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Men who matter
C. Venu Mohan
A couple of unsuccessful attempts at the civil services examination prompted him to start an educational institution since he thought that a few gaps in his early education did not allow him to get through the examinations. He started a school in a tiled house of 167 sq. yds. in MVP Colony in 1982 with two students. Today that school has an enrolment of over 3,000 students, with 150 teaching and non-teaching staf. It is spread over two campuses: one at MVP Colony and the other in Ukkunagaram.
Meet C. Venu Mohan, principal and correspondent of Little Angels School, who elaborates the concept of complete school thus: "A complete school is the one that caters for every requirement of a student. There should be no shortcomings in any form, be it in regard to the library facility to extra-curricular activities or from good classroom ambience to friendly experienced teachers."
Hailing from a middle-class agrarian family of Ramachandrapuram in East Godavari district, Mr. Venu Mohan had his schooling at different places in the State as his father was in the Revenue Department.
After completing his graduation from Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada and post-graduation in economics from Sri Venkateswara University he tried his hand in the civils, before setting up the school with his wife Ranganayaki.
Why Vizag?
"I gauged the potential of this city during my research scholar days in Andhra University. This city has the got the potential to become a learning hub not only in the State but also in the country."
The success of Little Angels within a period of two decades could be a case study for many an educational institution. He attributes it to scrupulous planning, meticulous execution of the plan, single-minded determination and personal care.
"I cannot be satisfied easily. Everything has to be perfect for me. Right from the bathroom to the classroom and from the playground to the science laboratory everything should be spic and span. As far as personal attention is considered I still remember my first two students by their names - Kalyan Chakraborty and Chittaranjan. Both are engineers today."
According to him, parents and school managements should not make education marks-and-examination-centric. "Schools should aim at holistic development and in the process extract the latent talent in the child. And that is possible only with the support of parents. If a child has got sporting or painting talent, give him or her the opportunity and the required infrastructure to explore."
Little Angels is one among the few schools in the city that has been regularly contributing to the national level-sporting arena in the schools sector.
"One of the main reasons to start the Ukkunagaram campus is to have a better playground than the one at MVP Colony. We are also one among the few schools in the State to have all sporting facilities like tennis court, cricket nets, bowling machines, athletic tracks, basketball court and table- tennis boards within our premises. Apart from sports we concentrate a lot on the cultural and other soft skills development. We also have a full-time psychologist to act as student counsellor. On the education front, we have a perfect module combining theory and practicals. We focus a lot on things like project works, group study and educational tours."
Like any educationist he says, "My goal is unfinished, I still have a lot to do."
S.B.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
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Visakhapatnam
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