A pre-independence school brims with activities

Seed balls and plants are gifted to visitors.

School children with Rajendra Hegde, General Manager, Toyota Kirloskar Motor

Students maintain the herbal garden in the school.

The Government Higher Primary School in Hejjala, Ramanagara district, a pre-independence school established in 1943 was in a bad shape. As the school lost its sheen, the number of students studying there also decreased.

However, Toyota Kirloskar Motor as part of its Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR) initiatives, undertook the reconstruction of the school in 2016. The two storeyed, solar powered ‘green’ school now has all the basics facilities such as new classrooms with attractive furniture, computer room, library, audio visual room, and sports room. The school boasts of rain water harvesting facilities, water filters and in-house kitchen.

This school, jointly run by the government and TKM, was developed as a model school, i.e., based on its positive outcomes, the same methods will be implemented in other government schools henceforth.

In 2019, the strength rose to 64 students from a mere 28 in 2016.

“At Toyota, we strongly believe that poverty should not be an obstacle for a child’s growth, especially for obtaining quality education,” says K V Rajendra Hegde, General Manager, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

Earlier, the government school students would drop out due to lack of proper toilet facilities. Therefore, Toyota initiated Project ABCD (A Behavioural Change Demonstration) to create awareness on the importance of sanitation and basic hygiene. As part of this project, separate toilets for boys and girls have been constructed in the school.

Earlier, the school had Classes from 1 to 5, now it has been upgraded to Class 7. The education department is planning to sanction Class 8 this academic year.

TKM has tied up with Sparsha, an NGO, to conduct classes as well as train government teachers in innovative teaching methods. Special classes are also conducted after school hours which has shown an improvement in students’ learning. Students are trained in spoken and written English as well.

Students are taught to be ambidextrous, and can now write using both the hands. This is done to improve their left and right brain functions. The once shy students now regularly participate in inter school and state level competitions. They are even invited to perform at different programmes in other schools.

The school not only provides a holistic curriculum but is also spreading awareness among students about pollution, zero plastic usage and measures to tackle these issues. As a part of this activity, students participate in a weekly plastic collection drive in their community and hand over the waste to local administration for disposal. They even go to nearby schools and campaign on the need to reduce plastic use.

Another issue close to their hearts is the loss of green cover. So they distribute plants and seed balls to visitors. During floods last year, the students took up the initiative of collecting funds from their neighbours to donate to the flood victims. As a token of appreciation, they gave away plants to those who made monetary contributions.