Madhava Kripa School, Manipal (Karnataka)

Promoted half a century ago by the legendary Dr. T.M.A. Pai, the promoter-chairman of the Manipal Education & Medical Group, MKS is all set to celebrate its golden jubilee later this year

Established in the historic university town of Manipal (pop. 30,000) half a century ago by the legendary Dr. T.M.A. Pai (1898-1978), the promoter-chairman of Manipal University and the Manipal Education Group (MEG) — India’s largest private educa-tion conglomerate comprising 55 institutions of professional education (engineering, medicine, law, business and hotel management etc) with an aggregate enrolment of 88,000 students  — the K-X Madhava Kripa School (MKS) is widely acknowledged as Udipi district’s premier English-medium co-education school affiliated with the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In December this year, the school’s management is set to celebrate its golden jubilee in a big way.

“Madhava Kripa offers children in Udipi/Manipal access to a world class school. I believe over the past half century, we have fulfilled our promise of delivering excellent primary and secondary education with strong emph-asis on discipline and social values. In 2008, we became an affiliated institution of the CBSE and our first 20 students wrote the  class X board exam last year. Of them, 16 passed with a cumulative grade point average of 7 plus with four students obtaining a GPA of 10. Now with MKS becoming a Pearson Education school last year, we are committed to producing future-ready global youth with a foundational education to assume leadership positions anywhere in the world,” says Jessy Andrews, an education and science alumnus of Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore, who earlier worked with Manovikas School, Margaon, before signing up last year as principal. In June this year, MKS, which has an enrolment of 1,244 students instructed by 66 teachers, will admit its first batch of 30 higher secondary (class XI) students.

Sited on a 5.68-acre plot in a three-storied building with a built-up area of 83,689 sq.ft, MKS has 60 classrooms, a well-equipped computer lab, science laboratories and a toys and music room for pre-primary students. The school library houses 5,000 volumes and 12 journal subscriptions. Sports facilities include badminton, basketball, and volleyball courts, cricket nets and a synthetic athletics track. In accordance with established Manipal traditions, MKS also offers a wide range of co-curricular education options including music, dance, yoga, and karate.

“We accord high importance to co-curricular education with all these activities being compulsory for all students. We believe that while acad-emics is important, it needs to be supplemented with co-curricular and sports education to deliver a holistic school experience,” says Andrews.

Since it was inaugurated as Udipi district’s first English-medium nursery and primary school in 1962 with a first batch of 50 children, MKS has had an interesting history, especially in recent years. For 46 years, it experienced steady growth as a low-profile nursery and higher primary school within MEG. However in 2008, MEG purchased a significant equity stake at a reported price of Rs.12.5 crore in the Bangalore-based TutorVista Pvt Ltd. Earlier in 2007, TutorVista — a pioneer in K-12 offshore online maths and science tutoring with over 20,000 enroled students in the US and Europe — had purchased Edurite Pvt. Ltd, a Bangalore-based company providing ICT services to schools.

In 2008, MEG and TutorVista jointly promoted Manipal K-12 Pvt. Ltd, which subsumed MKS. However in January 2011, TutorVista and Manipal K-12 were acquired by the London-based Pearson Plc (aka Pearson Group (Pearson Education)) for Rs.577 crore — the largest ever acquisition in India’s education sector.

“What Pearson brings to MKS is a well-researched curriculum, which not only prepares students for CBSE class X and XII exams, but will also connect MKS with all national and international boards of study. Apart from this, Pearson Education has drawn up an intensive teacher training and support programme for all our 23 schools including MKS under our unique Edexcel certified teacher training programme. Our new digital classrooms, structured study programmes and application-oriented learning are behind the outstanding results of MKS' first batch of students who wrote the CBSE class X exam last year,” says Dr. Vidya Shetty, academics director of Pearson Schools.

Looking ahead, Shetty is confident that MKS will flower into a composite  K-12 school comparable with the best countrywide. “In June when our first batch of 30 higher secondary students commence class XI, MKS will become a full-fledged CBSE school. Moreover in the school’s golden jubilee year, we are set to introduce three certified vocational programmes — photography, art and business studies — of the UK Business & Technology Educ-ation Council, one of which will be compulsory for all MKS students from class IX onwards. We have also signed up MKS for the International School Awards of the British Council. Given its long history and excellent reputation in Udipi, the school has attracted quality teachers and students. With these new initiatives, we will contemporise it and make it comparable with the best K-12 schools in Karnataka,” says Shetty.

Certainly, this pioneer English-medium school will have much to cheer about in its golden jubilee year.

Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)