What is taught at Gurukulam?

Students doing Yoga

Students playing Tabla

Students playing Kabaddi

Students Drawing

Students Performing Classical Dance

Intellectual (Academics)

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) Curriculum
Largest open schooling system in the world
Recognition is equivalent to all other education boards of India
Flexibility and range of subjects for study
Options to choose subjects that are of interest and relevance for the student
English-speaking skill, soft skills and computer literacy

Spiritual (Studies and Meditation)

Faith and Devotion to God
Vedic Learning
Prayers and Bhajans
Bala Vikas and Values Education, Guru Vikas
Upanishads, Advaitha Vedantha, Atma Gyana (Knowledge of the Self)
Religious Harmony and Other Spiritual subjects

Emotional (Moral and Social)

Physical

Sarve Jnanopasampannah
(सर्वे ज्ञानोपसंपन्नाः)

Knowledge on all the matters of the world – a Complete personality.

Sarve Samudita Gunaihi
(सर्वे समुदितागुणैः)

Repositories of all the good qualities that emanate spontaneously.

Sarve Vedavidah Dheeraah
(सर्वे वेदविदःधीराः)

Knowledgeable about ancient Indian wisdom – the Bharathiya culture.

Sarve Lokahithe Rathaah
(सर्वे लोकहिते रताः)

Ever engaged in the welfare of the world.

Core Principles

Since inception several decades ago, the objective of the Sathya Sai way of education has always been to impart true education that helps build character in the children, who are dedicated to serving the society. There are four aspirational characteristics displayed by the individual who has passed through the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam system of education:

Thus, the true education imparted by the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam, would ensure the very best for the child and the world at large.

Para-Apara 50-50

Scheme of Academic Studies

Change to Gurukulam

Never had humanity faced such challenging times as COVID-19, in the recent past, however, we firmly believe that every challenge brings an opportunity to pause, ponder and improve. Keeping that in mind, with over five decades of educational service to children of our state and country, we, the trustees and board of management, under the guidance of Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai, have deeply felt the need to further improve and transform the way our institutions impart true holistic education to our children.
As a first response to the challenges of delayed opening of schools during this academic year 2020-21, we have begun online classes for some senior grades who will have to face public exams this year or the next, and more grades are being added eventually to online teaching efforts. We know that online education can never match the impact of studying in the serene spiritual environment of our campuses under the direct tutelage of our dedicated teachers. However, as you would understand, this is the best way to keep the children engaged productively during these times of social distancing and uncertainty of academic calendar. We appreciate your support to us in helping your child take maximum advantage of these online classes.
As we are all aware, the governments, society and medical experts are working very hard to understand the nature of Covid – 19 and come up with a suitable vaccine but it has not yet happened. With overburdened health facilities, prevention is the best way to avoid infections to ensure the safety of every child. This means that social distancing norms would necessarily have to be followed in our hostels too, which further increases our difficulties in opening the hostels with adequate distancing precautions in place. And so admitting all the students in our hostels at once would not be possible under the prevailing circumstances.

Our education system is based on the philosophy of our Founder Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba who firmly believed that the integrated development of the child, with the right balance of academic, moral and spiritual education is to achieved. After 50 years of our institutions, the last three months gave us the much needed time to introspect and rededicate ourselves to the founder’s vision, of imparting high quality academic education, rightly balanced with moral and spiritual values like, service to mankind, compassion for fellow beings, understanding of the spiritual culture of India and its practice in daily life. For the child to have a well-rounded personality and be able to withstand the pressures of life, in any progressive education system, there needs to be equal emphasis on Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Spiritual aspects. Unfortunately, some or the other aspect of this holistic education philosophy is found lacking in most of the present-day educational pedagogy that largely focuses on the academic aspect alone, and needs immediate rectification.
After much deliberation, Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Group of Educational Institutions have finally decided to make a transition from the traditional system of education under the Karnataka/CBSE board curriculum to National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), which augurs well for our vision of balanced and holistic education, by helping reduce the stress of frequent testing and examinations on our students, and allowing more flexibility in choosing subjects of one’s interest and inclination, leading to better performance. This has been done after several discussions with educational authorities and many parents in the society whose children were educated under this system and are now studying in various reputed universities. Under this noble effort to redefine the educational approach in our institutions, Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva group of educational institutions, is being renamed as Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam, with the sole intention to bring back the Indian Gurukula system of education, with a child-centric, balanced and insightful approach, where learning is truly a joy!

We are in the process of implementing all safety measures keeping the welfare of every child at the heart of all our efforts, which have been decided upon after an intense discussion with all stakeholders.

National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) Board

The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) - which is responsible for all education related activities has only two recognised boards under it:
(a) CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education)
(b) NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling)
NIOS is the largest open schooling system in the world. Between the academic years 2016 - 2019 approximately 18 Lakh students took the examination for the secondary and senior secondary boards under NIOS. It has 18 regional offices catering to all States of India.
The two important milestones in a child’s life, are the board examinations in grade 10 and 12. Examinations conducted by NIOS are similar to the State, CBSE or ICSE, including the standards and the recognition it enjoys.
Thus, a NIOS student can apply to any school or college, anywhere in the country, due its national curriculum and nationally acceptable certification, which in certain cases has more appeal than the state board certificates obtained by undertaking studies in regional languages.
Only two public (Board) exams are conducted, that is, grade 10 and 12, unlike other boards where quarterly, half yearly or annual examinations are mandatory. This reduces the undue pressure on the child, and makes learning more relaxing and enjoyable. The student can fully focus on his or her subjects of choice, which he or she will write during the board examinations of grade 10 or 12, and thus will be able to prepare better. This does not mean that the student will not be assessed for his or her progress between grades 6 and 9. In fact, continuous testing and assessment will be done internally by our competent teachers, without burdening the child with the strenuous annual examination which typically last for three hours.

More importantly, the flexibility of choice of subjects under NIOS allows students to select their choicest subjects from the prescribed categories, and thus create and ideal subject combination that suits their aptitude best. More about this is mentioned in the FAQ section.
However, to help you understand here is an example. If a child is more inclined towards science and maths, but less interested in social sciences, now the child has the choice to replace social science with any other subject of interest, including music! This only helps to reduce the unwanted burden on the child of compulsorily studying the subject that he or she dislikes, and the child can rather focus all efforts to perform better in the subjects of his or her choice, leading to better achievements and higher marks. As a result, the child is happier and more confident.
This flexibility however, is missing in the other state and central boards, where the child must mandatorily write all subjects as prescribed by the board, whether he or she likes or not and whether he or she wants to further study those subjects in higher classes or not. For instance, if a student has decided to take science in PUC, then he or she can skip social science and other unrelated subjects in grade 10 examinations and replace them with any other subject of choice which will help in better performance. Similarly, the choice of subjects in PUC can be based on what the student wants to study further in his or her graduate studies, be it science, humanities, commerce, medicine, technology or anything else of his or her choice. The certificates issued by NIOS grades 10 and 12 (PUC) are valid globally.

Our Typical Schedule

Summer Schedule

4.00am - Getting Up
4.20 - Suprabhatham and meditation
4.50 - Yogasanas / jogging / sports batchwise
5.50 - Some hot drink like ragi/ milk or sai protein
6.00 - Bath-in batches, Room Cleaning
7.00 - Breakfast
7.30 - General knowledge - news - library
8.00 - School prayers
8.15 - 1st period
9.00 - 2nd period
9.45 - 3rd period
10.30 - Break (fruits or juice)
10.45 - 4th period
11.30 - 5th period
12.15 - Lunch
1.00 - Rest
1.15 - 6th period (discussion based or tests)
2.00 - Home work/study/ Practical Classes
4.15 - Snacks
4.30 - EHV/ extra-curricular activities
5.45 - Vedas
6.00 - Bhajans
6.30 - Learning a stotram or song in the bhajan hall
6.45 - Dinner
7.30 - Parayanam, Swadhaya - spiritual studies
8.30 - Milk
8.45 - Hanuman Chaleesa
9.00 -To Bed

Winter Schedule

4.40am - Getting Up
5.00 - Suprabhatham and meditation
5.30 - Yogasanas (indoors)
5.50 - Some hot drink like ragi/ milk or sai protein
6.00 - Bath-in batches, Room Cleaning
7.00 - Breakfast
7.30 - General knowledge - news paper - library
8.00 - School prayers
8.15 - 1st period
9.00 - 2nd period
9.45 - 3rd period
10.30 - Break (fruits or juice)
10.45 - 4th period
11.30 - 5th period
12.15 - Lunch
1.00 - Rest
1.15 - 6th period (discussion based or tests)
2.00 - Home work/study/ Practical Classes
4.15 - Snacks
4.30 - Sports and Games
5.45 - Vedam chanting
6.00 - Bhajans
6.30 - Learning a stotram or song in the bhajan hall
6.45 - Dinner
7.30 - EHV/extracurricular activites
9.00 - Milk
9.15 - Hanuman Chaleesa
9.30 -To Bed

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam?

Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukula [SSSLSG] is an educational organisation, with over 20 campuses spread across Karnataka, Telangana which is affiliated to the National Institute of Open Schooling [NIOS], where regular class room lectures are conducted. The NIOS Board is the only other board recognised by the Ministry of Human Resources Development along with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

2. Are there any differences between State Board/CBSE and NIOS?

Here are some important and interesting differences:
a) Syllabus: NIOS syllabus is in lines with the NCERT guidelines and hence at par with the CBSE board or any other board of secondary education.
b) Choice of Subjects: In State Board/CBSE there are rigid categorisations of subject groups, hence one can’t choose a vastly diverse subjects, where as in NIOS there are two major groups, one for languages and the other for regular subjects. A student has a choice to select any 2 languages from the languages group (minimum one) and three to five subjects form the other group. Thus, for example a student who is interested in science stream but does not want to opt for social sciences can do so. Many such other combinations are possible. Please see “Scheme of Studies” segment at the end of this section.

3. How different is Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam from any other Institution for providing Education?

a) Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam adopts a learner-centric approach.
b) Through the student’s stay the focus shall be on offering a wide range of subjects in comparison to the Regular Schooling Programme.
c) A student, based on his or her needs, capabilities and goals, has the liberty to choose any subject- combination in this system.
d) A student will be provided extremely good foundation in all the four major areas of learning viz. Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Spiritual. All the four shall have equal focus and attention.

4. Do the Secondary & Senior Secondary School Certificates obtained from Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam have the same recognition as of other Boards?

a) Yes! – The Secondary and Senior Secondary certificates issued by NIOS have the same recognition as certificates issued by other Boards.
b) NIOS which Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam follows, like other National and State Boards, follows he National Curriculum Framework [2005].

5. Has the Association of Indian Universities granted equivalency to NIOS Certificates?

a) Yes! – The Association of Indian Universities has granted equivalency of courses of NIOS with those of other examinations of recognised Boards [vide its letter no. EV11/ (354)/91 dated 25th July, 1991].
b) This enables a candidate to apply for admission to higher studies in Indian/Foreign universities.

6. Can a candidate, passing the Senior Secondary examination from Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam be eligible to apply for admission in Universities and Professional Colleges?

Yes! Candidates, passing the Senior Secondary examination from NIOS, are eligible to apply for admission in Universities and Professional Colleges. The NIOS certificate is also valid and admissible for applying to competitive examinations such as NEET and IIT JEE.

7. Can a candidate passing the Secondary Examination from Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam, seek admission in grade XI of any other Board?

Yes! A student can join all the Boards at the National and State-levels, because NIOS which Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam follows, has the National Curriculum Framework -2005 brought out by NCERT.

8. Can a candidate move from NIOS based Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam to state board or CBSE at any stage?

For students of Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam, there are three different stages when it is most suited for a student to change from NIOS to other boards, these are at grade 8, 10 and 12.

8. Will all campuses of Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam follow the same NIOS syllabus?

Yes, in all the 20 plus campuses of Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam the same syllabus of NIOS shall be followed. Hence, every child would be able to continue in the same campus where he or she has been admitted.

9. How can I know more and what are the contact details of Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam?

a) By physical mail by writing to:
Mark on Cover “Attention Admissions Department”

Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam,

Sri Sathya Sai Grama,

Muddenahalli PO,

Chickballapur Taluk & District,

Karnataka – 562101, India

b) Contact the Chairman /Head of Institution

c) Write to us at gurukulam@ssslsg.org

Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam