In a beautiful, green, lush setting, overlooking the magnificent Shatrunjay Hills, Tirthankar Mahavir Vidya Mandir (TMVM) School in Palitana was established in 2017, with the blessings and guidance of Pujya Tai Ma. It is a special school, an educational sanctuary! The students of TMVM arrive at the school every morning smartly dressed and with a broad smile on their face. Before starting the classes, the students together recite the Navkar Mantra and the Gayatri Mantra beautifully.
And then going to their classrooms, the students organise themselves and get ready for teachers to come and start teaching. In Standard 4 class, the class monitors check that all the students have done their homework, record any absentees and distribute all the books to all the students. To ensure discipline, the other monitor sings a song ‘Appreciation for Lord Mahavir’ and all the students join in. It is wonderful to watch this!
And the teachers are so dedicated and with only one thing on their mind – how to teach students effectively so that understanding happens! Not just imparting academic education but also a whole lot more by constantly guiding the children with the importance of following good morals and values. The teachers also ensure that the students eat a nutritious lunchtime meal and they check that the students have eaten everything which they brought from home – imagine the love they have as they comfort a crying child and persuade him to finish their not so favourite ‘shaak’ (curry) which is in their tiffin tin that day!
Children are very creative and they love to participate in singing, dancing, public speaking and making beautiful items such as bird’s nests, thank you cards for guests and donors etc.
Teaching children in rural India is very challenging and this makes Pujya Tai Ma’s work in this area so important and life transforming. Many students' parents are themselves uneducated and cannot read and therefore unlike the UK, do not play any significant role in helping with their children’s education. So, the onus is very much on Veerayatan and the teachers to inspire these children to do their best. On top of this the children have suffered due to lack of education for the last two years due to Covid as online e-learning was not accessible to most and yet the government has pushed everybody up regardless of their capabilities.
The enthusiasm of the students is infectious, and they are eager to learn. They just need a little more one-to-one attention! And they are always happy, live for the moment, very playful and also very creative in heart as you can see in some of the photographs.