Children’s Garden Higher Secondary School, Chennai

Despite being a quasi-government or aided institution subject to considerable government interference, this pioneer school has established a reputation for innovation and progressive education Sited in Chennai’s upscale Mylapore, the Children’s Garden Higher Secondary School housed in four compact buildings has established a reputation as one of the most innovative and progressive government-aided schools in the city. Promoted in 1937 by Ellen Sharma and Dr. V.N.Sharma, the Children’s Garden Higher Secondary School was the first of five schools established by the Children’s Garden School Society to provide primary and secondary education in Tamil and English mediums to students from under-privileged socio-economic backgrounds. The other four are the Ellen Sharma Kindergarten School (Tamil medium); Ellen Sharma Nursery and Primary School (English medium); Ellen Sharma Primary School (Tamil medium) in rural Karapakkam and Ellen Sharma Matriculation and Higher Secondary School (English medium), a residential school in Sholinganallur on the outskirts of Chennai, which has a high enrollment of rural children. Today, seven decades later, the aggregate enrollment of the five schools is 4,000. Their teachers follow the philosophy of the founder Ellen Sharma, who combined the best of Montessori and Froebel’s preschool systems and adapted it to Indian conditions. While continuing the best traditions of Ellen Sharma’s philosophy and innovations, the state board affiliated Children’s Garden Higher Secondary School has made significant strides from the time it admitted its first batch of seven students in 1937. Till the 1950s it was a middle school, which expanded into high school in 1967 and finally into a higher secondary school in 1979. Today this class III-XII school has 1,800 students instructed by 58 teachers. Students of classes III-V (co-education) are instructed in the Tamil medium and classes VI-XII (only for girls) have two sections each for Tamil and English medium schooling. Over the years, the school has absorbed contemporary pedagogies and technological innovations to provide a modern, holistic education to its students. “We believe in all-round personality development and seek to develop the natural talents and aptitudes of our students. To this end, education in our schools extends far beyond academics to include dance, music, art, theatre, archaeology, ecology, nature walks and other co-curricular programmes. Our objective is to incorporate values and life skills into our curriculum to produce honest, straightforward citizens,” says Sakunthala Sharma, daughter of the school’s founders and secretary of the Children’s Garden School Society. An economics, English and education postgraduate of Madras University, Sharma is a veteran with 33 years of teaching experience. The school has taken keen interest in shaping a botanical garden on its Karapakkam farm, where nature walks are mandatory for all classes. “We focus on activity and project-based learning. Every class does projects on different subjects, participates in science exhibitions and the school regularly bags prizes,” says headmistress Saraswathi Raghunathan, a triple postgraduate with a doctorate from Madras University, who has served the school for over 30 years. The school’s management prides itself that pass percentages in the state board examination are above 85 percent every…