SelaQui International School, Dehradun

This class VI-XII school has acquired a national reputation for offering rigorous academics, modern sports facilities and excellent pastoral car Autar Nehru

Spread across an expansive 52-acre green campus in the industrial township of Selaqui, 20 km from Dehradun, popularly known as the boarding schools capital of India with 300 secondaries, SelaQui International School (SIS) is a new generation fully residential co-ed school with an enrolment of 300 students and 35 teachers. Promoted in 2000 under the aegis of the Gurukul Trust by former IAS officer-turned-educationist Om Pathak, also chairman of the DPS Ghaziabad Society which runs a chain of five day schools, this class VI-XII school has steadily acquired a national reputation for offering rigorous academics, wide range of extra-curricular and sports facilities and excellent pastoral care. In the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings 2014, the CBSE-affiliated SIS is ranked among the Top 30 co-ed boarding schools countrywide, and #4 in Uttarakhand.

“We firmly believe that the co-ed boarding school system is the best way to prepare young people to meet the complex challenges of the 21st century. In our state-of-the-art campus, highly qualified teachers provide excellent academic tuition, individual attention to students and modern pastoral care to develop every student’s academic and sports education. Our objective is to shape leaders of tomorrow, people who are capable, talented, confident but also humane, sensitive and imaginative,” says Rashid Sharfuddin, an alumnus of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, the University of Bath, UK, and former housemaster of the top-ranked Doon School for 11 years, prior to his appointment as headmaster of SelaQui last year. Together with wife Hina Sharif Khan, who quit a successful legal career to take charge as director of admissions at SIS, Sharfuddin has drawn up a blueprint to communicate SIS’ unique characteristics to parents to increase student enrolment to 360 by 2017.

According to Sharfuddin, SIS is the only boarding school countrywide to offer its “unique” Gurukul (IIT and medical entrance exams coaching) and Arjuna (sports) programmes to students. In 2011, SIS signed a collaboration agreement with Kota-based Resonance Eduventures Pvt. Ltd to offer a parallel two-year IIT-JEE coaching programme to class XI-XII students. Last year, six SIS students secured admission into the country’s premier IITs. Similarly, for arts and commerce streams, higher secondary students are coterminously prepared for competitive public exams such as CLAT (Common Law Aptitude Test), CPT (Common Proficiency Test for chartered accountancy), SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), NTSE (National Talent Search Exam).

Under the Arjuna programme, prospective tennis and cricket stars are coached and mentored by professionals and gym, physiotherapy and nutrition experts. 

The school’s sprawling campus with a 100-year-old peepal tree (ficus religiosa or sacred fig) at its epicentre features low-rise architecture reminiscent of English country homes — stone and red brick buildings with slanted tile roofs. Nalanda, the academic block, hosts 32 classrooms equipped with projectors, Smart boards and science labs. The school’s well-stocked library houses 15,000 volumes and 50 journal subscriptions. An art studio and music rooms develop students’ creative intelligences. The wi-fi enabled campus is under 24/7 CCTV surveillance, and all buildings including separate halls of residence for junior classes and girl students, boast all-weather air-conditioning.

In keeping with the ethos of true-blue boarding schools, SIS’ sports infrastructure is extensive. It includes two football fields, two basketball courts, a cricket ground with five practice pitches, a shooting range, handball court, swimming pool, and five synthetic tennis courts. Professional coaches mentor students in 18 sports including rifle shooting, cycling, skating, tennis, yoga and taekwondo. A mini-golf course is under construction. To improve their life skills, students are encouraged to become members of over two dozen clubs including adventure, aero modelling, chess, drama, horticulture, photography, music, maths and film appreciation among others.

“In SIS, we are fully committed to delivering a holistic education experience to all students and developing their multiple intelligences. Apart from participation in co-curricular and sports activities, students also have to make time for community service. We are a member school of the International Award for Young People under the Duke of Edinburgh international programme which requires class IX students to contribute a week towards community service. Leadership training and development is also an important focus area,” says Sharfuddin.

Recently, the SIS management and Teacher Sity, Delhi launched a talent and excellence in education (TEE) programme targeting several top-ranked universities in north India to prompt their best graduates to enter the teaching profession. Under the programme, 40 graduates/postgraduates will be recruited as teacher trainees and paid a generous stipend (Rs.25,000 per month) while they are trained at SIS. After a year of intensive training, they are placed in the country’s top schools.

With SIS gathering steam after a slow start, Sharfuddin is confident the school is winning friends and reputation in the country. “We are building our academic strength and expanding our extra-curricular and sports portfolios. In the next three years, SIS will be ranked among the top boarding schools in the country,” he promises.