Taurian World School, Ranchi

Since it admitted its first batch of 56 class I-VI students in 2008, the CBSE-affiliated TWS has set new benchmarks in school education for the educationally backward state of Jharkhand

Twice top-ranked the most admired residential school in the newly constituted (2000) state of Jharkhand (pop. 32 million), and ranked among the Top 30 nationwide in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings, Taurian World School, Ranchi (TWS, estb. 2008), has won encomiums in record time. Promoted and built by Amith Bajla, an international business law postgraduate of the London School of Economics, on a 60-acre campus featuring lush natural valleys with a built-up area of 17,000 sq. ft, since it admitted its first batch of 56 class I-VII students, TWS has set new benchmarks in school education for the educationally backward state of Jharkhand. Currently this CBSE-affiliated school which prides itself on contemporary K-12 education blended with latest technology and international pedagogy in Ranchi (pop. 2.92 million), hosts 252 boy and girl students including 192 boarders.

“The inspiration for the school came from the West, where the emphasis is on holistic education and learning through comprehension, rather than exams-focused rote learning,’’ says Bajla, the promoter-chairman of TWS which was constructed with a project outlay of Rs.45 crore. “But although TWS has been modelled on the best international schools in India and abroad, we have taken care to blend our ancient gurukul tradition with best western pedagogies and practices,’’ he adds.  

To this end, TWS accords great emphasis to developing students’ life skills including soft and communication skills, spoken English, body language and personality projection, for teaching its Helen O’Grady International curriculum designed by an eponymous UK-based company. Moreover, the school has also signed up with Harrison Assessment USA, a company which provides career aptitude testing, counselling and progress services to secon-dary and higher secondary students.

“With a complement of 69 teachers — many of them with international teach-ing experience — we offer an excellent 1:7 teacher-pupil ratio. TWS is fully equipped to nurture well educated and rounded students thoroughly prepared for higher education, and endowed with a humanistic perspective. We have a strong co-curricular education progr-amme which includes community service and village and farm development with some students also helping out in old-age homes, orphanages, hospitals and other non-political social causes,” says D.R. Singh, an alumnus of Agra University and IIM-Ahmedabad with international teaching experience in Tanzania and Botswana, and former principal of JVM Shyamali, a CBSE-affiliated English-medium school in Ranchi. He was invited to take charge as principal of TWS early this year.

Primarily a boarding school, TWS offers modern hostels and dining halls, and a wide range of sports and games options to students. These include dedicated grounds for field games — cricket, football, hockey — and basketball, lawn tennis and badminton courts, besides horse riding. Indoor games facilities include table tennis, pool, chess, squash, badminton as also board and mind games.

TWS’ library, widely acknowledged as the best school bibliotheque in Jhark-hand which despite its recent vintage, is already stocked with 6,136 volumes and 16 journal subscriptions, is the hub of the gamut of co-curricular choices and facilities the school offers its students. These include drama, music, and dance. Moreover living up to its global name, the school is developing academic linkages to facilitate teacher and student exchange programmes to broaden their horizons and acquire global pers-pectives.

To this end TWS has signed up with the JENESYS (Japan East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youth Services) programme, with its first batch of students having already visited schools in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand under the exchange initiative. “JENESYS gives our students opport-unities to spread understanding and cooperation between people around the world, and experience the rich cultures of Japan and neighbouring Asian countries which in the long run will improve trade and cooperation within Asia,’’ says Singh.

With this greenfield school well overits teething pains and rapidly acquiring a rising reputation in eastern India and beyond, its promoter-chairman Bajla is exploring ways and means to replicate the TWS experience in other eastern states. “There’s a huge unsat-isfied demand to promote internationally benchmarked K-12 schools of the TWS model in West Bengal, where the bhadralok (cultured middle class) values international standards complemented with high quality co-curricular education.

Therefore our plan is to establish a world school in or around Kolkata within the next year and two more in eastern India in the next five years. To realise this dream of making globally benchmarked K-12 education accessi-ble to the neglected areas of the east, we are looking for part-nerships and allian-ces,’’ says Bajla.

Wind in your sails! 

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)