The school saw a simple beginning with only a paltry sum collected from well-wishers.

When the Malayalee Association of HEC township, in the 70s, was toying with the idea of providing quality education to the wards of HEC employees, they had many hurdles to clear.

The association residing in HEC township was keen to provide the much-needed quality education to the wards of employees of HEC.

Most association members lived in HEC township and so they approached the HEC management to allot five acres of land. But land alone was not enough to set up a school. Funds were needed in a phased manner to build classrooms and buy infrastructure.

It was not possible on the part of association members to fund the school?s requirement. Hence, the association hit upon a plan to rope in the public.

?Our request was only Re 1 from each resident in Ranchi and the response was overwhelming. The association had a small plot of land at Hawai Nagar which was disposed of. With these initial funds, we completed construction of the first block,? said principal Rajan Verghese.

The Kairali School started on January 9, 1978. There were 132 students in K.G and preparatory classes and three teachers.

Within two years, the students? strength crossed the 200 mark.

By 1987, seven new classrooms were constructed mainly with help from contributors and loan extended by general members of Malayalee Association. Till 1987, most students were wards of HEC employees. In 1986-87 session, the students? strength crossed 500 and Kairali School opened its doors for students outside HEC township.

Aiming High

The school believes in making brilliant students out of average ones. The school also gives merit-cum-means scholarship to the economically-poor students. The Malayalee Association gives 20 types of scholars and awards. Every teacher gives prizes for different subjects to those students who have scored good marks.

Aimed at quality leadership training to students and to encourage large-scale participation of students in extra-curricular activities, a students? forum was formed in the session 1986-87.

Progress march

The school was accorded affiliation by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Delhi. The first batch of 14 students of session 1987-88 session appeared for the Class X board examination.

Ten students secured first division, and the remaining four second division.

The same year saw the school making history when all 22 students of the second batch secured first division in the board examination. The school made rapid progress in various activities. Computer classes were introduced, the first school to do so in HEC township.

From the 1997-1998 session, five-day a week classes were introduced for Classes KG to II.

Out of the classroom

A nature club, ?Dodo?, affiliated to WWF, was introduced to evoke environmental awareness.

Later, it was rechristened Blossom Nature Club.

To develop other talents of the students, the school has launched a magazine, Pursuit, which is published every alternative year.

Achievement

The school principal was awarded the Neshar Ahmed Award of Excellence by Rotary Club of Ranchi South and the school won the ?Best School Performance Award 2002-2003? from Rotary Club, Ranchi.

Rajesh Ranjan of 1993 CBSE batch won the National Innovative Foundation Award 2002 from the President of India in Delhi on December 17, 2002, for his invention of ?electricity from shoes?.

In 1999, Sanjukta Das was declared as the ?Amul Butter Girl? of Bihar based on her performance in several rounds of personality tests. She represented Bihar in the national contest held at Anand, Gujarat where she reached up to the semi-finals.

In the session 2001-02, ?Aparajita?, a wing of International Society For Women Development, selected Kairali school as the best school of Jharkhand.

Prinicipal talk

Principal says: ?Education is the aggregate of all process by which a person develops abilities, attitudes and other forms of behaviour of practical values in the society in which he lives, the social process by which people are subjected to the influence of a selected and controlled environment so that they may attain social competence and optimum individual development.?

Strengthens

The school maintains a strict discipline. The students also get an opportunity to display their talents house wise every day on the stage. The library is a veritable storehouse of more than 10,000 to 30,000 collection of books.

The school does not have canteen but is under construction and would be completed within a month. The school will soon start lawn tennis besides the usual games which are played like cricket and football.

Arti Sahuliyar