Life must blossom like a flower offering itself to the Divine. – The Mother

World is at present passing through a commercial age which has reached its acme of materialistic success, satisfaction, productiveness, accumulation, possession, enjoyment, comfort and convenience. The soul of man may linger awhile in this age for certain gains and experiences, but cannot permanently rest. If it persists too long, human life would become clogged and perish of its own plethora, like the massive titan it will collapse by its own mass, warns Sri Aurobindo.

The only way out of this impending danger of human life is to move consciously and swiftly towards a new vision of mankind, a new approach to man and his problems, a new ideal of life based on spirituality. Sri Aurobindo has provided us that vision of the spiritual future of mankind.

To realize the above vision of Sri Aurobindo, in the rural areas, Matridarshan Trust was founded in 1982 by late Prof. V. Madhusudan Reddy, Professor of Philosophy, Osmania University as a national rural development oriented spiritual organization. It is  registered as a public charitable trust under the name “Institute of Human Study – Matridarshan Trust ” on 22-07-1982 (vide no. 1036 of 1982).  Matridarshan Trust  is a not for profit organisation that reaches out to children and youth living in the rural areas through a range of interventions, and provides support and education. 

Our Vision – to organize non-formal education for the less privileged children and to ensure a happy childhood, to promote girl child education and uplift their spirit as, ‘today’s girl child will be the mother of tomorrow’. It also empowers rural children through vocational training, imparting values of Indian culture and developing social skills.This program aims to involve good hearted people for the education and wellbeing of our rural children.

Aditi Gurukul – Educate me!

Aditi Gurukul is a free school on the lines of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral education. Children will be in the school for four years. Aditi Gurukul is a free residential school started by Matridarshan Trust in the year 2001, provides Gurukul system of education and caters its services to less privileged children  through all round development of the body, the emotions and the mind.

Curriculum

Formal Education corresponds to the education process normally adopted by schools and colleges in India. It represents a rather rigid curriculum, chalk and board method, rote method of learning, it’s a job done by teachers and doesn’t cater to the real needs of the students and of the community. But the informal methodologies have not been introduced in many schools due to lack of awareness or no proper training and guidance given. The informal methodology is the need of the hour. This methodology is child centric and usually helps the child in overall and helps in building a holistic development which addresses both the formal as well the informal methods.

Objectives of Integral Education

  • To help and motivate children to learn in a happy environment.
  • To help the child to learn at ease so follows the child centric methodology.
  • To provide for the all round development of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual parts of the being .
  • To have a regular time for sports and physical games on a daily basis.
  • To ensure fitness and good health.
  • To nurture children’s well being by providing nutritious food and sanitation.
  • To promote aesthetic pursuits through art and craft, music, dance and other fine arts.
  • To help the children to deal with their emotions.
  • To train and develop the various faculties of the mind through the module of LSRW ( Listening/Speaking/reading/Writing
  • To ensure proper communication skills.
  • To design to involve peer group learning and sharing and disseminates to community/parental involvement.
  • To facilitate outdoor and indoor activities that would involve nature as one of tool and gardening activities in leisure time.
  • To develop a continuous assessment process designed in the module to evaluate the child after completion of each concept or task.
  • To design programs wherein the sense of patriotism is inculcated.
  • To promote value/spiritual education through singing bhajans, reciting shlokas, meditation, narratives and awareness of self activities.

Learning Outcomes

  • A holistic development of children by providing safe space to grow both physically, mentally and emotionally and spiritually.
  • There is shift from regular formal to informal methodology wherein learning happens beyond the prescribed textbooks.
  • It helps in the growth of cognitive, social and emotional, fine motor and gross motor skills.
  • The joyous environment ensures children to become open minded and curious to learn.
  • This method addresses all types of learners (Auditory/Visual/Kinaesthetic).
  • As the students are evaluated in all areas, it builds a non-threatening and learner – friendly environment.

Their daily schedule covers shramadhan, prayers, shloka recitation, yoga asanas, sports and meditation apart from regular academics. The curriculum also includes aesthetic ( art, music, drama, storytelling)  and character development. They are provided nutritious food in a joyful and clean environment. 

Target Group : Students of age group  6 to 12 years (Classes I to IV)

There are two groups at a given time- the senior and junior groups. Each group consists of a maximum of  15 children to get educated.  The order of preference is Orphans, Semi orphan, and the very needy. We give preference to the Girl Child. It is important to provide quality elementary education to children at this age group. This promotes interest in learning and enables them to develop themselves. In these years the child develops the cognitive, physical, social and emotional skills that they need to succeed in life. This is gaining global support as a viable means to help young children reach their full developmental potential and engage in lifelong learning.

Areas of Subject Study

Subjects such as Telugu and English as languages, Math and Environmental Science are focused upon. The concepts are integrated with art, craft and pottery. Importance to physical games, needle work and gardening is also a part of their curriculum. These activities develop fine motor and gross motor skills along with LSRW, cognitive, creative and presentation skills.

Emphasis is also laid on food, health and sanitation. The teachers train Value education through storytelling, cultural activities, nature concepts and small activities on self awareness.

Aid and support for the Project

The Matridarshan Trust is open for financial help and support from interested personnel who wish to contribute their expertise and time to engage with the children of Aditi Gurukul.

Donate

Personal Involvement

Persons who wish to engage with the students of Aditi Gurukul in any manner such as teaching, narrating stories, doing art and craft, computer education, playing sports etc. are welcome to extend their services. 

Students Progress :

  • The student’s learning is closely monitored and a teacher’s feedback will be generated twice a year.
  • The teacher emphasizes teaching and learning in groups so as to give attention to specific children whose pace is slow and promote peer group sharing and learning.
  • The teacher uses different methods of informal activities to make the context easier to grasp and this help him/her to develop/gather/generate resources on his/her own for the holistic progress of the children.
  • Special resource persons are invited to train periodically.

Let us honour ourselves by extending help for the children of Aditi Gurukul.