KOCHI: Union Minister V Muraleedharan on Sunday launched Vikram Sarabhai Science School, the first school in the state with a syllabus modelled in line with the New Education Policy (NEP), and ‘Pragati Innovative School’, exclusively for Class 11 and 12 students with a core thrust on training them for various competitive examinations.
“The New Education Policy 2020 announced by the Central government makes no hard classifications between arts and sciences, curricular and extracurricular activities, or vocational and academic streams to eliminate the harmful hierarchies between different areas of learning,” Muraleedharan said, inaugurating the school at a function organised by the Vikram Sarabhai Science Foundation (VSSF) at Kakkanad.
Applauding the initiative, the minister said the NEP 2020 aims to provide character building and transforming education in a way that the finished products, ie, the students, are well armed to take on the world.Indira Rajan, CEO of VSSF and chairperson of Pragati Academy, said she got the concept of a science school with such facilities during a visit to NASA where she saw students of 8th and 9th-grade visiting the American space centre. “We thought why not we set up a school where future scientists are nurtured at an early age itself,” she said.
While the Vikram Sarabhai Science School will have kindergarten to 5th grade in the new academic year -- the foundational stage proposed under the NEP. The next academic year will open from 6th to 8th grade or the preparatory stage. “We are restricting the admissions only up to 25-30 students,” she said.
The Pragati Innovative School, on the other hand, will be under the Department of General Education, Kerala, for Class XI and XII students. This will help students who want to move to the state syllabus from the CBSE to Class XI and XII. To help them train for competitive entrance exams, the school has tied up with coaching centre ‘RIJU and PSK Classes’, Rajan said.
Ashwati Thirunal Gauri Lakshmi Bayi of the Travancore royal family and board member of the academy gave her message through a video. P Vijayan, coastal police, IG, and Suchitra Shyjinth, director of the Pragati Academy, also spoke.