Chirala: Bandla Bapaiah educational institution gearing up for centenary celebrations

Chirala: The Bandla Bapaiah Educational Institutions, which was started as a middle school and provided education up to graduation in the poor and rural area of Vetapalem for generations of people, is now turning 100 years old very soon.

Bandla Bapaiah was a native of Ravooripeta, Vetapalem village in composite Madras state and hailing from Devanga family, he developed great connections in the weavers community and exported handlooms to various countries including Singapore, Java, Malaysia, Pinang, Sri Lanka and others.

With the encouragement from the local prominent persons like Thota Seshadri Nayudu, Bandla Venkaiah, Bandla Bhadraiah, Pinjala Subrahmanyam and others, Bapaiah started the Bandla Bapaiah Middle School in Vetapalem in 1921. The then governor of composite Madras state Lord Wellingdon laid the foundation stone for the school building in 1922.

The British government honoured him with the title of Rao Saheb for his services to society. He died in 1928, leaving behind the responsibilities to his wife Saradamba and children Venkateswara Rao, Viswanatha Rao and China Bapaiah Setty. They, along with the committee members developed the school into high school in 1946, higher secondary school in 1961, junior college in 1969 and Degree College in 1981.

The local likeminded people played an important role in the development of the institution.

Vetapalem and surrounding villages are poverty-ridden. To encourage them to send their wards to school, committee member Gollapudi Radhakrishnaiah Sreshti introduced the midday meals programme for school children in 1932, which boosted the strength of the school. He sacrificed a building, furniture, and assets to continue the free meals to the students. After the death of Radhakrishnaiah, his son Seetharam is now taking care of the programme.

The institution is developed by a number of people who sacrificed their valuable assets and time for the children and their generations. The eldest son of Bandla Bapaiah Setty, Bandla Venkateswara Rao as president and his team of secretaries and correspondents provided services to children, in this government-aided school. The free midday meal, good library, buildings, well-furnished classrooms, science laboratories, and vast playgrounds and the introduction of a healthy atmosphere to provide the best education are being appreciated by one and all.

The present president of the committee Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Bandla Ankaiah Setty and his team including Koduri Ekambareswara Babu, Bandla Sarat Babu, Kosanam Nagamamba are busy in providing the best services to the children with the cooperation of other organisations. The school is now equipped with five digital classrooms, computer lab donated by Pratham Foundation, mathematics lab provided by Vandematharam Foundation, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Lab sponsored by friends and alumni for enhancing the learning experience of the students. Recently, Agastya Science Centre was started with the help of Agastya International Foundation and the alumni of the school contribute donations to the science lab.

Now, the school management is making efforts to establish Atal Tinkering Lab in the school.

They also started 'Friendship with Books' programme with the help of Prakasam Global NRI Forum coordinated by the South India in-charge of Nai Talim, Dr CA Prasad. Training programmes for teachers to enhance proficiency in English is also taken up with well-qualified resource persons.

A major improvement in the Intermediate education is ready to be implemented from June 2020, which includes special study hours and coaching, a separate computer lab with an adequate number of computers and digital equipment for practicing objective type questions. The priority for games, the NCC to the students is also in line with a special focus for girls on their health, sports and extracurricular activities.

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Bandla Ankaiah Setty explains that they want to improve activity-based learning in the school so that the student understands and remembers the topics easily. He said that they are conducting remedial classes and bridge courses for slow learners and weak students in the evenings.

For the expertise in the languages, he said that they are following the LSRW techniques, encouraging the student to listen, speak, read and write in the language. He also said that they are proud of their alumni in India, USA, UK, and Australia who excelled in medicine, technology, literature. Sharing his idea about the centenary celebrations, Ankaiah Shetty announced that they are forming teams of their alumni, very soon and decide the programme.