Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research (SAIIER) - Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education Pondicherry

Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education Pondicherry

Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education was founded in 1943 as a school for experimentation in the aims, contents and methods of education on lines that are suitable to the vision of the evolution of new humanity or super-humanity. This vision envisages integrated development of the body, life and mind under the overarching powers of the psychic being and spiritual realities which are universal and transcendental in character.

Over the years, this Centre has developed, and the results of educational experiment and research which it has conducted at different levels of education have made an impact in the country and elsewhere of such a magnitude that the entire system has become well-known as the integral system of education. This Centre has thus become a model, which is being followed in many parts of the country with varying adaptations.

The basic approach of education at this Centre is child-centred, and it insists on the principle of free-progress. Free-progress has been described as a process of development in which progress is sought to be achieved under the conditions of freedom where the inner psychic consciousness begins to guide and inspire the flowering of various faculties and personality. Inspiration for this new mode of educational programme is to be found in Sri Aurobindo’s famous books, “A National System of Education”, “The National Value of Art” and the “Synthesis of Yoga”, as also The Mother’s books, “Education”, “Questions and Answers”, and “Four Austerities and Four Liberations”.

Research that is being conducted at this Centre is at a very advanced level, and more than two hundred teachers and hundreds of students are engaged exclusively in the task of creating new methodologies of education that could be followed at various levels of education.

Teachers are not paid in salary, but they are maintained at a modest level, and they do not have a system of pension or retirement benefits. Some of the best minds of the country have joined this Centre as teachers, and the books which have been published by this Centre are widely read by educationists, teachers, thinkers and educational departments in the universities in the country.

The Centre has excellent facilities for physical education, it has laboratories for science and technology, and it has art studios, dance halls and theatre halls for experimentation in various aspects of art education.

This Centre of education has been recognised as an All India Institution of Higher Learning, since it is engaged in educational research at an advanced level, and since it is not affiliated to any university, it has been receiving grants form the Ministry of Education under the Scheme, “Financial Assistance to All India Institutions of Higher Learning”.

Considering the importance of this Centre and its programme of educational research and experimentation, as also because of the impact it has produced on a number of educational institutions in the country and even on the educational policy of the Government, this Centre deserves to have continued support and increasing financial assistance from the Department of Secondary and Higher Education of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.