News and pics: Rons Bantwal
Daijiworld Media network- Mumbai
Mumbai June 2: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama inaugurated The Somaiya School in Mumbai.
While addressing the students His Holiness spoke about the richness of the ancient Indian knowledge. Further, he advised on the need to work hard on building that knowledge and moving forward for faster progress.
Commending on the work done by Somaiya Trust in education in the rural and urban areas he said, "There is a great need for institutions to be developed for preserving and promoting the Indian culture. India needs this kind of work. Institutions should coordinate, discuss and exchange their experiences with one another for growth and development.”
The Somaiya School stands on three acres of land and within the 65 acres of Somaiya Vidyavihar campus there is a built-up area of over 100,000 square feet. The campus is nestled among old trees and greenery, creating a genuine learning ambience for the students. The school building has two wings, with one wing exclusively devoted for the pre-primary section. The school building is designed to create a sense of community and belonging. The resource rooms and the learning centers’ are the key features of the well-designed building.
The school is part of the larger Somaiya Vidyavihar campus. The campus includes sports facilities such as badminton, squash and tennis courts, a 400 metre running track, football and cricket fields. Somaiya School students will be given training in sports and to provide students with personalized attention, the teacher-student ratio has been maintained at 1: 10.
Amrita Somaiya, trustee of the school said, "The focus of our school is to build the child’s self esteem. We do that by giving an environment that encourages children which leads to good academics. We use international methodology, whilst inculcating Indian values. We are the only school which will teach various languages such as English, Marathi, Sanskrit, Hindi and French from a young age beginning at grade 1.
Kavita Vaidya says, "The advantage that we have of a large, green beautiful campus means that we are able to make learning fun for children through story sessions under a tree, hands on experiences with nature through walks amongst trees also enable subjects like science to be it very real for the child."