Shiv Niketan Education Society was registered on 5th February 1969 under the Societies Registration Act 1986, primarily with the objective of formalizing
the three decades old activity of imparting education to your children at their foundational ages, based on a synthesis of eastern thinking and western
knowledge through Nursery/Kindergarten and Primary School. This process of educating young children was begun by the late Mrs. Elisabeth Gauba as early
as 1938 when she inaugurated the ‘Elisabeth Gauba Preparatory School’ at 8, Hailey Road, New Delhi. It was here that Elisabeth Gauba developed her deep
study of the philosophy, and way of life of the country she embraced in 1926, when she came from Germany to India after her marriage to Jeevan Lal Gauba,
an eminent lawyer of his days, of Lahore. They later shifted to Delhi.
In 1958, she renamed her School to ‘Shiv Niketan’ to honour the philosophical concept of ‘Third Eye of Lord Shiva’ which is said to open in order to dispel
‘ignorance’. Convinced that her mission was to awaken the intellect inherent in each one of her pupils with learning and knowledge, Elisabeth Gauba
evolved her own unique method of teaching, by synergizing the method she learnt under Madame Montessori in London and the Ashram System of ancient India.
It is a tribute to her genius that Shiv Niketan has an enduring, unbroken legacy of teaching children at their earliest, with a history
that spans 79 years today. Shiv Niketan is an acknowledged beacon in early learning education in the country.
In 1969, Elisabeth Gauba formalized Shiv Niketan into a registered society. The foremost civil servant of our times, late Shri Dharam Vira, ICS,
the then Governor of Mysore, was the Patron. Mrs. Sharda Mukherjee, Mrs. Sheila Dixit, Shri. J. N. Kaul, the then Director, Bal Bhavan who went on
and founded the SOS Villages in India, were the first members of the Society.
Elisabeth Gauba passed into eternal sleep in 1985. For a moment, the Society felt lost and rudderless as it was impossible to imagine being without
‘Aunty Gauba’. However, nobody associated with her was willing to let her life’s work go unattended. Mr. Habib Tanvir, the celebrated Theatre personality,
who had known Mrs. Gauba from 1940 and had been responsible for establishing The Shiv Niketan Children’s Theatre, was elected Chairman.
The Society had found its feet. Recognizing that Shiv Niketan could not continue indefinitely in the rented premises at Hailey Road, an application for
allotment of land for a school building was made to the Government of India. We acknowledge our deep gratitude for the ready help we received from the
then Prime minister of India, late Shri Rajiv Gandhi, who was himself a Shiv Niketan alumni.
Dr. Ranjana Kaul, lawyer and educationist was elected Chairperson in 1998 and again in 2003. Dr. Kaul has been associated with Mrs. Gauba and Shiv Niketan since 1975 and functioned as the Secretary of the Society until she was elected to the present post.
Under Dr. Kaul’s leadership, the application for allotment of land pending before L&DO, Government of India was vigorously followed resulting in allotment of a piece of land at Kali Bari Marg in May 2000.
The foundation stone of the new school building was laid on 16th April, 2001. On 12th July, 2002 Shiv Niketan began to function in its new premises,
a welcome change from its space restricted, albeit ‘historic’ residence of sixty four years at 8, Hailey Road.
The Society's Objectives & Policies:
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Enrollment of children from weaker sections.
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Assistance to children orphaned in consequence to the tsunami disaster 2004.
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The Shiv Niketan Computer Literacy Centre.
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The Shiv Niketan Advice & Legal Aid Centre.
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In partnership with school of rural districts, interaction with schools in rural districts to inculcate.
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Collaboration with DIVA - Applied ethics in early education module being developed in Shiv Niketan to be made available to Schools all over India.