Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education is perceived by parents, alumni, employers and the community at large as a premier women university in the country imparting value-systems to all students as scripted in the Institute’s Vision. Value based education in Avinashilingam Institute is imparted through a three-step approach, namely (i) Cognitive level to sensitize students on the positivity of values (ii) Affection level by nurturing positive values/attitudes amongst students through teaching of formal curricular, co-curricular courses and in research along with modern and scientific methods to develop and empower women students; (iii) Action level by engaging students in practicing positive values and attitudes through experiencial learning and extension activities.
Curriculum-based teaching-learning: 121 value added credit-based courses were offered to students during the past 5 years. The salient courses were Ethical Thinking, Anti-Corruption, School Psychology, Cyber Crime, Indian Sign Language, Human Rights & Issues, Gender Education, Kovil Kalaigal and Nutrition & Physical Fitness. As an institutional norm, all the students have undergone atleast one value education course.On an average, about 3500 students participate voluntarily in more than one value-added course which imparted moral, ethical, social, environmental, professional, and human values.
Extra-curricular activities: All students choose to join NCC or NSS and Sports is provided to all students without any discrimination. Such extra-curricular activities focus on the affective domain whereby students develop positive attitudes, feelings, emotions towards life. Camps, field activities, competitions, and other activities helps in internalizing the value concepts among students.
Institutional Practices: Certain practices followed for decades in the institute, such as merit-based admissions for students from socio-economically disadvantageous groups, morning prayers, khadi sarees during functions, modest dress code inside campus,ecofriendliness, respect towards elders, empathy towards differently abled, self-discipline, inclusiveness, diversity, and others create a sense of belongingness and adherence to institutional rules and regulations among students.
Field-based Research with societal impact: Students at all levels are encouraged to address grassroots-level issues at the local and national fronts ranging from poverty alleviation to malnutrition and other day to day societal themes as topics of research. The institute provides right ambience for students in undertaking such projects/research work with all necessary out-reach and lab resources. This enables students to contribute significantly to societal development.
Community-based value-system inculcation: This represents the action level of value education. The students serve the nearby community through NCC/CSS/NSS/Clubs and departmental activities. There are about 26 adopted villages to which the students extend their services like tree plantation, health awareness campaigns, Swatchtaa/ Unnath Bharath Abhyan programmes etc., These beyond the campus extension activities enables students to understand the real-life situations and how their contributions could make a big impact in the quality of life of a common man.
Alumni and institutional bondage: There are about 6000 alumni on roll spread across several regions and 30 countries. Regular connect with alumni instills a sense of accountability and responsibility towards their alma meter. Alumni are treated with care and affection who in turn support the institute in various ways as panelist for events; examiners; motivational speakers; recruitment, contributors for infrastructure development and by promoting the national and international visibility of the university.
Students’ representation in committees, Student’s Council and Club Activities: With core value of imparting managerial skills as experiential learning, students are members in various committees like BOS, IQAC, Anti-Ragging, Internal Complaints Cell etc., The democratic way of elected Students Council, 15 active student clubs provide ample opportunities to share their skills, knowledge and attitude by students and evolve as responsible citizens with positive behavior
Celebrations, Events and Competitions: Students are oriented towards constitutional obligations through conduct and participation in 46 national and international commemorative days annually. Students actively participate in all events of the institute such as Founder’s Day, birth and death anniversaries of founders and great leaders. Cultural events, exhibitions and competitions conducted on various themes like Cultural Convergence, Unity in Diversity, Environment Protection and alike help in imparting value education in an informal way.
Value education through dedicated centers: Centers namely Ambedkar studies, Gandhian studies, Swami Jagatmananda Centre for Value education, Centre for Arts, Culture and Heritage have been promoting specific values propagated by value leaders by conducting educational courses, events and activities every year.
Outcomes: The fruits of value education offered by the institution are not just witnessed among students during the period of study but also extends to their professional, personal, and holistic life. The following are proud evidences of the distinctive feature of the institute – value based education:
a) Tangible :
Graduates from the institute are serving the nation in bureaucratic positions namely IAS, IPS, IRS.
Alumni of the institute are placed in responsible positions namely Vice Chancellor, Registrar, Managing Director, Scientist, CEOs, Chartered Accountants, and Institution builders.
Start-ups by our students in segments like food, gift articles, apparel designing, waste upcycling, herbal products, and industries such as Suguna Pumps, Rajashree Ford, GEM Hospitals, SKM Animal Feeds & Foods India Limited, iSolve Technologies stand as testimonial for value-based women empowerment imparted by the Institute.
Alumni sponsored construction of Jubilee Arch and other infrastructure support by alumni are evidence of bondage to the Alma Mater.
Deemed University status by Government of India with a special note on community service activities of the institute.
b) Intangible : A survey was conducted among passed out students to understand the impact of value and culture-based education provided by the institute. 615 alumni have responded to the survey collected via google forms. The detail of analysis is uploaded under any other information.
The salient findings are that over 80% of the alumni projected that the ethics, culturalvalues, self-discipline, behavior of ethos, tolerance, spiritual values have shaped their career, family and communal harmony. To conclude, the institute as envisioned by the founder T.S. Avinashilingam Chettiar is gratified by its efforts and legacy in crafting women students with good human values and modesty.
Self-development and empowerment of women through modern, scientific, and value-based education to enable them to lead purposeful life filled with moral and spiritual values.
Providing quality education of global standards on a strong foundation of Indian values and traditions to women students based on current advances in science, technology, and societal demands with emphasis on commitment to social progress, peace, harmony, and national integration.
Sri Avinashilingam Home Science College for Women was established by the great patriot and educationist Dr. T.S. Avinashilingam under the auspices of the Avinashilingam Education Trust in 1957 with 45 students. The growth of the Institution has been carefully nurtured to its current heights by the world renowned educationist and nutritionist, former Chancellor of the University Dr. Rajammal P. Devadas. It is now the largest Institution in the country for imparting Home Science Education at all levels. It was one of the eight colleges on which autonomy was conferred by the University of Madras in June 1978 and the first of the women's colleges to get this distinction. Autonomy gave the College scope for academic freedom for innovations in teaching and research.
The Government of India declared Sri Avinashilingam Home Science College for Women and Sri Avinashilingam Teachers College for Women as a Deemed-to-be-University under Section 3 of the UGC Act in June 1988. These Colleges have been renamed as Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women and is marching towards the Thirtieth year as a Deemd-to-be-University.
The Institution follows the educational ideals of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Saradamani Devi, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi and upholds a life of purity, discipline and service. A temple dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna commands the campus. Daily prayer is an integral part of campus life. All the students and staff are expected to participate in the common prayers.
The Institute functions under eight Schools, namely, Home Science, Physical Sciences & Computational Sciences, Biosciences, Arts & Social Sciences, Commerce & Management, Education, Allied & Healthcare sciences and Engineering. Each school functions under the headship of a Dean.
The pattern of education has been fully Semesterised. The academic year is divided into two semesters, each semester having a minimum of 90 teaching days. The semester pattern offers each student individual attention of the teacher and facilitates the student's all round development. It calls for active participation of the students in the learning process.
Regular attendance is an important feature of the semester pattern. In all Programmes, a student should have a minimum of 75 percent attendance for both theory and practicals to appear for the comprehensive semester Examinations. Examinations for the courses offered in a semester are conducted in the same semester to make learning more effective and to reduce the burden on the students.
Dr. T.S. Avinashilingam was the living proof of the ideal 'Life is to give but not to take'. The recipient of prestigious awards like Padma Bhushan and the Jamnalal Bajaj Award and the first Education Minister of the Madras province, our beloved 'Ayya' devoted his entire life in founding educational institutions empowering the underprivileged and the economically vulnerable. Sri Ramakrishna Vidyalaya and Avinashilignam Home Science College are trendsetters that broke the barriers when women and the socially disadvantaged were not allowed to enter the portals of education. Dr.T.S. Avinashilingam is such a visionary and a stalwart who planted the seeds for women's education under the auspices of Avinashilingam Education Trust in 1957 and now the institution has grown into a renowned knowledge powerhouse. Our pranams to our founder! We seek your continued blessings Ayya!
Ayya was drawn into politics quite early in life. In 1926, he commenced practice as an Assistant to his uncle Ramalingam Chettiar before entering the Indian Independence Movement. He participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement and the Quit India Movement. He joined the Indian National Congress and adopted Mahatma Gandhiji’s philosophy. The story of his contact with Mahatma Gandhi is brought out in his Tamil book 'Nankanda Mahatma' (The Gandhi I knew). This book gives his transformation from an ordinary youth into a dynamic person dedicated to the service of our country and people, inspired by the ideals of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhiji.
When Mahatma Gandhi visited South India in 1934 to collect money for the Harijan Welfare Fund, Ayya assisted him by collecting and donating rupees two and half lakhs to the fund. The expenses for the entire tour was borne by Ayya Avargal. He was one of the leading figures in Tamil Nadu during the freedom struggle and in the political life for over quarter of a century in independent India. He also served as the President of the Coimbatore District Congress Committee.
Dr. T. S. Avinashilingam was arrested four times, in 1930, 1932, 1941 and 1942. When his final prison term came to an end in 1944, he entered provincial politics and was elected to the Madras Legislative Council in 1946. He was also a member of the Imperial Legislative Council from 1935 to 1945. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tiruppur and served as a Member of Parliament from 1952 to 1957. He also served as the Member of the Rajya Sabha from 1958 to 1964. His unwavering patriotic fervor is seen in all his societal activities.
Avinashilingam Ayya is a great institution builder. The most important of the two educational institutions for which he is a Founder are, Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya exclusively for boys, for which Mahatma Gandhiji laid the foundation stone in 1934 and the other being Sri Avinashilingam Institute of Home Science, exclusively for girls. Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya now consists of about a dozen institutions including the College of Education, an Arts and Science College, both leading to Doctorate, a Physical Education College, a Polytechnic, an Institute of Agriculture and other institutions providing education for boys from nursery to the highest level.
The Vidyalaya is an educational complex in a 300 acre campus at Periyanayakkanpalayam. Avinashilingam Home Science College at North Coimbatore, Mettupalayam Road, is the biggest for Home Science education in the country providing education for girls from preschool to Ph. D on the same campus. The foresight and vision of our Ayya saw the blossoming of Sri Avinashilingam Girls High School in 1955. It later grew to Home Science College in 1957 when it was inaugurated by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the then Vice President of India. College of Education was started in 1968. The Home Science College obtained the autonomous status in 1978 and further upgraded to Deemed-to-be University in 1988. The Faculty of Engineering was introduced in 1996. In addition to these, an integrated Rural Development Centre has come into existence in Vivekanandapuram under his guidance. The lives of thousands of boys and girls who have had and who continue to have education in these institutions are obliged to this great visionary.
Ayya became the first Minister of Education in the Composite State of Madras from 1946-49 under premiers Tanguturi Prakasam and O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar. He introduced Basic Education and reorganized secondary education; introduced the Madras Libraries Act which ushered in the Library movement in the State and improved the status of teachers especially Tamil teachers. Ayya also worked for the upliftment of untouchables and campaigned for widow remarriage.
One of his most remembered acts as minister was the introduction of Tamil as the medium of instruction in secondary schools. One of Ayya’s greatest wishes was to bring out an encyclopedia in Tamil on the lines of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, which will be the basis for the growth of Tamil as a scientific language . To accomplish his desire, he started the Tamil Valarchi Kalagam in 1946 which created a 10-part encyclopedia. The first volume was released in 1954 and the final and tenth volume containing the supplement and the index was published in 1968. Another long cherished dream of Ayya was to introduce Children’s Encyclopaedia in Tamil under the name “Kulandaigal Kalai Kalanchiyam”. While the first volume was published in 1968, its 10th volume was published in 1975. At the request of the Ministry of Education, Ayya also wrote three books titled Understanding Basic Education, Education by Gandhiji in his Own Words and Gandhiji’s Experiments in Education.
Ayya was also a proponent of the empowerment of women and introduced education for senior citizens. Ayya nationalized the poems of freedom-fighter Subrahmanya Bharathi and created the professorship for Tamil and other Indian languages at the University of Madras.
Ayya’s imprisonment during the freedom struggle gave him time to read Thirukkural, particularly during his imprisonment in Vellore Central Jail, where he took classes on it. He was much impressed by its great thoughts that he made selections from Thirukkural a regular study in all schools in Tamil Nadu. He revitalised moral and spiritual education in schools by introducing graded study of Thirukkural in High Schools. It was introduced as a part of the curriculum from the 6th grade onwards. He introduced the Public Library Bill in the Madras Legislature and got it approved in 1948. Thus Library profession in Tamil Nadu is indebted to him.
Ayya has also written a notable works in Tamil, Avinashilingam also wrote books on economics, Gandhi’s education policy and the Wardha scheme. He has also served in many National Policy making bodies such as Central Advisory Board of Education, All India Council of Technical Education, National Committee on Agricultural Education of the ICAR, National Council of Community Development etc. He is also credited with introducing reforms in Indian society.
Ayya’s long tiring endless efforts towards the society and the country came to an end on 21st November 1991, but his legacy lives on.
