Journalism of Courage
As the 75th year celebrations of one of the oldest educational institutions in Pune, New English School, Ramanbaug, come to an end next month, a unique initiative that takes the school back to its roots kick-started this week. To impart industrial and skill-based education to students and encourage them to become innovators and job creators, which was the idea behind starting the school established by leaders of the Indian nationalist movement during the British Raj.
“In the year 1880, the late V K Chiplunkar with Lokmanya Tilak and M B Namjoshi started New English School in Pune, under the Deccan Education Society (DES), to impart nationalistic and skill-based education,” said Sunil Shivale, principal of New English School, Ramanbaug.
“At that time, only government institutions and Christian missionaries were involved in educating the masses and the education failed to generate leadership for industrial regeneration of a self-governing nation. They were producing clerks to serve in their machinery. Private enterprises in education were discouraged. The main branch of New English school, which was at Nanawada then, was started to rouse the intellect and equip students with skills to start industries and businesses. The Ramanbaug school started as a branch to the main school to accommodate extra students but given the high number of students here, on June 14, 1946, it was established as a separate school,” Shivale added.
Currently, the school has 36 classrooms and boys from Class V to X study here. A separate building houses the junior college.
Suhas Deshpande, assistant teacher and media coordinator, said that when the school started pre-Independence, tailoring, machine repairing, power supply-related courses etc. were taught. But over the years, these fizzled out. However, with National Education Policy 2020 coming into force and laying emphasis on skill-based education, the institution is once again going back to its roots.
As the school has been celebrating events over the last one year during the ‘Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations to mark its 75th year of establishment, the alumni have donated Rs 12.44 lakh to the school and one alumnus, Pramod Chaudhury, donated Rs 1.20 crore. A major part of these donations was used to make infrastructural upgrades like power back-ups, smart boards in classrooms, local Internet connection, solar panels to generate electricity, and so on. However, a chunk of the donations has been kept aside to start skill-based courses in technical education for classes V to IX. The necessary infrastructure and course materials and teachers’ training has been conducted for the same and school schedule has been adjusted accordingly, said Shivale.
For Class V, there shall be a ‘sanskar’ class which will teach life skills to students besides emphasis on oral language and social skills. While Class VI students will have dramatics classes, it will be robotics for Class VII, terracotta and German for Class VIII, and Japanese and computer classes for Class IX. The small auditorium in the school has undergone a makeover for the dramatics class, a sound studio has been developed, science and computer laboratories have been upgraded to handle robotics curriculum, and all classrooms have been equipped with Internet connections.
“Every student stepping out of the school should be self-reliant and have a mindset and confidence to become a job creator. Students should be technically competent from school life. Their traditional school degree should be accompanied by a vocational course. Only then can students stand on their own feet. It is with that idea that technical education skills courses are being implemented,” said Dr Sharad Kunte, chairman, governing body, DES.
