Mumbai: While the city keeps losing its touch with vernacular schools, Ghatkopar’s Sheth Dhanji Devshi Rashtriya Shala (SVDD) marked a 100-year milestone on August 18, 2022. Built on the land owned by Shri Dhanji Devshi, the formerly all-girls school has managed itself for a century despite receiving flak for having their medium in Gujarati.
To emphasise the idea of education for girls, Shri Girdharlal Mehta laid the foundation stone for the ‘Kanyashada’ (all-girls school) in 1910, while the school began on August 18, 1923, with about 30 students enrolling in its first batch. Being the first of its kind in the Eastern suburbs of the city, SVDD school has witnessed several generations of the same family gaining knowledge at the institution.
The school was established at the time when freedom fighters were struggling for the independence of India, hence the name Rashtriya Shala (meaning the National, Independent School). During the fight for independence, several politicians like Jawaharlal Nehru and Morarji Desai, among others, paid their visit to the then single-sex school.
“To spread awareness about the Gujarati language, we, the board members of SVDD school used to go to people’s houses and educate them about the only such school in Ghatkopar back then,” said Shri Vaman Mehta, the current Vice-President of the SVDD trust.
Sixty-two years into its run, the trust introduced English as a medium of instruction in 1985. Though the school is affiliated to the SSC Board, Math and Science curricula follow the ICSE and CBSE board patterns to make sure that when those students enter college, they are at par with others. Moreover, learning Gujarati is compulsory even for students studying in the English medium school of SVDD.
Mehta further said that the school and teachers focus on ‘the quality of education' along with the growth of their students. “Students, parents, teachers, and the management, all run hand in hand here,” he stated. He also mentioned that the trust is being taken over by younger generations of the family to meet the latest requirements of students and parents.
He further added that the trust takes pride in the fact that “students from not only the Gujarati community, but many South Indian, Maharashtrian, and Catholic households have shown keen interest in learning Gujarati.”
