To ensure that the school is not closed down forever, we have chalked out new programmes, he said.

"We approached cyber security expert Dr Ananth Prabhu who has shared with us suggestions like running the school on the lines of Delhi model of government schools, that had set a benchmark in the country," said Shetty.

"We have decided to bring in a lot of changes in the school in the next year. We will visit households and appeal to parents to enrol their children at our school," he said.

"Dr Prabhu has given suggestions on learning management system, SMS alert based attendance system, installation of CCTV cameras, organic vegetable garden, pure drinking water with water bells, clean toilet facilities, regular counselling and coaching sessions for students and parents, mid-day nutritious meal, school bus transportation with GPS facility, setting up a STEM lab, AR VR enabled smart classrooms, computer and coding lab, training in yoga and others," he added.

Already, 20 children have enrolled for the first standard, he revealed.

In a Facebook post, Dr Prabhu said that education will be free for all. Books, uniforms and stationery will be provided for free.

"Changes will be ushered in from next year. Donors have come forward to donate computers and other facilities to the school," Sudhakar Shetty said with a smile.