"A journey of thousand miles starts one step only".
Gurudev Rabindranath started his Santiniketan Ashram School with a few students, but it has turned into a global university named Viswabharati. Ramkrishna Mission started a Residential Institution at Narendrapur with a negligible number of students, but Narendrapur has now emerged as an excellent Centre of Learning with world-wide reputation.
Keeping in mind the mission of Rabindranath to ‘bring the world in one nest’ and the vision of Ramkrishna Mission to bring up its students as perfect human beings, Betai Vivekananda Sevatirtha, ventured on a perilous journey in 1985 and established Vivekananda Academy at village Betai to create opportunities of English Medium Education and make it easily available to the rural masses.
Dr. Roma Chowdhury, former vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, laid the foundation stone of the Academy on the 21st May, 1985.
As English is the best medium of global communication and since the present globalised world is a place for ‘’the survival of the fit-test”, Vivekananda academy has been catering immensely to the needs of effective English Medium education for rural students who cannot avail themselves of the opportunities of advanced education which is centralized mainly in distant cities and suburban areas.
Thus this Institution has emerged as a boon for the village people who have the high ambition to build up bright career for children.
Sri Aurobindo used to say. “India Lives in villages. Village is the life-blood of our national body. The cell-life must be healthy and developed for the national body to be healthy and developed.” He also sounded a stern warning. “If the village perishes, India will perish”.
With the aforesaid caution of Sri Aurobindo in mind, Betai Vivekananda Sevatirtha has been striving hard since its inception to build up villages and equip them educationally and culturally through Vivekananda Academy to inculcate in the minds of its backward rural students the golden dream of becoming the intelligent, ideal and disciplined citizens of a developed India.
Vivekananda Academy has been affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Delhi, Vide Memo. No. CBSE/AFF/24371/8287-90dt. 14.08.2003with ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) from the Govt. of West Bengal Vide Memo. No 293-Se (H.S.)/6C-6/97dt. 13th August, 2000.
The aim of the Academy is to develop the individual personality of its pupils and bring out those qualities which are best and noblest in them, so as to make them dutiful persons and useful citizens of India. Special attention is given to ensure a high standard of morality and discipline in the present and future lives of students.
The long-cherished dream and earnest efforts of the ‘founding fathers’ of the Academy will really be fruitful and meaning if the students of the Academy can face boldly the challenges of the new millennium their future lives.
To summarise the Vision of the Academy:
To inculcate in children habits of piety, virtue, discipline and self-reliance, the Academy trains them to become dutiful sons and daughters of the soil and useful, conscious and responsible citizens of India and the world at large.
To inculcate in children sober good mannerisms and proper mode of behavior so that may avoid irrational behavior and unmethodical actions in life and society.
To perceive and treat children as participants in learning, not as receivers of a fixed body of bookish knowledge thus inculcating creativity and initiative latent in them.
Section-wise Endeavour of the Academy:
Pre-Primary (Nursery & G Classes): ‘Learn while you play’ is the philosophy of teaching of this Pre-Primary section. With tender care and motherly affection, the teachers try to accustom the children with the school environment in a ‘play way manner’ as if they are in their ‘Second Home’. At School Colorful charts of birds, wild and pet animals, fruits, vegetables etc. hanged on the walls of the class-rooms make the children curious to know the names of each item. Playing with dolls, toys, shapes, etc. are also encouraged in a congenial and caring environment.
Primary: Curriculum is structured keeping in mind the interests and abilities of students with emphasis on their all-round development of body and mind.
In this section, individual attention is given to the child’s progress. Apart from regular curriculum, the children are also exposed to other co-curricular activities like drawing, drama, music, recitation, games and sports. Children also take part in Olympiads and other Talent Search Examinations which make the learning effective. Discouraging rote learning, group discussions are arranged to develop confidence and positive attitude within the children.
Secondary: At the Secondary level, in addition to the regular curriculum, major attention is given to development of the IQ and EQ of the students through various activities. Special attention is given to build a student physically healthy and mentally strong. They are involved in cultural programmers – like song, dance, drama, mime, gymnastics and yoga Programmers. For an advanced technological development, Computer Education has been included in our regular curriculum.
Our Next Venture:
Our next Venture is the Up gradation of the Academy to Senior Secondary (10+2) level which is an urgent need of the locality in view of the fact that the students passing out Class-X Exam. From this School are to face immense difficulties to get admission in Class XI as there is no CBSE School nearby. The Academy authority has been trying hard to get it done.
Our Ultimate Goal:
There goes a noble saying: ‘Ideals are like Stars which can never be reached, but they can guide us to the desired direction even in the endless oceans’.
Swami Vivekananda often said respect of education:
“We must have life-building, man-making and character-building assimilation of ideas. “Vivekananda Academy aspires to materialist.
The ‘founding fathers’ of the Academy had a golden dream to the effect. That some day this rural English Medium Institution would be crowned with academic and administrative excellence and it would reach in a position to impart ideal and effective to its students who would make our nation great and strong as depicted deftly below by the American poet and philosopher Ralf Waldo Emerson (1802-1882):
“Not gold, but only men can make A people great and strong, Men who for truth and honor’s sake Stand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep Who dare while others fly- They build a nation’s pillars deep And lift them to the sky.”
So, ‘we have miles to go’ and we have been anxiously waiting for those golden days of our Vivekananda Academy in near future.
Principal M.C. Moulic (Retired), Chairman