Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala is a residential school for boys run by the Ramakrishna Mission. It is situated in the southern Indian city of Mysore in Karnataka. It offers a comprehensive education from high school to junior college, or grades eight through twelve. Basically focusing on All-round development of a child. Its former Correspondent, Swami Muktidananda, stated in May 2010: "Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala accords preference to students from rural areas and economically and socially underprivileged background at the time of admission ... The student profile is divergent and reflective of the entire state of Karnataka."
Vidyashala is one of nine centers of the Ramakrishna Mission in the state of Karnataka. Two others are located in Mysore: Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama and the Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education.
Early history
Vidyashala was founded in 1953 by Swami Shambhavananda, a monk of the Ramakrishna Math who was born in Kodagu. The swami was one of the early presidents of Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore. He was an educational pioneer in southern Karnataka who sought to offer younger students a "man-making education", which Swami Vivekananda had described as a "total development of man which includes the physical, mental and spiritual."
Before it moved to its current location, Vidyashala began as a small hostel for students of various age groups called Ramakrishna Students Home. The students home was built in 1932; some of its residents, such as the critically acclaimed writers K.V. Puttappa, Javare Gowda and S.M. Krishna, the former Minister of External Affairs (India), went on to become prominent members of society. When Swami Shambhavananda felt a need to expand the student's home, he procured a redesign from Sri B.B. Mhatre, the renowned architect of Bombay. Swami Shambhavananda faced the daunting challenge of collecting funds to build the new hostel. In search of funding, he toured various parts of Karnataka, but he also went to Bombay, where he met with several prospective contributors. Help also came from the Union government and the governments of Coorg and Mysore. One of the many legends of the swami's fund-collection drive is that he walked around Mysore's Yadavagiri area seeking bhiksha on behalf of the new hostel. After gathering the funds and then acquiring land from the Maharaja of Mysore, Swami Shambhavananda physically led the building construction even in an advanced age. The new hostel was inaugurated 2 October 1950 by Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, the first and only Indian Governor-general of India. His highness Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, the then Maharaja of Mysore, presided over the inaugural function.
After the new hostel was inaugurated, Swami Shambhavananda, in order to address the students, who had to travel to other schools for their education, conceived a plan to convert the hostel into a residential school. After making some modifications to the building, the new school was inaugurated in 1953. In 1957, the 33.3-meter open-air swimming pool, one of the earliest modern swimming pools in Mysore, was inaugurated by India's first Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru.
Leadership
Vidyashala is administered by a Ramakrishna Math monk, or Swami, designated as "Correspondent". Swami Yukteshananda, an Engineering graduate in Electronics, is the current Correspondent. He had served at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum and Sri Ramakrishna-Sharada Ashrama, Ponampet, before taking up this responsibility. Swami Muktidananda, who was one of the earlier Correspondents, is now the Adhyaksha of Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Uttarakhand and is one of the Trustees of Ramakrishna math & Ramskrishna Mission. Swami Satyeshananda, an old student of the institution and a trained doctor, who'd previously served the Ramakrishna Mission Hospital in Chandigarh, briefly served as the Correspondent after Swami Muktidananda. Vidyashala's academic sections are in the charge of the Principal, S. Balaji.