Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools

Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools (MVMS) is an educational school system founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and established in 16 Indian states.^[1][2] MVMS is managed by a registered educational society called the "Maharishi Shiksha Sansthan". MVMS is also affiliated with the New Delhi Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).^[3][4][5] Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools has 148 branches in 118 cities with 80,000 to 100,000 students and 5,500 teaching and support staff.^[6] It is said to be the "largest chain of privately owned, public schools in India".^[1]

Campuses

The central offices for MVMS are located on the Maharishi Centre for Educational Excellence (MCEE) campus in Lambakheda, near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.^[1] Regional Offices are located in Allahabad, Haridwar, Jabalpur, Kurukhestra, Guwuhati, Hyderabad and Bhopal.^[1] The MVMS school locations in Ratanpur, Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh are reported to include on-campus housing for teachers and students as part of an in-residence school program.^[1] In 2009, MVMS celebrated its 27th year as part of its annual day. The theme of the celebration was “Nature is the best teacher" and included prizes and awards for teachers and students.^[7] The Lucknow campus was founded in 1974.^{[8][dead link]}

Chennai

This branch of MVMS has approximately 4,500 students.^[9] In August 2009, the MVMS in Chennai partnered with ExNoRa International to hold an event with the aim of affecting climate change through "mind power". About one hundred people gathered at the school to participate in the group practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. According to an article in the Express News Service, ExNoRa "incorporated the natural extension of Transcendental Meditation to spread the message of global warming".^{[10][dead link]} The event was part of a "Lights Out Campaign" and a grass-roots effort to increase awareness of the causes, solutions and prevention of global warming. The campaign called for residents to switch off their power for nine minutes on September 9, 2009 at 9pm.^{[10][dead link]}

In 2009, the girls' table tennis team played PSBB (Nungambakkam) in the final match for the J.V.S. Rao memorial state championship.^[11]

Borsajai

This school's Eco Club is a member of the National Green Corps program and is also recognized by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.^[12] In December 2009, the school conducted a "National Pollution Prevention Day". The school and the Eco Club organized an all-day program which included competitions, films and exhibitions, all with an environmental theme. The Eco Club also conducted a "cleanliness drive" whose purpose was to collect all the polythene packets from around the school and, with the support of school authorities, the Eco Club declared their school campus a “no polythene zone”.^[12] The event was attended by Purnima Devi Barman, who is an environmental educator from Aaranya. Barman gave a presentation on the endangered animal species of Northeastern India.^[12]

Others

In 2009, a student at the Maharishi Vidya Mandir School of Silpukhuri, Guwahati took first prize at the State Level Science Fair and received the "best state child scientist award".^[13] In December, the school celebrated the mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan in conjunction with Abacus, a children's math society. Special guests and speakers included, Ranjana Choudhury, retired chairman of the department of mathematics at Handique Girls College and Indira Bordoloi, the director at Handique Girls College.^[14] In 2010, a student received recognition at the Eastern Indian Science Fair at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum in Calcutta for inventing a method of creating low cost candles from Nahar seeds.^[13]

The Maharishi Vidya Mandir School located in Hosur was created in June 1983, and began with three teachers and 85 students. It is reported to now include 150 teachers and 4,600 students. The campus consists of 60 acres (240,000 m²) near the edge of the town of Hosur. It has 110 classrooms, some laboratories, a library, an audio visual center, and a computer lab with Internet. The school accepts students up to the senior secondary level.^{[15][dead link]}

The Maharishi Center for Educational Excellence in Bhopal is said to be the first K-12 school in the Maharishi Vidya Mandir School system. As of 2000, the school had grown to include 500 to 600 students.^[4] In 2010, the school hosted a presentation by A.S. Pillai, the CEO of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.^[16][17]

In 2010, local police reported that the principal of the MVMS in Bhilai had been accused of seeking "sexual favors" from some female students in exchange for better grades.^[18] In the same year, a 16 year old student at the Urai (Orai) MVMS was seriously injured when he "attempted suicide" by jumping out of a second story school window after "allegedly being scolded by his teacher".^[19][20]An October 2010 article in the Deccan Chronicle reports that a teacher from a Maharishi Vidya Mandir School was among the winners of the CBSE National Award in 2009.^[21]

In 2011, parents of students at the Yamunagar school protested the announcement of a move to a new building on a highway a month after a serious accident there in involving a school bus which killed 14 people.^[22] That same year, teachers from a Maharishi Vidya Mandir School collaborated with teachers from the USA under the Teachers’ Achievement and Excellence Programme of the US State Department and International Research and Exchange. ^[23]

Academics

MVMS follows the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) course pattern and the normal curriculum of Hindi/Regional Language/English medium public schools. The academic program also includes the practice of Transcendental Meditation and the study of the Veda and the literature about the Veda.^[6] In addition, Sanskrit is considered a compulsory subject for students at MVMS.^[6]

The stated goal of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools is to provide an educational program that has the ability to raise the student's life to a level which allows the student to feel at home with everything and everyone and to achieve success in every undertaking without any strain.^[24]

Extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities at MVMS include yoga, arts and crafts, chess, dance, music, handball, table tennis and creative writing.^{[25][26][27][28]}

In 2009, a team of 36 students from two MVMS schools participated in a five-day learning program at the space centers in the cities of Houston and Orlando, located in the U.S.A.^[29]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Official MVMS web site
2. ^ Maharishi International Official Web Site
3. ^ Sulekha web site
4. ^ ^{a b} K-12 Education web site the-lower-school
5. ^ Adigloo web site
6. ^ ^{a b c} . Ekikrat web site. 
7. ^ The Hindu, December 29, 2009
8. ^ [1] Official web site for Lucknow campus
9. ^ The Hindu, July 1, 2010, Student Safety
10. ^ ^{a b} . http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Climate+change+through+mind+power&artid=s/ixqua5INg=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=ngGbWGz5Z14=&SectionName=rSY. 
11. ^ The Hindu, Aug 13,2009
12. ^ ^{a b c} . The Telgraph, Calcutta India, December 15, 2009. 
13. ^ ^{a b} Assam Times, Low Cost Candle, Jayanta Kumar Das, January 23, 2010
14. ^ The Telegraph, Calcutta, December 29, 2009
15. ^ MVM Hosur web site
16. ^ Central Chronicle, India Would be Superpower by 2010, Pratiska Kshirsagar, January 13, 2010,[2]
17. ^ The Hindu, DRDO Developing Acoustic Sensor
18. ^ http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/parents-beat-up-principal-for-seeking-sexual-favours_100336391.html http://www.webcitation.org/60jvzYHrC March 18, 2010, Parents beat up Principal for seeking sexual favors.
19. ^ Sify News, Scolded By Teacher, July 7, 2010
20. ^ Express India, Boy Attempts Suicide in Orai, July 8, 2010
21. ^ "Teacher wins national award" Deccan Chronicle, October 12th, 2010
22. ^ "Shifting of school protested", Times of India, May 16 2011
23. ^ [3] The Telegraph, Calcutta India, June 9 2011, Retrieved JUne 13 2011
24. ^ Maharishi's Programmes In India web site
25. ^ Click India web site
26. ^ The Telegraph
27. ^ The Hindu, December 29, 2009
28. ^ [4] Assam Tribune Online, Pradan, Rishideep bag chess title, May 17 2011
29. ^ The Hindu, Young World, Reaching for the Stars, Deepa Onkar, November 30, 2009, [5]

External links

• Official MVM Schools Facebook Page [6]