Our history
Twenty-seven years, four campuses, one unchanged rule
A school's history is usually written as a list of buildings. This one is more usefully read as a list of arguments — the decisions that were contested, and the reasons the answers stuck.
- Founded
- 1998, Kondapur
- First cohort
- 42 students
- Today
- 4,200 students
Siksha opened in June 1998 in a rented two-storey building on a side street in Kondapur. There were forty-two children, six teachers, and a harmonium borrowed from a neighbour for the first annual day. The founder, Dr. Venkat Rao Siddula, had spent the previous fifteen years teaching physics in government schools across Warangal and Khammam.
He has said since that he did not start the school because he had a vision. He started it because he had a list — specific things he had watched go wrong, repeatedly, and wanted a chance to do differently. Small classes, so a teacher could actually know every child. Planning time inside the working day. Nothing about a child hidden from their parents.
What follows is the sequence of decisions that came out of that list. The ones marked in gold are the ones that changed the school’s direction rather than just its size.
Timeline
1998 to today
Twelve moments, in order. Four of them are the reason the school looks the way it does.
- 1998
1998
Forty-two children in a rented building
Dr. Venkat Rao Siddula opens Siksha in a rented two-storey building on a side street in Kondapur, with 42 students, six teachers and a single harmonium borrowed for the first annual day.
- 2001
2001
CBSE affiliation granted
Affiliation to the Central Board of Secondary Education is confirmed, three years after opening. The first Class 10 cohort of 28 students sits the board examination in 2004.
- 2004
2004
The Gachibowli campus opens
The school moves to a purpose-built campus on four acres at Nanakramguda. Enrolment passes 600 for the first time.
- 2007
2007
Class size capped at 24
The governing board votes to cap every class at 24 students and to hold the cap even where demand would justify more. It has never been raised.
- 2010
2010
Kompally campus and the SSC pathway
A second campus opens in Kompally, offering the Telangana State Board pathway alongside CBSE for families who want it.
- 2014
2014
Every child learns to swim
The eight-lane pool opens at Kompally and swimming becomes compulsory. Since 2016 every student has left Class 3 able to swim 25 metres unaided.
- 2017
2017
Bachupally campus opens
The third campus opens with 340 students. Mrs. Anjali Reddy Kondapalli becomes Principal.
- 2019
2019
Robotics and design enter the timetable
Robotics and design stop being after-school clubs and become timetabled subjects from Class 6 — a decision that cost four periods a week from elsewhere and was argued about for a year.
- 2021
2021
Standards-based reporting replaces ranking
Class ranking is abolished below Class 8. Reports move to standards-based grades with a written comment and a target from every subject teacher.
- 2023
2023
Nagole campus opens
The fourth campus opens in east Hyderabad, taking total enrolment past 4,000.
- 2024
2024
Silver Jubilee
Twenty-five years. 640 alumni return to perform the finale of the annual day alongside current students.
- 2026
2026
Cambridge Lower Secondary accreditation
Cambridge Assessment International Education accredits the Gachibowli campus, giving families a second pathway for Classes 6 to 8 from June 2026.
What has not changed
The class-size cap of 24, set in 2007, is the single decision most often questioned by people who look at the finances. Raising it to 30 would add roughly a fifth to the school’s capacity without a rupee of new construction.
The governing board has voted on it four times. It has been rejected four times, on the same grounds each time: the cap is not an amenity, it is the mechanism that makes everything else we claim about knowing children actually possible. Remove it and the rest becomes marketing.
Twenty-seven years on
See what the list looks like in practice
Everything above is a claim until you watch a lesson. Come on a working day and check.
Prefer to talk to someone? Call the admissions office on +91 89 7788 1200, weekdays 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM.