KV Tirumalagiri

Kendriya Vidyalaya is the central government school system which has been put into place in order to educate the children of government employees throughout India as they are transfered from one assignment to the next. The Indian Government is absolutely HUGE - so the demands placed on the KV system are relatively large in comparison to school systems in the US. In order to manage the transfer of children between regions throughout the school year, the KV system mandates a tight curricular schedule so that a student's academic experience will not change radically from one school to the next.

KV Tirumalagiri, or KVT, is about 4 or 5 km from where I am staying in Secunderabad and is my temporary home for the next four months. Each school day starts off with a morning assembly in which students form incredibly straight lines by gender and grade level on the large parade field. A student captain calls all 2200 students to order and they begin with the sound of "ohm" which is drawn out to about 10 seconds in order to clear the mind. The next 5 minutes or so is a recitation of a beautiful prayer - one in which students are asking god to open their minds and remove their obstacles to learning for the day. It finishes with "chanti, chanti, chanti" or "peace, peace, peace". I will ask one of my students to translate it for this blog for posting (it is sung in Hindi).

Then students will recite the pledge (it is recited in English on Mondays and Tuesdays, Hindi on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and Sanskrit - the mother language of all 18 national languages of India, on Fridays and Saturdays) which is followed by announcements and then the national anthem which is sung with an accompanying band.

Indian Pledge

India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters.
I Love my country. I am proud of its rich and varied culture. I shall always strive to be worthy of it.
I shall love and respect my parents, teachers and elders.
To my country and my people I pledge my devotion.

Indian National Anthem - Jana Gana Mana

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he,

Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.

Punjab-Sindh-Gujarat-Maratha,

Dravida-Utkala-Banga,

Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga

Uchchala-Jaladhi-Taranga.

Tava shubha name jage,

Tava shubha asisa mange,

Gahe tava jaya gatha,

Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.

Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he, Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he!

English Translation

Thou are the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India's destiny.
The name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujurat and Maratha. Of the Dravid and Orissa and Bengal.
It Echoes in the hills of Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.
They pray for your blessing and sing thy praise. The salvation of all people is thy hand, thou dispenser of India's destiny. Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.

I am teaching two sections of grade 11 Physics and two sections of grade 9 integrated science. I will often have more than one meeting with the grade 11 students each day (there are nine periods) however I will only meet the ninth grade students three times per week since I only teach the physics section of that course (the Biology and Chemistry teachers will do the other portions of the grade nine integrated course).

One of the things I really like about the school that is different from the US is that the primary school and middle school is all present on the same campus - although there is little interaction between students during the day, it is nice to see the continuum of social and academic progress in the morning for assembly.

The children must wear uniforms while on the grounds of the school - boys will wear blue shorts and a white short-sleeved dress shirt up to grade 8, after which they will replace the shorts with pants. Girls wear long blue skirts with white blouses and must wear their hear in braids or tied up in red bows. After grade 8, girls will wear the traditional Indian salwar kameez - or long top with cotton "pyjama" pants and a white scarf. On Wednesdays students participate in mass physical training in which they will wear white on white in order to keep cool in the sun.

I think things are off to a good start.