| Sri Chaitanya Educational Institution | |
| Formation: | 1986 |
| Founding Location: | Vijaywada |
| Type: | Group of Schools, Junior colleges, Degree colleges and Coaching centers |
| Headquarters: | Hyderabad, Vijaywada |
| Language: | English, Telugu |
| Leader Title: | Founder |
| Leader Name: | BS Rao |
| Leader Name2: | Jhansi Lakshmi Bai |
| Students: | 850,000[1] |
| Location: | India |
Sri Chaitanya Educational Institutions (Telugu: శ్రీ చైతన్య విద్యాసంస్థలు) is a chain of schools, junior colleges, hostels, coaching institutions for IIT-JEE, NEET, EAMCET and UPSC-CS preparation and degree colleges across India. The academic director of Sri Chaitanya is Sushma Bopanna.
It was founded in 1986 by B.S Rao and his wife, Jhansi Lakshmi Bai. With over 321 state board-affiliated junior colleges, 322 K-10 Sri Chaitanya Techno Schools and 107 CBSE-affiliated schools,[2] it is one of Asia's largest educational franchises with over 8.5 Lakh students.[3] In 2021, Tollywood actor Allu Arjun was signed as the brand ambassador of the institution.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Chaitanya launched Infinity Learn as part of its edtech platform, with Rohit Sharma leading the marketing campaign.[4]
Sri Chaitanya was founded in 1986 by Dr. Boppana Satyanarayana Rao[5] and his wife, Dr. Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Boppana. It was initially a junior college for girls in Vijaywada.[6] In 1991, they opened a boys' junior college in Hyderabad (then part of the undivided Andhra Pradesh) New branches were opened in Visakhapatnam (1998) and various other districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
In 2021, Tollywood star Allu Arjun was signed as the brand ambassador of the institution with the "No Compromise on Success" campaign. The founder, Dr Boppana, died on 13 July 2023 after a heart attack.[7]
Infinity Learn was launched by Sri Chaitanya as part of their edtech content with educational content for classes 6–12 with IIT-JEE, NEET and CBSE board exam coaching. It was formally launched as an ad-campaign "Jeet Pakki" starring cricketer Rohit Sharma.[8] In 2021, Infinity Learn acquired the platform "Teacherr" and "Don't Memorise" while in 2022 it acquired WizKlub; another ed-tech platform. Infinity Learn is led by Founding CEO, Ujjwal Singh.[9]
Seema, the Academic Director of Sri Chaitanya Schools, announced on Friday that the school's students had achieved victory in the United States' National Space Society's space settlement contests for the 11th consecutive year.[10]
On February 28, 2023, a 16-year-old student committed suicide in the college classroom of Sri Chaitanya Junior College, Narsingi campus by hanging from the ceiling wall fan. Many alleged torture by college faculty claiming that the boy faced humiliation by the college's teaching staff. Tension prevailed at the college premises post-incident, with the deceased's parents, relatives and student organisations staging protests by blocking the road near the college.[11] Activists from the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) staged a protest at the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education office at Nampally against the college; demanding a criminal case to be registered against the accused and that the recognition of the college cancelled. The police placed them under preventive arrest while they tried to enter the Board office.[12] The police later arrested the principals: Akalanakam Narasimha Chary and Tiyyaguru Siva Ramakrishna Reddy, vice principal Vontela Shoban Babu and the warden Kandaraboina Naresh.[13] The campus was later derecognised i.e.: it was barred from taking new admission in the next academic year but existing students continued their second-year academics.[14]
Later it was discovered that the institution has been running multiple campuses without the Board's permission. The Times of India reported that while it has five campuses in Narsingi, only two of them have been registered with the government.[15] [16] This has been seen with several campuses of the institution across cities.