Sakthi Vigneshwara Kalvi Nilayam Higher Secondary School

Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Coimbatore. (A Branch of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal). Located at about 19 kms from the Coimbatore city on the highway to Ooty, the Vidyalaya is situated in a serene environment spread over nearly 300 acres. Sri Ayya T.S. Avinasilingam The institution was founded by Dr. T S Avinashilingam in 1930, with an investment of Rs. 5.75 and one harijan boy on its roll. Indeed, a small beginning for his great achievement that stands materialized today as a vast educational and spiritual centre with around twenty wings. But then, there was a source for his inspiration to set out on that bold venture. While studying in college, Dr. T S Avinashilingam met Swami Shivananda, a direct disciple of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna whose another well-known disciple was Swami Vivekananda. It was from Swami Vivekananda that Swami Shivananda absorbed the idea of the prime importance of education for the revival of India. The ‘sacred touch’ of Swami Shivananda, as Dr. Avinashilingam later described it, awoke in him the necessary strength and vision for his future mission in the field of education. Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, laid the foundation stone of the Vidyalaya in 1934 and wished that the students of the Vidyalaya would be intensely patriotic followers of Truth. The Vidyalaya was affiliated to the Ramakrishna Mission in the same year.