BENGALURU: Prarthana Education Society, which began functioning 14 years ago and has been consistently building on its strengths and expanding, is a result of a resolve of writer and journalist Ravi Belagere, to uplift the society through quality education at an affordable cost. Following his footsteps, Karna Belagere, his son who holds an MA in education from the University of Birmingham is steering the growth of the society and ensuring that the objectives set by his father are met with, exceeding expectation of parents as well as students. He speaks to City Express about the school and the future plans of the society.
What are the strengths of your school?
We started the Prarthana school under the society with 350 students and had limited it to just nursery education. When my father started the school, the quality of education in the Padmanabhanagar area was bare minimum. Even today there are not many upper middle class families residing in the area. So, our strength has been our fee structure which is very transparent, affordable and there is no donation at all. The fee includes bags and books too. And we have Smartboards from Educomp in 195 classes in the whole school. Over the last 10 years, the school’s popularity has grown exponentially resulting in a total strength of 8000 students.
As a result, the challenge was space constraints to accommodate all children without compromising on essential aspects of education. So, today we have occupied seven buildings in the area offering nursery to Xth standard with both CBSE and State syllabus. In fact, one building is solely for State syllabus.
Why is it that you have gone for both CBSE and State syllabus?
CBSE has a modern appeal to it while State syllabus has not yet caught up with the advancement. There are students for whom CBSE could be tough, which is why the State syllabus is still around. But over a period of time, it will phase out and we might only have one syllabus across the country.
Do you face any challenge with regard to faculty retention or availability of quality teachers?
Faculty retention has been a challenge but we have been addressing it by providing various attractive facilities for the teachers. For example, if a teacher is with our school for more than a year, we provide her child’s education for free. The result is a feeling of being part of a family and we ensure that teachers have an emotional connect with us. We also have informal get-togethers to understand the needs of our staff members. I have seen that many people with IT background and even MBA holders coming for a teaching job. The only reason being that it is a 9 to 4 job. They do not understand that teaching is a continuous process and it cannot be repetitive, which is why many of them fail. So, we have ensured a good system of recruiting.
What is the main focus area of your teaching methodology?
Today, children are losing the core values of our culture. So, we ensure that they do not forget their cultural roots and moral values. There are many activities conducted to develop these aspects among the children.
Tell us about your future plans?
In another year or so, we are planning to move into our own campus which will spread across 2 acres in Poornaprajna layout. In another two years, we also plan to start Prarthana PU College.