The Aragonda Apollo Medical & Educational Research Foundation, a philanthropic organization established by Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman Apollo Hospitals Group, and Isha Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding at Chennai in February 2012 with a focus on numerous laudable objectives in the domain of education and healthcare. A core goal of the MoU was to start a Primary School at Aragonda and Chittoor and to subsequently scale it up to a Junior College level.

On 16th June, in keeping with this goal, the first “Apollo Isha Vidhya Rural School” at Aragonda village, Chittoor District was inaugurated by Padma Vibhushan Dr. Prathap C. Reddy. Aragonda is the birthplace of Dr. Reddy and with a desire to mark a new dawn in educational models, he provided his personal land and funded the construction of the school building as his contribution to society and for the people of Aragonda and Chittoor district.

The Apollo Isha Vidhya Rural School is a primary school, which will follow the Andhra Pradesh State Board syllabus with English as the medium of instruction. The school is starting its first academic year from June 2012 with 120 children from LKG to 2nd Std and will eventually scale up to 12th Std with 2 sections each, providing quality education for about 1,200 students.

The school will extensively use digital content and special methodologies to teach English and augment the curriculum. Besides the curriculum, the school will strive to provide all-round development of the child with emphasis on yoga, sports, arts & crafts and environmental education to the rural children while preserving their local culture. The environment and focus of the school will be to ensure that learning remains a joyful experience for the children, allowing them to blossom to their fullest potential. In later years, the school will add a multipurpose hall to provide vocational training as well.

With a strong impetus to develop skilled health care professionals, the Apollo Hospitals Group has 8 nursing colleges, three nursing schools, two management institutes, one physiotherapy college and fifteen paramedical programs affiliated to State Medical Universities under its two not-for-profit organizations Apollo Hospitals Educational Trust, Chennai and Apollo Hospitals Educational Research Foundation, Hyderabad. Apollo Hospitals Group has also partnered with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) by establishing a company called Apollo MedSkills Ltd, to provide middle and lower middle income youth with the necessary skills to enter the Health Care Sector. The Group also has plans to set up a mega Apollo Knowledge City campus at Chittoor in the next two years.