Not long ago, blackboards in schools were filled with colourful chalked lessons, walls were splashed with blemished drawings, and the desks carried quiet dreams. Today, schools have grown to include wider boards, more classrooms with better equipment, and larger spaces to hold bigger dreams and futures in the making.
In line with this trend of expansions, on Wednesday, Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust inaugurated its School Expansion and Modernisation Project at its Satyamurthi Higher Secondary School campus. The event was honoured by Praveena Yagnambhat, chief of staff and CSR head at Boeing India and South Asia; KG Venkataramanan, chief financial officer at Saint-Gobain India Private Limited; and Shalini Grover, chief financial officer at Boeing.
For the institution, this marks a significant milestone in its long-standing mission to provide quality education to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, while also opening its doors to the surrounding community. “This school’s expansion project is a journey toward better opportunities and a brighter future for underprivileged children,” says P Natarajan, trustee and honorary treasurer.
The building that stands today traces its origins to 1976, when the school first functioned out of a modest ground floor. Two years later, an additional floor was added. Over time, however, the structure began to show its age and even flooded in 2014, posing three challenges to the authorities — a leaking roof, the absence of essential infrastructure like a lift and a second staircase, and an entrance from the front, which was then at the back. What followed was not an immediate renovation, but years of planning, processing, and an attempt to preserve. Natarajan adds, “We are talking about reviving and regenerating a very old building, which requires a tremendous amount of engineering. We were looking at a very optimal design.”
Initial plans were drawn up in 2018. But delays in approvals stretched the timeline, and by the time progress resumed, the educational landscape itself had shifted. In 2024, the demand for the institution’s Tamil medium education declined, and the government shut the school down. Teachers were transferred and the institution saw an opportunity to transition into a private model. “What we had initially planned as a smaller upgrade became a much larger, integrated vision. We decided to bring everything together, from kindergarten to Class 12, into one cohesive system,” notes Natarajan. Today, that vision stands as a `16-crore project, with dedicated STEM and innovation labs, CCTVs, WiFi, and more.
“There is a future, and we need to invest in them (children), not only in terms of the facilities that we provide, but also the quality of the interaction and the education that we leave them with,” notes Shalini Grover. Praveena adds, “Investing in children, their education and their future, we all believe is the right thing to do because if we make the right investment, we will all reap the right benefits of that.”
Yet, even as the school modernises, its core philosophy remains unchanged — education for all. In addition to this principle, students are provided free breakfast, lunch, and evening snacks, echoing the spirit of K Kamaraj’s mid-day meal vision.
“If Kamaraj and Manjubhashini were to walk through Bala Mandir today, they would see that their vision still holds strong,” concludes Maya Gaitonde, honorary general secretary and trustee of Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust.