Rishi valley education centre school-A Gurukul approach

Introduction

Rishi Valley School is an Indian boarding school, founded by the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (establishment year-1926). Rishi Valley School is dedicated to drawing the phlosopher J. Krishnamurti's challenging vision of education into the daily transactions and practices of a school situated in the Indian countryside. The purpose, the aim and drive of these schools, is to equip the child with the most excellent technological proficiency so that the student may function with clarity and efficiency in the modern world.

A far more important purpose than this is to create the right climate and environment so that the child may develop fully as a complete human being. This means giving the child the opportunity to flower in goodness so that he or she is rightly related to people, things and ideas, to the whole of life. To live is to be related. There is no right relationship to anything if there is not the right feeling for beauty, a response to nature, to music and art - a highly developed aesthetic sense.

More specific goals of the educational philosophy of Rishi Valley School are:

• • To educate students so that they are able to explore both the world and their inner being

  • To inculcate a love for nature and respect for all forms of life

  • To create an atmosphere of affection, order and freedom without either fear or license

  • Not to condition the students in any particular belief, either religious, political or social, so that their minds may remain free to ask fundamental questions, enquire and learn.

Activities

Material for Science education

Exploring Science takes an activity-based approach to science teaching. Students learn from first-hand experiences in their local environment. They develop the skills of systematic observation and analysis, using easily available, low cost material. The booklets and workbooks for classes six and seven interweave physics, chemistry, biology and environmental science. The material is available in both Telugu and English. The Telugu material can be downloaded from this website(http://www.rishivalley.org/rvite/The_materia_in_Telugu.html). The books in English can be ordered from the Rishi Valley Education Centre.

General studies

A General Studies Programme for Class 11 is designed to extend students' intellectual horizon and acquaint them with the neighbouring world of marginal farmers, shepherds and daily wage earners. Students teach in the Rural Education Centre, visit villages and work in the Outpatient Clinic.

Biology

Biology students of classes 11 & 12 are involved in various projects relating to collecting data, assessing the nutritional and health status, looking at living conditions and economic status of surrounding rural communities.

Wellness

Fitness

Sports and games facilities include three leveled fields and several courts. Major Field games like cricket and football, as well as throwball, basketball, tennis and badminton are taught and played. Regular physical exercise is conducted in the morning, and an annual athletics meet provides a focus for the development of athletic prowess and talent. However, school do not take part in any organized competitive inter-school sports.

Cultural activities

Senior boys and girls enjoy an evening of western folk-dancing on the weekends.

Student cultural activities include: classical Indian dance (Bharatnatyam), Carnatic music, Mridangam, Violin, Tablaand Piano. Many important Indian artists have performed in Rishi Valley including M.L. Vasanthakumari (Carnatic musician), Amjad Ali Khan (Hindustani musician), Nikhil Banerjee (Sitar musician), Palghat Mani Iyer (Mridangam musician), and Bombay Jayashree (Carnatic musician).

School structure

Campus

Main Campus

Main campus of Rishi Valley is situated about 16 kilometres North of Madanapalle in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh.

Sister institution

School's sister institutions are at Bangalore, Madras and Varanasi.

School session

The school term begins on June 15.

The school year is divided into two four-month terms: June 15 to October 15 and December 1 to March 31.

STUDENT RESIDENCES

There are around 20 small hostels - which we prefer to call houses - each of which accommodates a number ranging anywhere between 12 to 22 students. Boys and girls belonging to classes 4 live together with older girls of classes 6 and 7 in the same house. Older boys and girls live in separate houses, usually with a mixed-age of two classes living side by side.

Members of the teaching staff, who live in staff quarters within a house, act as house-parents. Life in the houses is meant to develop the values of co-operation, self-restraint, and sharing. The interaction between teachers and students outside the classroom is considered a very important part of living and learning at Rishi Valley. The school does not have a system of house or class prefects; no student has authority over another.

In this ambience, students generally relate to each other in a friendly and accepting manner, with younger ones not afraid of the older ones. We like to think of the school community in terms of a large, extended family.

Junior school

The Junior School, which includes a preparatory section for campus children and classes 4, 5 and 6, is contiguous with the Middle School, which consists of classes 7 and 8. These are housed together in the same of complex of buildings and share the facilities of an open assembly hall, a well-stocked library, science laboratories and a mathematics-cum-computer laboratory. There are also audio-visual facilities, a yoga-cum-activity room and commodious sports facilities for cricket, tennis and football.

Apart from large, airy classrooms with 20 to 25 students, there are a variety of other contexts for learning that include outdoor spaces and field visits to different parts of the campus and the valley, as well as village visits. Knowledge-based learning is combined with a wide exposure to nature and to the social reality that surrounds the school.

Evaluation is based on classroom observations and written assignments; it is supplemented with periodic tests until class 7. By the second term of class 8 students receive marked evaluation of their tests.

Senior school

In the senior school the educational programme shifts in its emphasis towards preparation of students in the syllabus for the ICSE (at the end of class 10) examinations. Students take an internally administered cumulative exam for the first time at the end of class 9.

The academic curriculum is balanced by arts and crafts, dramatics, sports and participation in a variety of clubs ranging from journalism, to astronomy and chess. Participation in other work of the centre such as afforestation, rural health, and rural education is also encouraged and organized. Students are also encouraged to research topics of their interest and present these at morning assemblies. Assemblies, student-council meetings and specially convened staff-student meetings are forums where discussion and debate over issues of concern in the school community or in the world are encouraged.

Evaluation for all students in the senior school is based on a series of written assignments and tests, apart from project work and classroom observations. The reports contain comments and suggestions on formatted report forms, along with a qualitative achievement grade.

Admission procedure

The school follows the ICSE board for the ninth and tenth grades and the ISC for the eleventh and twelfth grades. The school accepts students from the fourth through the twelfth grades (ages nine–eighteen).

The entry points into the School are classes IV, VI and VII, at the ages 8+, 10+ and 11+ respectively. School do not normally admit children into classes higher than class VII and we do not have classes lower than class IV. Admissions into classes V, VIII and IX are typically considered only when there are withdrawals of students from these classes.

School register only children who are at least seven years old. Parents need to apply during the year prior to the academic year for which they seek admission for their wards.

Correspondence regarding admissions for an academic year commencing in mid-June of a particular year will be considered only between 1st August and 30th November of the preceding year.

The registered children are invited for a formal test and interview, typically conducted in February/March of each year. The written tests are in English and Mathematics only. There is also an oral interview at which the parents or guardians are expected to be present. The tests conducted are meant to assess the child's aptitude, comprehension capacity, computational skills and so on; they are of a fairly general nature and there is no prescribed syllabus as such. The standard of the test would correspond approximately with that of the class the child has just completed.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi_Valley_School

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiEzdS3maLY

http://www.rvs.org:8080/aboutrvs/brochure3.html

http://www.rishivalley.org/rvite/overview_science.html

http://www.rishivalley.org/rvite/Apr%2010_Eng_sample_pdfs/Class%207/Class%207_Water-Workbook_English.pdf

http://www.rishivalley.org/rvite/Apr%2010_Eng_sample_pdfs/Class%206/Class%206_01-Leaves_Workbook_English.pdf

http://www.rishivalley.org/school/admissions_notice.htm