Atul Vidyalaya, Valsad

The trustees and promoters of this Gujarat Top 20 school seem to have spared no expense in providing state-of-the-art infrastructure to realise their progressive objectives

HOUSED WITHIN A THICKLY wooded 24-acre campus carved out of the 1,200-acre industrial estate of Atul Ltd, a publicly listed chemicals manufacturing company on the outskirts of Valsad (pop. 1.4 million), Gujarat, the CISCE-affiliated Atul Vidyalaya (AV, estb. 1991) has acquired a good reputation for delivering holistic K-12 education to its 595 boy and 483 girl students.

In the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2014, AV was ranked among the Top 20 co-ed day schools in Gujarat and #1 in Valsad. The school was promoted by Atul Ltd under the aegis of the AV Foundation, which also runs the state board-affiliated K-12 Kalyani School, a residential school for tribal children (Atul Vidya Mandir), and a vocational institute (Atul Institute of Vocational Excellence) with an aggregate enrolment of over 4,000 students. The latter institutions have been jointly promoted by the foundation and Gujarat state government under the PPP (public-private-partnership) model.

“The objective of Atul Vidyalaya is to provide parents in Valsad the option of a high quality K-12 education for all-round development of students. Initially our students were children of Atul Ltd employees but now they comprise only 15 percent of our student body. Over the past 23 years, the school has matured into a progressive institution which respects Indian traditions and values while imparting best international education practices, including multiple intelligences nurturing and mind mapping.

Moreover in a departure from traditional education practices in Gujarat, co-curricular and sports education are given as much importance as academics with students given every encouragement to develop into well-rounded individuals. Our aim is to nurture model citizens who will take up leadership positions in society,” says Lt. Col (Retd.) Atamaram Sekhar, principal of the school. An English and organic chemistry postgraduate of Kanpur and Barkatullah (Bhopal) universities, Sekhar served with the Army Educational Corps of the Indian Army for over 22 years during which he worked as principal of Sainik School, Satara and Rashtriya Military School, Ajmer, before being appointed principal of Atul Vidyalaya in 2009.

Certainly the trustees and promoters of Atul Vidyalaya seem to have spared no expense in providing state-of-the-art facilities to realise their progressive objectives. The pre-primary, primary, middle and secondary schools are housed in separate low-rise eco-friendly buildings blended with the green campus. A common design feature of the academic buildings is an open courtyard surrounded by well-ventilated classrooms equipped with video projection systems and smart boards. Fully-wired classrooms are supplemented by four science and math labs, an art and crafts centre, a seminar hall, an open air theatre, and a library stocked with 20,000 print volumes and 150 multimedia CDs.

Sports facilities too, are extensive with games compulsory for all students. Field games and track facilities are spread over six acres and include a cricket pitch, football field, a 200-m athletics track, volleyball, softball and basketball courts, and a Sports Centre for indoor games such as badminton, table tennis, chess, gymnastics, yoga, karate, etc. The school has an arrangement with the contiguous Atul Club for use of its Olympic-size swimming pool.

Indisputably, the school has come a long way since it admitted its first batch of 208 students in 1991. Currently its 1,078 students are mentored by a full-time faculty of 70 and six part-time teachers with continuous professional development a prime focus area requiring all teachers to undergo 120 hours of in-service training annually. Sustained investment in teacher training has paid off in terms of AV’s excellent board exam results. In 2014, of the 51 students who wrote the class X ICSE exam, 49 passed with distinction, with 17 averaging 90 percent plus. Likewise, of the 28 students who wrote the class XII ISC exam, 25 passed with distinction, with 11 scoring 90 percent plus.

“We pride ourselves on our highly qualified teachers who practice student-centred and experiential learning pedagogies. In pre-primary and primary classes, there are no textbooks and exams, with learning enabled through projects and hands-on activities. In secondary school while demanding academic rigour, teachers focus on developing students’ self-study skills. Our student-centric approach supplemented with extra-curricular and sports activities has enabled us to turn out smart and confident students,” says Sekhar, who adds that the school has recently signed up with The Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF) — an initiative of the Delhi-based Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation — to facilitate exchange programmes with schools around the world.

With AV now established as one of Gujarat’s Top 20 day schools, the management is looking at capacity expansion. “We have begun adding one division per class each year so that over the next five years, we can admit an additional 300 students. We are continuously upgrading our curriculums to develop competencies and skills required in the 21st century, and improving infrastructure and pedagogy capabilities to include challenged children. There are also plans to set up an Atul Institute of Professional Excellence for teacher  training,” says Sekhar.
Fair winds!

NADIA LEWIS