Students taught in the lap of nature

adapting ancient, modern methods

T R Sathish Kumar, DHNS, Mysuru,

Jan 29 2020, 21:52 ist
updated: Jan 29 2020, 22:42 ist

Students involved in adventure sports at Purna Chetana Public School, in Mysuru.

It is education in the lap of nature at Purna Chetana Public School, situated on a sprawling 15 acre farmland, home to over 2,500 trees and many species of birds.

The school, affiliated to CBSE, is an initiative of Purna Chetana Trust to provide affordable and quality education. It was established in 2013 by Dr Vidyasagar and Dr Rajini, now managed by B Darshan Raj as CEO and Maadhurya Ramaswamy as CAO.

The school believes that every child is a prodigy and is blessed with remarkable intelligence. By adopting a combination of best of both ancient and modern methods, efforts are made to build a community of life-long learners and responsible global citizens.

The school’s philosophy is that the natural world is a giant, open-end, learning laboratory. Children are innate scientists and love to experience the sights, scents, sounds, and textures of the outdoors. Nature provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, problem-solving, and STEM education. In nature, children think, question, and make hypotheses — thereby developing inquisitive minds.

Skills

To prepare the children for the challenges the world may pose, the school imparts skill-based education for self-sustainability. It promotes creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, social ethos, ethical decision making, and inquisitiveness. Farming and Ayurveda are part of the curriculum. The students grow paddy, vegetables and a few fruits.

Academics through art

Purna Chetana has come up with TATA — Teaching Academics Through Art — a teaching methodology, wherein concepts in textbooks are taught using art, activity or experiment. The focus is on collaboration, instead of competition.

Fear Factor

Purna Chetana Public School is India’s first school to have an in-house adventure theme park Fear Factor’ as the role of sports is enormous in a child’s overall development. Fear Factor is spread on two acres of land and has 30 adventure rope courses (both low-level and high-level), mud racing track, rain dance area and traditional gaming zone.