: Thousands of students have passed through the portals of this school that began as a primary institution to provide education to the children of the Punjabis, who came to the city after the Partition.
The institution, which started off in a rented building on Royapettah High Road with just 37 students, today stands tall as the P.N.D. Adarsh Vidyalaya Matriculation Higher Secondary School.
The present campus on Peters Road was bought in an auction in 1953 by the Punjab Association and the school — Adarsh Vidyalaya, as it is popularly known — was inaugurated by S. Govindarajulu Naidu, Director of Public Instruction of Composite Madras State on July 11, 1954. The new building was inaugurated on November 19, 1965 by the then Chief Minister of Madras, M. Bakthavatsalam.
Association General Secretary Ramesh Lamba said that even though the school begun for the sake of the Punjabi children, Chennaiites were welcomed with open arms. The motto of the school — ‘Knowledge, Service, Sacrifice’ — highlights its aims and objectives of moulding children into responsible citizens. “The school aims at providing quality education. Our teachers and support staff have been with us. Ours was one of the first schools to start e-learning in classrooms,” he said.
The school, which now has over 2,400 students on its rolls, was one of the few institutions to start the Higher Secondary course in the year 1978. It even had a vocational group. Some of its well-known alumni include leading gynaecologist Priya Selvaraj, film actors Rathi Agnihothri, Swarnamalya Ganesh and Gayathri Raghuram.
On December 2, the school will celebrate its 60 anniversary at The Music Academy in which Governor K. Rosaiah will participate. The school’s first principal Visharadha Hoon and first student Sharad Batra will be honoured at the event. Bharat Bhushan Goyal, Association President, Ajay Bhalla, Treasurer, and Rajesh Malhotra, Chairman Executive Committee of the Association, will grace the event.
