The Padma Shri awardee founder of Springdales Group of Schools, Rajni Kumar passed, away at the age of 99 on Thursday. The British-born Indian educationist started her the Springdales School as a kindergarten in the living room of her house in 1955.
The Union Government honoured Kumar in 2011, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.
Her school, over a period of time, developed into a group of schools with four schools in India and one in Dubai and is reported to have over 6,000 students enrolled.
Rajni Kumar, aka née Nancie Joyce Margaret Jones, was born on 5 March 1923 in England. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1941 and married her co-student, Yudhishter Kumar, at the age of 23 and moved to India and took up the Indian name, Rajni.
In 1950, Rajni Kumar joined a local school, Salwan Girls School, as its Principal and worked there till 1955.
During this period, she joined the National Federation of Indian Women in 1953 as one of its founder members.
Kumar was the chairperson of the Lady Irwin College and vice-president of National Bal Bhavan. She had taken part in the Global Peace Conferences in Geneva and the World Congress for the Rights of Children in Moscow.
After her retirement in 1988, Kumar was involved in the Springdales Education Society as its chairperson. She was also associated with the Delhi Schools Literacy Project, an initiative under the National Literacy Mission.