Background
November 19, 2023 2023-11-19 16:34Background
Overview
Abacus was founded in June 1987. It was started to bring new thinking into the life of a school, to try out new ideas in education, and to evolve an intensely child focused school.
The school began in a refurbished garage in R.A Puram, moved to Adyar, and came to fruition in Perungudi. Today, the school’s program extends to a farm school in Vellaputhur village near Chengalpattu.
The school was founded by Kamini Sundaram with Amukta Mahapatra who joined the school as its first Principal. In the early years the school ran with financial assistance from International Services, Chennai and the Gopinath family and is now run by Abacus Trust, a not-for-profit, public, charitable, educational trust. The school charges fees to meet its running costs. Admission fees, which are part of the regular fee structure, maintain a corpus for the school. Funds are carefully managed to cover infrastructure and maintenance costs.
We do not ask for donations unless we have a specific project that needs to be funded the last time being when we put up the two buildings the school is currently housed in. At that time donations were sought through corporates, through events and with parents. Donations to Abacus have income tax exemption under Sec 80G of the Income Tax Act.
The school offers a specific methodology and strives to cultivate a certain inclusive, democratic ethos. The school is kept small, with a low student- teacher ratio.
