During our last very brief meeting (in Jan. 2017) at school, I had briefly mentioned about the proposal for a New Nursery Building at VanaVani and the possible need that may arise for contributions from the school Alumni. Over the last six to eight months we have put together the proposal for the construction of a completely new, state-of-the-art Nursery building for VanaVani. The existing structure is more than 40 years old and has been serving its purpose, but does not stand up to the needs of modern education, leaving aside some structural renovations that are due. The present Head of the Dept. of Civil Engineering, Prof. Ramamurthy and his student team, in consultation with the Engineering Unit at IIT Madras, helped us in preparing a novel design that not only caters to the present-age needs (of teachers and children) and capacity, but also preserves the greenery in which the existing Nursery building is housed. It has been prepared keeping energy conservation and the projected needs for the next few decades in mind. In many ways, the model is unique and expected to attract children to spend time at the school and enjoy the activities in full eagerness. The school has been making strides towards digitalisation of its operations with a dedicated IT support in place. The new Nursery building is expected to enable both traditional and digital ways of teaching.
This design was presented at a recent meeting of the IIT Madras Educational Trust (the governing body of VanaVani) and an in-principle approval was obtained from the Chairman of the Trust (the Director, IIT Madras, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthy).
A rough estimate of cost of the proposed structure has been prepared by our Engineering Unit with inputs from the Dept. of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras. The cost estimate (including structural and services costs, taxes and other municipal corporation fee) works out to be approximately Rs. 3.9 crores (nearly 0.55 million USD). Due to operational and certain new legalities brought in by the ministry of HRD, IIT Madras is not permitted to financially support non-KV schools, even if they have been existing before. On the school side, VanaVani operates purely based on the revenue generated through school fees and is not exactly in a position to meet the costs. The need for a new nursery building, on the other hand, is almost imperative for maintaining the highest standards of nursery education.
Keeping the above facts in view, the School Management has turned to its Alumni for contributions. In this regard, in my capacity as the Chairman, School Management Committee, I humbly request you to consider contributing to the funds for the proposed New Nursery Building to your best possible extent. Ideally, it will be great if you could extend the full financial support. Depending on the extent of contribution, we will be happy to consider having a named building. Please find attached a simplified drawing of the proposed structure.
We eagerly look forward to your significant contributions towards this cause.
