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Welcome
DAYAPRAKASH SARSWATI VIDYA MANDIR – PAST AND FUTURE
School was the result of confabulations of three ladies who had ample leisure and real estate and above all the overwhelming desire to be of service to society.
The ladies shared a common ideal that children should receive a secular education and become proud citizens of a country where ignorance and hate based on caste, religion would give way to mutual understanding and respect.
Against this background three schools were established one in Varanasi, the other two in Allahabad. The founders were highly educated. Miss Moghal Mahmood in the early sixties had M.A. LT whereas the younger sister Mrs. Zahra Sripat Rai did her M.A. in music from BHU and was a famed writer in English.
The motivating spirit, however behind these plans was the eldest sister Ruquiya Begum who provided the practical skill for developing a proper infrastructure for education.
In the late 60’s and early 70’s there was a craze for English medium schools. Due to limitations of space English medium schools had to refuse admission to the vast majority of hopefuls. Besides English medium schools did not at that time run Nursery and K.G. classes.
DPASVM, GAYAstarted modestly with classrooms inside the residential building.
In a short time there was an explosion in the number of children. Classroom had to be hurriedly constructed to meet the rush. At the peak of our enrolment we had more than 3000 children in the primary of which 90% were in classes Nursery, Prep and K.G.
We honestly tried to give them a good English background and I have the impression that the public of Allahabad responded with great gusto and faith in our school.
The school had many firsts to its credit. The very fact that it provided Nursery/prepatory education in genuine English medium to such large number of students who eventually graduated to well established graduate to well established English medium schools later.
Our school was the first to make learning more interesting by teaching through VCR and TV. For the primary classes we screened alphabets number, animal, fruits and vegetables ad recitation of poem. In the primary classes we had a reader in which 2 lessons viz Alice in the Wonderland and Gulliver’s Travel were included. Our VCR/TV exhibition had a magical effect on children.
When in England recently I was treated to a history lesson on World War – II. We started this audio/visual education in 1980 well ahead of any other school in U.P.
In 1988 we suffered at the hands of greedy Netas. By 1989 we reestablished our position. In 1994 we were recognized as Junior High School and in 2000 we obtained our first accreditation to the CBSE.
Though our salary scales for teachers were quite modest yet we achieved a very high success rate of success with our planning and implementing of the planned syllabus. Thereafter we gave a lot of incentives to the teacher. The best teacher award was given classwise. All the norms of competition were detailed in a written circular. To further the aim of good teaching a supervisor was appointed for each class. Normally the supervisor was an experience teacher. Parents were warned about ill effects of private tuition. Each parent was provided a copy of the syllabus and other relevant information like the periodic teachers/parents meeting and holiday list. Parents were not allowed in classrooms.
With teachers and supervisors in a competitive mood the education of children was twice blessed. It simply showed what a teacher can achieve with good guidance and regular supervision.
We celebrated our various festivals always giving a nationwise and secular colour to our school. We celebrated the various holidays with cultural functions giving the message of unity and harmony. But what took the cake was out annual function which brought out the best latent talent of our teachers and students. Preparation time for this function took a maximum of 15 days.
It goes without saying that essay, debates, painting, drawing and other competitions were regularly organised .
Since the year 2000 and thereafter students of secondary classes predominate in our school. During the past ten years a lot of infrastructure has been added to the school. Slowly we are ensuring that the management of the school passes on to our children who apparently are taking lot of interest in its activites.
Let us invoke a prayer of continued resilence, progress and better teaching and better vistas for our students and teachers.