Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools

Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools (MVMs) is an educational school system founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and established in 16 Indian states.^[1][2] It has 148 branches in 118 cities, with 80,000 to 100,000 students and 5,500 teaching and support staff.^[3] It is said to be one of the "largest chain[s] of privately owned, public schools in India".^[1] MVM Schools are managed by a registered educational society called the "Maharishi Shiksha Sansthan" under the chairmanship of Girish Chandra Varma.^[4] MVMs is also affiliated with the New Delhi Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).^[5][6][7]

Campuses

MCEE school campus at Bhopal

The central offices for MVMs are located on the Maharishi Centre for Educational Excellence (MCEE) campus in Lambakheda, near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.^[8] Regional Offices are located in Allahabad, Haridwar, Jabalpur, Kurukhestra, Guwahati, Hyderabad and Bhopal.^[8] The MVMs have locations in Ratanpur, Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh are reported to include on-campus housing for teachers and students as part of their in-residence school program.^[8] In 2009, MVMS celebrated its 27th year in operation.^[9] The Lucknow campus was founded in 1984.^[10]

Bhopal

The Maharishi Center for Educational Excellence in Bhopal is said to be the first K-12 school in the Maharishi Vidya Mandir School system. As of 2000, the school had grown to include 500 to 600 students.^[6] Maharishi Vidya Mandir Ratanpur is a senior secondary CBSE affiliated school with hostel facility in Ratanpur, Bhopal, India.^[11] and its principal is B.S. Guleria.^[12] In July 2013 five of its in-residence students drowned in the Betwa river while on an unsupervised outing. The school warden admitted to negligence in granting permission for the outing which was intended to be a trip to a "coaching institute."^[13]

Jabalpur

Being birthplace of founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Jabalpur is one of the important place concerned with Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools. It has 5 schools located at different places in Jabalpur. 1. M.V.M. Narmada Road Jabalpur Affiliated to C.B.S.E.^[14] 2. M.V.M. Napier town Affiliated to C.B.S.E.^[15] 3. Sanjeevni Nagar Jabalpur ^[16] 4. Adhartal Jabalpur ^[17] 5. Vijay Nagar Jabalpur ^[18]

Borsajai

This school's Eco Club is a member of the National Green Corps program and is also recognized by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.^[19] In December 2009, the school conducted a "National Pollution Prevention Day". The school and the Eco Club organized an all-day program which included competitions, films and exhibitions, all with an environmental theme. The Eco Club also conducted a "cleanliness drive" whose purpose was to collect all the polythene packets from around the school and, with the support of school authorities, the Eco Club declared their school campus a “no polythene zone”.^[19] The event was attended by Purnima Devi Barman, who is an environmental educator from Aaranya. Barman gave a presentation on the endangered animal species of Northeastern India.^[19]

Hyderabad

Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Hyderabad, is situated in the Kondapur area of Hyderabad on seven acres of land.^[20] Vasanthy Parasuraman is the principal.^[21] She received the CBSE National Award for Teachers in 2010.^[22]

Chennai

Maharishi School of Excellence (MSE) Chennai^[23] was established in the year 2010. MSE Chennai is located at Thiruverkadu, P.T.C. Colony, Pallavan Nagar area of Chennai in 4.54 acres of land. The school is reported to have vast infrastructure, state of the art facilities including Audio Visual teaching system, Computers, Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Social Science Laboratories,Library, Reading room, Music room, Art room, Transcendental Meditation hall, Yoga hall. The Maharishi School of Excellence Chennai is running under the aegis of registered society "Maharishi Shiksha Sansthan" ^[24] and it is a part of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools. It seamlessly integrates Maharishi's Supreme Science of Life-Vedic Science and Technology in its curriculum.^[25]

Maharishi Vidya Mandir is located at three locations in Chennai: Chetpet, Sriperumbudur and near Mahindra City. Mr. Namasivayam is the principal of the Chetpet branch. He received the national award for CBSE teachers in 2007. The school operating at Sriperumbudur is an international school with boarding facilities. Maharishi International Residential School located at Sriperumbudur is also a branch of MVM group of schools.

It was reported in January 2015 that students from Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Chennai, won the fourth edition of the Times Science Quiz, conducted by The Times of India in association with Karpaga Vinayaga Educational Group.^[26]They also have sports competition and have won district prizes in volleyball

Others

MVM School at Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh

In 2009, a student at the Maharishi Vidya Mandir School of Silpukhuri, Guwahati took first prize at the State Level Science Fair and received the "best state child scientist award".^[27] In December, the school celebrated the mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan in conjunction with Abacus, a children's math society. Speakers included, Ranjana Choudhury, retired chairman of the department of mathematics at Handique Girls College and Indira Bordoloi, the director at Handique Girls College.^[28] In 2010, an MVMs student received recognition at the Eastern Indian Science Fair at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum in Calcutta for inventing a method of creating low cost candles from Nahar seeds.^[27]

The Maharishi Vidya Mandir School located in Hosur was created in June 1983, and began with three teachers and 85 students. It is reported to have grown to 150 teachers and 4,600 students. The campus consists of 60 acres (240,000 m²) near the edge of the town of Hosur. It has 110 classrooms, some laboratories, a library, an audio visual center, and a computer lab with Internet. The school accepts students up to the senior secondary level.^[29]

In 2010, the school hosted a presentation by A.S. Pillai, the CEO of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.^[30][31]

In 2011, parents of students at the Yamunagar school protested a proposed move to a new school building on a dangerous highway.^[32] Also in 2011, teachers from a Maharishi Vidya Mandir School collaborated with teachers from the USA under the Teachers’ Achievement and Excellence Programme of the US State Department and International Research and Exchange.^[33]

In February 2012 a class 6 student from Maharishi Vidya Mandir in Chetpet, won the city finale of the HDFC Life Spell Bee, India Spells 2012, a competition jointly held by The Times of India and Horlicks.^[34]

Academics

MVMS follows the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) course pattern and the normal curriculum of Hindi/Regional Language/English medium public schools. The academic program also includes the practice of Transcendental Meditation and the study of the Veda and the literature about the Veda.^[3] In addition, Sanskrit is considered a compulsory subject for students at MVMS.^[3] The goal of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools is to provide an educational program which allows the students to feel at home with everything and achieve success.^[35]

Extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities at MVMS include yoga, arts and crafts, chess, dance, music, handball, table tennis and creative writing.^[36][37][38] In 2009, 36 students from two of MVMs's schools participated in a five-day learning program at the space centers in the cities of Houston and Orlando, USA.^[39] In 2010, a cultural centre was inaugurated at the Silpukhuri branch school.^[40]

In December 2015, MVMs was reported as having contributed food, relief materials and student volunteers to victims of the Chennai floods.^[41]

References

External links

• Official MVM Schools Facebook Page