The Vinayaka Gnana Vidya Shale (known in English as the Mullur School) is a kindergarten through 10th grade rural private school that provides quality educational instruction to a student body of more than 400 children each year.
From Cancer Screening to Classrooms
In 1994, while conducting a cancer screening program in the village of Mullur, the IHDUA field team began preparations to establish a clinic that would serve the medical needs of local residents. But then a group of community members made an unexpected request: could those resources instead be used to build a school for area children?
As things stood, grade school students were required to travel long distances to reach the government schools serving Mullur and nearby villages. But those schools were plagued by inferior educational outcomes caused in part by high rates of teacher absenteeism and antiquated teaching methods.
In response, that same year the field team quickly organized a kindergarten program and built a small school consisting of seven classrooms on land donated to IHDUA by the community itself. With each subsequent year the school administrators added an additional grade, until 2005, when a tenth grade section was formed. Over time the school premises expanded as well; today there are twenty classrooms, including a library, art studio and computer lab.
Since the school’s founding, more than three thousand students have completed tenth grade, which is a pivotal point in the Indian education system. In that year students take a secondary school exit exam administered by the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board. Students at the Mullur School have consistently achieved passing rates at or near 100% for the past five years.