School of Change: 'Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya' is a charming story asking difficult questions about the state of the education system
Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya | Creators: Biswapati Sarkar and Sameer Saxena | Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Archana Puran Singh | Prime Video
You know it’s a show made by a TVF alumnus the minute you see the peeling walls, an ensemble of unique characters, and a competition or election to be won. For once though, the hero Gyaneshwar Tripathy (Kay Kay Menon) is not a fish out of water but a homegrown principal who wants his school to win a competition that will take them to Cambridge University.
The Tinki Toli Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the education system: teachers who are starved of latest technology; children who are a mix of no-hopers and the ever ambitious; parents who don’t fully comprehend their New Age children; and government officials who gloss over structural problems with bureaucratese. But Mr Tripathi does everything possible to improve his school’s performance—from convincing the bashful biology teacher to stop calling egg fertilisation anda bhurji to swapping kheer in the midday meal scheme to pay for a much-needed water cooler. The struggle is the difference between being adarsh (ideal) and kamyaab (successful). And, we all know what heroes choose and why every child needs a champion. It isn’t easy dealing with tough subjects with a light touch, but Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya does it charmingly.