Education – Formal

Education has been the nucleus of all SSM’s activities since its inception in 1959. SSM has therefore put in efforts to impart quality education to the deprived rural children, especially the girls. We facilitate pre-school to pre-university education on the campus for around 4000 students through different schools with hostel facilities. Presently 2000 of them are housed in the hostels on the campus. This makes us one of the largest rural residential schools.

The school and hostels are located on the campus so, progress of the students is closely monitored. The teachers and rectors coordinate and monitor the activities undertaken for the students’ over all development. Thus, besides formal education, value education is also imparted to the students. Good habits such as early rising, doing regular exercises, evening prayer, etc are inculcated in the children. Various cultural activities are also organized to provide an outlet to their aesthetic potential. Education and Training in drawing, Painting and Music is also facilitated.

There are well equipped library and laboratory facilities in place to develop reading culture and to facilitate scientific experiments respectively. There are large play grounds on the campus where students are trained in various games and sports by trained sports teachers and trainers.

We also have a unit, set up in 1983, to provide education to physically challenged students, especially for the deaf and mute.

The institute has five main school sections. Details of the institution has listed in below mentioned table.

Project Speak Well- Speak Well Initiative is really a very prudent and innovative move by SSM. The prime objective behind this move was to equip every student with the tool of English language skills that he/she can utilize for the application of any sort of acquired knowledge in his/her practical life to achieve success. With the students and teaching & non-teaching staff as the target group, project Speak-Well was formally launched in October 2011.

With a Vision of “Manufacturing Effective English Communicators” and “Empowering Community with English Language Skills” is the Mission of the project. The main objective of the project is to help the students acquire skills enabling him/her to keep pace with time.

The project has a major focus on motivating and encouraging students to interact in English through various activities like loud reading of English newspaper, speech and conversation in school assembly, group discussion, etc. Through training programmes inputs are given to the teachers to help them enhance their English language competencies, acquire novel methodologies and techniques of teaching.

Earlier, the students were so hesitant to form even eye-contact and to come forward to utter a few words that they had to be literally pushed to the front to speak. However, after the project was launched, every student started enjoying his stage appearance to articulate in English confidently without any hesitation. They have started reading not only English academic books, but English newspapers also. This was the foundation. We’re now moving to the next step towards making them proficient in English.

ZEST (Zeal for Excellence in Student & Teacher) is one of the innovative projects initiated by SSM in 2011-2012. The vision is to enhance the quality of higher secondary education.

Objectives of the project are to –

1. Improve the quality of teaching and learning.
2. Change the existing teaching – learning process.
3. Adopt innovative approach towards education.
4. Create learning-conducive atmosphere.

We combined the forces of two units of junior college to create a synergy of the resources, especially the teachers. The project involves teacher’s orientation and training programmes, aimed at improving their subject knowledge and teaching skills. Special coaching is facilitated for various entrance exams. A separate cell has been set up to counsel the students on various career options after HSC.

As an impact of the project, the teaching and learning process has become more interactive and interesting. As such, students’ attendance and active participation in the class have increased.

Sagroli Ahead: SSM has manifested a unique project named as ‘Sagroli Ahead’ for the benefit of Day scholars of Sagroli village. As a matter of fact the day-scholars of the village were deprived of the training imparted in physical, intellectual and cultural aspects which the hostellers enjoy. To compensate the gap, many extracurricular and academic activities are being conducted under the project. Around 400 students from 4^th to 8^th std. get benefitted under the project. The project celebrated its 2^nd Annual Day on 22^nd October’14. On the occasion, parents’ meet was conducted in order to share the plans for next year and get parents’ feedback for the project development.

Activities:

1. Teacher – Parent meeting: Discuss the issues & overall development of their children.
2. Social Activity: Every year students initiate an activity to conserve natural resources, like plantation.
3. Cultural Activity: Students participate to stage their hidden talent.
4. Academic Performance Test: Performance test for evaluation of pupils’ progress is being conducted.
5. Stage Courage: Students were encouraged to get rid of their tongue tie and refine speaking skills.

Project EQUIP- With an objective of improving quality of and in education, SSM has launched the Project EQUIP (Educational Quality Improvement Programme). The project consists of teachers’ training program, counseling and career guidance for children, motivation of stakeholders like parents, etc. The project aims to motivate the children towards LEARNING.

Science workshops- Apart from well-equipped labs, we do have a science workshop to bring out the hidden talents of the young minds. Every year they try out their ideas and at least one science project of our children finds a place at the national level science fair organized by NCERT.

The workshop named Khatpat-ghar, provides every opportunity to creative and innovative students to bring out incredibly sophisticated devices related to house hold activities, science, agriculture, every economy and what not. The activity is based on utilization of low cost and waste material. The exhibits are demonstrated at the khatpatghar.

 The science park named after Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, inaugurated on 25^th March 2012, provides an outlet to children’s curiosity and creativity through the working models demonstrating different scientific principles and theories. The models provide the children an opportunity of learning by doing and playing. The park is now also proving to be an open learning centre for children from other schools in the area.

Fine arts- Painting & Drawing and Classical Music are the optional subjects open for all the students of the school. The students appear for graded examinations at the end of each spell of the training.

Educational Tours- Twice a year, educational tours are conducted to give the children an exposure to our rich heritage, in addition to the educational objectives.

The National Cadet Core (NCC)- The school is proud of its dynamic/adventurous youth participating social services through N.C.C. 52 Maharashtra Battalion. The school NCC troop has bagged the ‘Best Troop’ award at the Annual Training Camps, continuously for the past 25 years. For three times the school cadets participated in the glorious Republic Day parade at New Delhi.

 Cultural and Literary Activities- SSM celebrates most of the festivals as community gathering, irrespective of religions. A number of competitions including stage plays, elocution, debate, Rangoli, Essay writing, Cooking, Drawing, Painting, light music, vocal & instrumental music etc. are organized on the occasions. The prize winners are rewarded on the day of Annual Social Gathering.

SEAL: Sujaya Foundation (SF) bridges the digital and linguistic divide through Education for underprivileged and differently able children to launch them into dignified and bright future. SF had initiated a project SEAL in Maharashtra to bridge the gap. Taking this into account, SSM has been implementing the project with SF’s technical support. The project is a digital learning platform that includes audio files, self learning and monitored learning. During the course, teachers are involved in lab guidance, linguistic skill development and evaluation of the students. Last year, around 275 students have got benefitted under the project. In order to provide quality training, SSM had installed a dedicated language lab of 20 computers. Considering students and parents’ positive feedback, we have planned to extend it by involving 5^th std. students, in addition to the present 6-7^th classes.

Activities:

1. Students’ lab practice sessions of 3 hours per week were conducted.
2. Inter unit competitions were organized for SEAL participants.
3. Different modules were organized on daily basis for better performance.
4. Special training on computer basics and English language were conducted.