Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have given us the light of Integral Yoga so that life here can become a life divine. They have also given to us an illumined, elevated concept of Education - an Integral Education; defining it, outlining its true objectives, tracing out its broad underlying principles and creating a model for practical application in the form of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (SAICE), Pondicherry.






SAICE and its system of education is founded on a sense of complete freedom and provides a field of study and action, where students and teachers alike, seek growth in consciousness from an inner initiative and aspire for progress as an active choice in absence of external compulsions; outer discipline exists primarily as an aid for the self-culture and perfection of the external instrument. SAICE is thus a novel, futuristic experiment - an adventure of consciousness in the fields of education - evolving continuously and "progressing freely".





The Future Foundation School (TFFS), administered by Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture, Kolkata is founded on the principles and guided by the light, of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. It is not an experiment in the sense, scope or amplitude of SAICE. TFFS is an organic development and has for a setting a conventional, conservative mode of life - hence the practical application here has undergone suitable adaptation.





The system of education here is marked by a degree of structural rigidity, essential to define and preserve its form and shape. Students are prepared for the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE - Year 10) and the Indian School Certificate (ISC - Year 12) : certificates awarded on passing examinations conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).













The approach to Education here - inspired and impelled by The Mother's Force - is bound by no conventions. The methodology is one of "no method and every method" : myriad forms of "teaching" or facilitation - theme, project and seminar-based, role-plays and debates, replacement of block-tests with a system of continuous assessment, parameterized-grading instead of formal ranking, compulsory involvement in School's Club activities and participation in Physical Education - choice and application of each being based on suitability and effectiveness; an equal emphasis on and balance between academics, co-curricular activities, value and physical education; skill-based and flexible syllabus at lower levels gradually crystallizing in the form of ICSE and ISC curricula; offering of Humanities and Science Streams at ISC level, with a conscious attempt to assign each its fitting role in Mankind's onward march; regular career-counselling sessions to broaden the range of choices as well as encourage students to choose in accordance with aptitude and inclination - to name a few of the visible measures.












TFFS is thus a delicate combination of rules and freedom, love and the loving enforcement of discipline; a rigid super-structure with a fluid movement of consciousness within; an experiment in its own right and on its own scale. The intricate details of the many-sided action under the pressure of a higher consciousness escape enumeration. But the glow of light is unmistakable, if muted, and the deeper, underlying consciousness is palpable, if invisible.












In absence of overt, stated spiritual goals and explicit meta-physical teaching, the nature of Sri Aurobindo's and The Mother's influence is subtle and atmospheric. The student's daily prayer is: