The Open School

'Sankalp' in Sanskrit, has many associated meanings - 'will', 'purpose', 'wish', 'intent'. For us at Sankalp all these meanings are true and relevant. Born of a deep concern for the special needs of children with learning difficulties and other development challenges, Sankalp was set up, under the SANKALP TRUST - a non-profit organisation in 1999.

Faculty
Our constantly growing faculty list of remedial teachers, special educators and assisting staff is testimony to the clear sights set by the founder Directors, Lakshmi Krishna Kumar, Sulata Ajit and Subhashini Rao.

The competence profile of our faculty covers a wide range of education and experience which enables us to cater to the varying developmental requirements of the children under our care.
The Open school has two streams of education services
- a full time intervention for children facing learning challenges
- Remedial education part time to correct the learning challenges of school children

We are housed in a large, well-ventilated premises of 6000 sq.ft. in an excellent location at Anna Nagar, Chennai. The Centre is well equipped with play and educational material with comfortable seating, hygienic facilities and cheerful ambience.

Apart from academics and remedial learning, many other activities are conducted - Dancing, music, yoga, cookery, art, field visits etc. There are also workshops on time management, public speaking, value education and thinking skills.

Over and above the inhouse faculty, we engage the services of experienced specialits / consultants in diverse areas of management, education, communication, fine arts, language skills and extra curricular activities.

Sankalp - The Open School
Plot No. 1587, 6th Avenue, (Next to Vijaya Maruthi)
Anna Nagar (West), Chennai - 600 040.
Tel: 044-2618 2588
Off: 044-4273 2947

The full time program offers either of the following options:
1. A pull out and mainstreaming option - ie. a child is taken out of a regular school and given remedial education and is sent back to regular school, or
2. The child appears as a private candidate in the Board exam.
The process of full time education is based on the National Open School.

What we do
The areas on which we focus are:
Education Therapy - caters to developing cognitive skills, self help skills and social skills. A structured learning environment and behaviour management are part of our intervention techniques.

Occupational Therapy - we provide sensory integration therapy i.e. we use tactile (touch), movement and awareness of body position to improve the child's interactions.

Individualized education program - functional academic areas in language, math, general knowledge, self-help skills, art, music and physical training is imparted.

Our goal is to create an environment where the child would learn the skills to be independent, productive and lead a meaningful life within the limitations imposed by the disability.

NIOS (National Institute for Open schooling) is one of the three central boards of secondary education in our country , the other two being CBSE and ICSE.
The candidates appear as a private candidate.
NIOS is as well recognised as other central board exam and is ideal one for those who opt for an alternate and do not seek the main stream Stateboard examination.
Admissions to colleges are based on marks and the NIOS scheme offers an examination framework that is more flexible and with possibility for scoring. The exams are held through a National level exam and recognized by most universities.

NIOS
The 10th std. Exam is the NIOS secondary exam
The 12th std. Exam is the NIOS senior secondary exam, equivalent to the PUC exam.
The NIOS exam is recognized by most universities in the country including Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Law School University.

NIOS Examination Details
The NIOS exam syllabus is similar to the CBSE syllabus in terms of content, but the exams include questions which can be answered in a simpler way. The exams are designed to test the extent of knowledge/ information but does not stress on lengthy answers.
The NIOS exam papers include
20% marks for objective type questions
40% marks for one sentence answers and 3 sentence answers
20%marks for home assignments submitted
20%marks for 1 page answers and/or practical
The NIOS is a flexible system and you can choose
Any 5 of the following subjects if you want to do BA, BSc, BCom or BBM
Any 6 of the following subjects including Science or Maths if you want to do
Engineering or Medicine.
The subjects you can choose from are :Compulsory Subjects: English
Optional(4 or 5 of the following) : Science(Physics, Chemistry, Biology)
Social Studies
Mathematics
Home Science (Practical science)
Word Processing
The 5 or 6 exams chosen can be given at the end of 10th std. or in three sittings starting from the end of 9th std in a semester system, with 2 exams being taken in each semester