Mission statement

The school's mission is to provide an appropriate kindergarten, primary and intermediate education for children from Kuilapalayam and other villages which are geographically connected to Auroville, based on the principles of integral education as defined by the founders of Auroville, the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. The school strives to maintain a creative and joyful atmosphere, where the uniqueness of each child is respected and nurtured, and to prepare children for life in a rapidly changing world, while maintaining contact with their Tamil cultural heritage.   

The school aims to provide a quality bilingual education in Tamil and English, covering all of the standard academic subjects, physical education, and a wide variety of vocational options, giving children a range of choices in the type of education they will pursue when leaving the school.

Aikiyam School is an Outreach day-school under the Sri Aurobindo Institute of International Educational Research (SAIIER) for more than 200 children, with classes which range from pre-kindergarten to the eighth grade. All tuition, educational supplies, nutritious snacks and mid-day meals are provided free of charge. In April 2008 the school received provisional affiliation for a period of three years from India 's Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and is entitled to issue a recognised school leaving certificate.

Aikiyam School started in the early 1980s. It was then called New Creation School, and was later renamed New Creation Bilingual School as classes were given in both English and Tamil. Originally it was a small boarding school for children from the traditional and impoverished village of Kuilapalayam, where the only mode of transport besides walking was by bullock cart, or, for the better off, by bicycle. Today both the village and the school have changed.

Presently, Aikiyam School is a day-school under SAIIER's Auroville Outreach School Board for more than 200 children, with classes ranging from pre-kindergarten to the eighth grade. All tuition, educational supplies, nutritious snacks and mid-day meals are provided free of charge, although parents are asked to donate to the school if they can.  

Since 2005 the school has a new management team that works in close collaboration with the school's Principal and Teachers. We hope to share through these pages the lively reality of the school and its steady development.  

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) affiliated

Aikiyam School received its first provisional affiliation in 2008, for a period of three years. Recently, CBSE extended the affiliation for an additional five years, through March 2016. Since Aikiyam is following the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum, the single standardized exam given once a year, which determines a student’s achievement and grade level, is no longer required. These make or break, one-size-fits-all exams make no allowance for individual, economic, racial or cultural differences and may change the course of a child’s life on the basis of a few hours of writing once a year. Instead of the national or state-wide, summative exam required by other curriculum boards, CBSE allows the school to assess a student’s progress with a varied series of informal, formative assessments such as short but more frequent tests for spelling, etc.; portfolios with samples of student’s work; and/or teacher’s observations and continuous documentation. Performances, presentations and exhibitions in which students demonstrate what they have learned are also useful forms of formative assessment, enabling us to measure a student’s abilities and interests in many different ways to form a composite picture of the whole child.

For further information, contact the school's Support Group,

assg@auroville.org.in

Aikiyam School Appeal