Ms Kandukuri Sirisha has a Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from JNTU Hyderabad, and Masters in Education from TISS Mumbai. She had worked with Oracle India Private Ltd., Wipro Technologies and Dell Technologies for about 10 years in the Supply Chain Management ERP industry, before she started working in the education field. 

She worked with Rishi Valley during which she was involved in the design and development of a self-paced in-service teacher training program(ODL) for state governments. She has also worked with RV Educational Consortium where she evaluated the outcomes of a three year action research project aimed at improving learning levels of students in BBMP (Bangalore local body) Schools. 

Her main areas of work include Language and Cognition, Subaltern Studies, Science and Math Education. 

She is involved in content development and teacher training. She is also passionate about developing illustrated children's books and farming.

Dr Annapureddy Rama Papi Reddy holds a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from JNTU Hyderabad and a PhD in Operations Management from IIM Bangalore. He is currently working as a Faculty at IIM Nagpur. 

His was involved in setting up school processes and designing teacher training programs. His interests include Science and Math education, and philosophy.

He is passionate about photography and traditional farming. He continues to be an advisor to the school.

Schools should be the places which provoke children to think critically, experience moments of quiet, relate to the surroundings and people around and learn to be conscious of the symbiosis at micro and macro levels in biological, social, cultural and economic spheres.

Education which is just about reading, writing, acquiring knowledge and skills, prioritizes job readiness over any other educational value. True value in education lies in helping a child become an individual who is aware and capable of decision making that affects the larger world as well as everyday life.

The Dream

My childhood school had less than 15 children in each class, where the teachers could give attention to every one of us. The children knew each other very well as small groups allow for good peer interaction. Many of us at school were eager to go back to school after holidays. Schooling had been so much an enjoyable experience all together that I wished that each and every child had such beautiful schooling.

I have always dreamt of creating learning spaces that preserve the natural curiosity of children, which makes it possible for learning in fun-filled ways and make them think deeply and create compassionate and competent individuals who can fully utilize their potential, instead of those trying to win a meaningless rat race.

I didn’t know where to begin. In the search of an answer, I went on to pursue Masters in Education (Elementary) from from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai, after quitting my high paid corporate career in Supply Chain Management. This course gave me more questions than answers and showed me the world in a whole new light. My experiences through study of alternate education spaces like Center For Learning(CFL) near Bangalore, Rishi Valley School and a decade of experience in the corporate IT sector as well as education sector made me realize the complexities of lives of people, their circumstances, and the power of good education in everyone’s life.

I dream of a schooling system that is fair to everyone and enables one to carve a beautiful path of one’s own. We understood the need to establish a school that functioned differently from the existing mainstream schools. We visited various alternate schools, studied their methods and over the years developed a curriculum that suited a mix of rural and semi-urban populace which is unique to the locality where we serve. This became the Vidyādhāra way in 2018, when we started an early childhood care program that made children school ready. It grew to class 7 in 2021.

Sirisha Kandukuri

2014

The Society "T.R.E.E" got registered

We began workshops in Math and Science, aimed at encouraging children to build working models explaining math concepts and scientific phenomena.

Our observations

1. Most children were not exposed to the fun in the subjects at school.

2. They had never been encouraged to experiment and observe.

3. Younger children were more participative than older ones.

4. Younger children were more creative and receptive to new ideas.

5. The older the child is, the more 'tension' we could sense when it came to science and math.

2016

Started Working with children with compounded learning gaps.

We began working with children who failed in examinations at plus 2 level and those who were lagging in studies.

The project

• Identification of the learning issue of each child.

• proposing a remedial course of action, tailored for each particular child.

• Implementation of the remedial action.

• Make children independent learners by end of 2 months.

Our observations

1. In their respective schools right from a young age, children were trained to concentrate on getting marks.

2. They were told to read and understand but were not trained in the learning processes required to understand viz., observation, analysis, abstraction, experimentation.

3. Crippled with misunderstanding or not understanding of basics in their elementary schooling years, children could not learn well during high school and at plus 2 level.

4. Most of these children managed to get decent marks in schools as they learnt "important questions" by heart. Hence the learning issue was not evident to parents until a few years later.

5. Once children were made aware of the exact issue and helped with the right kind of materials and learning through observation, they could pick up quite fast and began to work on their learning gaps themselves.

We began to understand that schools were dumbing down children and were not taking cognizance of their inability to help children with learning gaps.

Schools were shifting the blame onto children and parents by using excuses such as

'dull heads',

'they may have learning disabilities - like Taare Zameen Par'

basics were not good',

'parents didn't take care' ,

'it is too late' etc.

None of these children had learning disabilities, neither were their parents careless. The carelessness of the schools was blatant.

2018

Established Vidyādhāra School

Started "Early Childhood Education(ECE)" program for pre-school age children.

The program involves

1. Research and development of age appropriate learning activities and materials.

2. Tailoring teaching learning methods to the needs of the target children.

3. Curriculum design that incudes local knowledge.

4. Teacher capacity building.

5. Working with parents on ensuring home environment that is conducive to learning.

2020

Vidyādhāra School grew to class 7

(Got Recognized by Government of Andhra Pradesh)

Along with regular schooling activities, the following activities are undertaken

1. Content development

2. Developing innovative teaching learning methods and materials

3. Teacher training

4. Working with parents

While Jiddu Krishnamurti inspires us to cultivate a culture of internal reflection, Paulo Freire’s teachings continue to guide our curriculum and pedagogy to a large extent.

In addition to imparting skills and capabilities necessary for students to perform on board examinations and entrance tests, we emphasize on critical pedagogy as a tool of liberation from the social and cultural conditioning.

Selection of content(Syllabus), pedagogic processes(Teaching methods) and Assessment are tailored accordingly.

To know more kindly visit Curriculum and pedagogy

The town of Madanapalle is located around 120 KM North-East of Bengaluru, and about 100 KM West of Tirupati. Madanapalle is well connected to both Bengaluru and Tirupati by road. Madanapalle can be reached by train also from Tirupati/ Anantapur.