Mahatma Gandhi School, Khurda

Vision:
Enlightenment and total development of individuals and Society

Mission: 
To be a Catalyst among Underprivileged for a better Transformation of the Society through effective Education Ministry

Goals-    

• To impart faith in God and moral values
• To provide an excellent and effective education
• To inculcate an overall personality development
• To explore and enrich the natural talents
• To Promote patriotism, respect of diverse religions and cultures of the country
• To prepare responsible citizens for the Society and the Nation
• To promote a better and just society of love and brotherhood
• To create an awareness of Social evils and eliminate them

THE ORIGIN OF MAHATMA GANDHI SCHOOL

The origin of Mahatma Gandhi School Khurda goes back to Charkha Kendra (weaving Centre) of 1969. Fr. Sudhir Shenoy saw that this is a backward area and the people of this area are very poor economically. He started lots of developmental works (CRS Project Food for Work). Many families were helped through CRS food for work project in digging and deepening of their wells and repairing and leveling   their fields. In order to provide employment to the people of this area a Charkha Centre (weaving Centre) was established by Fr. Sudhir Shenoy SVD in 1969 at Khurda. But he saw and felt that the real development of people will not come with the mere activities of the projects unless and until the children of this backward soil are educated. It is only through proper education the overall development is possible. Education lights up the minds of people who wander in the darkness of illiteracy, superstition, and unapproachable thick forest.  Education creates better human beings, purifies culture and tradition and provides strong wings to fly out in search of better opportunity for employment, thus aiming at high living standard in the society. Keeping these in mind and becoming aware of these facts Fr. Sudhir Shenoy SVD did not delay anymore but immediately converted the weaving center into Mahatma Gandhi Primary School, Khurda in 1973.  He was an exceptional pioneering missionary with full of zeal and enthusiasm.    The school is a co-educational school. It has pupils from 40 villages in and around.

Mahatma Gandhi School had classes LGK to 5^th till 1995; it grew up to class 8th in 1998 and till 10th in 2003. Now the school has been upgraded up to class XII with arts and commerce faculty. The year 1995 onwards the Local Church undertook various projects aiming at over all human development.  Education of the Tribal people was the burning issue practically of all the projects. Various studies were conducted in order to find out the possibilities of starting non-formal educational centers in all the villages. Various awareness programmes were undertaken by our Social Work Animators and Medical Personnel to motivate the illiterate people and make them understand about the importance and value of education in their life. Our Social Work animators and Medical personnel worked in collaboration with the school staff. All of them went out into the remote villages to find out children who can study in the school.  Through various surveys different social, economical and political problems were brought to their notice. The root causes of all these problems could not be removed just merely by undertaking economic developmental projects. We realized that we couldn’t continue giving fish but need to teach them how to fish for themselves. So the widespread shadows of varieties of problems can be removed only through the light of Education.

 Keeping these in mind we started inviting parents to the school on important occasions such as the celebration of Independence Day, Annual Day celebration, sports Day etc. The school Management team too formed Parents-Teachers Association making them as important partners of the school and explained their roles in running the school. Such activities and involvements created a new culture in the school and in the life of people. Now they know the value and importance of education in their life. The value and the need of education in their life were created. People started sending their children for schooling. Mahatma Gandhi High School, Khurda is an endeavor of SVD missionaries of Central Indian Province of India, in providing education for the rural children. It is located about 60 km far from the Indore city and about 8 km from Manpur on the way to Mumbai-Agra Highway. It is surrounded by beautiful mountains and is situated in a village set-up. It is the only school of the locality, run by Christians, which provides education for the rural children from LKG to 12th standard. For many years there was only Primary section in the school. But there was gradual growth and development. The missionaries those who came later build the new wings and the process of the classes increased. Today the old building is no more. Now the new mansion has come up in the place of old building and the school is running up to 12^th standard. It is the only school in the area which has up to Higher Secondary School.

At present the school has 1040 children and the most important thing is that there is an English medium also running under the same roof. It is up to 4^th standard now. The school has a big scope in future too. It is providing a good platform for the children to be a good citizen and to become somebody in the society one day. It covers almost 40 villages in the locality. Children come from 15 to 20 Km. away. All people are very happy to have this school in the locality. It is providing a good education and has produced many good citizens for the society as well nation in the course of time. Today all students are proud those who are working as our teachers in the school.

Besides these subjects as compulsory made by the “Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education”, the school offers extra subjects like Moral Science for non Christian pupils, Catechism for Christian pupils, General Knowledge, and Computer Education.

COMPUTER EDUCATION

To stand with new challenges and the advancements of the time, the school has provided computer facilities to the children. The school is equipped with a computer lab having 15 computers, with a power back-up system. Students are greatly benefiting from this endeavor. Two teachers are appointed to take care of the computer education.

Discipline and hard work: Discipline and hard work has been the hallmark of the teachers and students. Even being cut-off from the main line, still it is able to provide the best of the education to the students. We believe that education is not preparation for life, but education is life itself. We put emphasis on quality education, as quality is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives. We want the students to follow the school motto, “TRUTH, LOVE AND NON -VIOLENCE”.

Global School Partnership

Global School Partnership has greatly opened a new way to think globally. Our school has established strong partnership link with Holy Cross Primary School Edinburgh, Scotland. So far both school got opportunity to visit the partner school under the Reciprocal Visit Grant by the British Council.

Mils Stones:

17/08/1994      Mahatma Gandhi Education Society came in to existence.

1980                Sr. Barbara FSMA was appointed as headmistress till 2002.

1995                Onwards the Local Church undertook various projects aiming at over all human development.  Education of the Tribal people was the burning issue practically of all the projects. Various studies were conducted in order to find out the possibilities of starting non-formal educational centers in all the villages. Various awareness programmes were undertaken by our Social Work Animators and Medical Personnel to motivate the illiterate people and make them understand about the importance and value of education in their life. We realized that we couldn’t continue giving fish but need to teach them how to fish for themselves. So the widespread shadows of varieties of problems can be removed only through the light of Education.

1998                Gradual to faster growth. In the year 1998 we got permission to begin middle school.

2001                Meanwhile sufficient infrastructure was built up through the hard work of Fr. George Bhuria SVD, Fr. Nicholas Martis SVD, Sr. Barbara FSMA and others. They were dedicated missionaries with enthusiasm and commitment.

2003                School got permission to begin class IX and X in 2004.

2006                Fr. Pious Cyriac SVD took over as the Principal of Mahatma Gandhi High School Khurda. Under the Managership of Fr. Clement Khess SVD and the leadership of Fr. Pious Cyriac SVD, we moved towards new visions and dreams…..Priority for better infrastructure to accommodate more students…Projects were prepared and sent to different agencies. Discussions about beginning English Medium and upgrading high school to higher secondary

2009                The ground and first floor was completed in the year 2009 with the fund received from Manos Unidas. We had to go for the second floor within a year due to high increase in the number of rolls in the school. We are grateful to divine Word Society Indore for completing the second floor of the school building.

Confreres who worked so far: