Guyana’s school divides academic year like Diwali, Ramnavami

Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN), a Hindu Secondary School in Guyana’s West Coast Demerara, divides the school year in unique four terms: Divali, Ramnavmi, Vyasa Purnima, Grishma.

Besides 15 standard subjects in its curriculum, non-profit SVN also teaches “Hindu Culture”, including Vedic Studies, Bharatnatyam and Kathak. Its history goes back to 1998, but it opened in 2002. Its motto includes “Satyam vada dharmam cara” (Speak the truth. Practice righteousness.) and its “philosophy of education” is concerned with the “overall development and transformation of the student”. Besides encouraging academic brilliance, it claims to “foster the eternal and universal human values of compassion, fearlessness, truth, forgiveness, and non-injury”. Swami Aksharananda and Tanuja Gopaul are Principal and Vice-Principal respectively.

Commending efforts of SVN to instill Hindu values among the pupils, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has urged the Hindu community to work towards opening more Hindu schools in West Indies.

In a statement in Nevada (USA) today, Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that such schools would help Hindu children to strengthen their spiritual and moral roots and enlighten interested non-Hindus about the concepts and philosophy of the oldest and third largest religion of the world.

Such schools would go a long way in nurturing Hindu virtues among our children and give them a spiritual identity. Moreover, these could help counter the misinformation about Hinduism and promote Sanskrit, Rajan Zed added.