Newly formed team to revive century-old school

As “Dhadi Vadyar School” in Mylapore gears up to celebrate its centenary year, a collective comprising residents of the neighbourhood and alumni are pulling out all the stops to restore it to its past glory

Tucked inside a narrow lane at Mangolai in Mylapore, Sree Karpagavalli Vidhyalaya Middle School would easily go unnoticed amidst a mushroom of institutions in the area. This year, a new school management is trying to make some noise for an institution that has imparted life skills to generations of students.

This Tamil medium government-aided school that is gearing up to celebrate its centenary year from the coming academic year is on a revival path.

Six young like-minded individuals, a majority off them from the neighbourhood, recently took over as the trustees of Chandra Ammal Educational and Charitable Trust, which runs this institution well-known among old timers as “Dhadi Vadyar School” as the founder K.V. Dharma Raja Iyer always spotted a long beard.

None of the trustees (R. Shivakumar, Harsha Vardhana R., U.R. Sriram Shankkar, Sripriya Anand, Yamuna Harsha Vardhana and Prabhu) are alumni of the school but come with varied experience and a common goal of keeping an institution going for what it gave the neighbourhood.

In this mission, the trustees have reached out to alumni and the community around to support them.

Poor enrolment rate is one of the big challenges the institution faces. From 700 students during its hey day, today the strength of the school has trickled down to a single digit number.

“We are trying to analyse the reason for this drastic decline. Is it because parents want English medium education or the Right to Education has made it possible for students to get admission in private schools?” asks R. Shivakumar, secretary, correspondent and trustee.