P.G. Garodia School, Mumbai

The first English-medium school of Ghatkopar, a populous eastern suburb of Mumbai, PGGS (estb. 1969) is ranked among India’s Top 100 co-ed day schools - Dipta Joshi

Established in 1969 in Mumbai’s suburb of Ghatkopar (pop.200,000), the P.G. Garodia School (PGGS) was the first school to offer English-medium education to residents of this eastern suburb of India’s commercial capital. This co-ed K-10 day school, which began its innings as a Maharashtra state board English-medium school, sought and received affiliation with the Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) in 2008. 

Since then, PGGS has built itself an excellent reputation for rigorous academic, sports, music and extra-curricular education. In the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2016-17, the school is ranked #25 in Mumbai, #28 in Maharashtra and among the Top 100 co-ed day schools countrywide. 

Promoted by the Garodia Group, a big name in Mumbai’s real estate and construction industry for developing Garodia Nagar, Ghatkopar’s landmark residential complex, PGGS began modestly in a small garage with seven students tutored by Parmeshwari Devi Garodia, wife of Gordhandas Shivchandrai Garodia, the family patriarch. Soon, the school attracted a steady inflow of students deprived of English-medium education. In 1969, the P.G. Garodia Charitable Trust was registered to manage and plan the expansion of PGGS.

Since then, the trust has expanded its operations by promoting the Garodia Academy (estb. 1999), a preschool which also offers teacher training programmes in early childhood care and education, and the Garodia International Centre for Learning (estb. 2005), which offers the curriculums of the UK-based Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Moreover, the group has also promoted six Beehive preschools in Mumbai, Delhi and Latur. 

“My grandmother Parmeshwari Devi was a visionary who realised that providing high-quality English-medium school education to children living in the then under-served new suburb of Ghatkopar would be of great benefit to society. I am pleased to report that over the past 48 years, PGGS has transformed into a highly-respected institution of the city offering excellent academic, extra-curricular and values-based education to students,” says Nishant Garodia, an alumnus of Huron University, USA and managing director of Garodia Education Group. Since the next generation Nishant took charge of PGGS in 2002, he has engineered the group’s steady expansion by promoting an international school, preschools and teacher training academy. 

Spread across 70,000 sq. ft of prime real estate in Mumbai, PGGS is housed in a six storey building also temporarily hosting the CIE board students. The campus also hosts the P.G. Garodia Conservatoire — a western music school — and the One World International Sports Centre, which offers facilities for basketball, football, handball, athletics, yoga, gymnastics, lawn tennis and martial arts. Both centres are also open to the public. 

Self-evidently, the trustees of Garodia Education have invested heavily in upgrading academic facilities of this school which will celebrate its golden anniversary in 2019. The school’s 40 classrooms are fitted with overhead projectors and smart-boards; three modern laboratories dispense hands-on science and computer education; a 350-seat auditorium hosts cultural activities and a well-stocked library offers access to 35,000 volumes. 

Sports facilities include tennis, basketball, badminton and hand-ball courts, table-tennis room and a football ground. In addition, students are given easy access to facilities of the on-campus One World International Sports Centre and P.G. Garodia Conservatoire. PGGS students have excelled in several state and national-level sports tournaments. The school team won bronze and silver medals in martial arts at the 2017 Mini Olympics held in Mumbai while the under-15 team won the Maharashtra State Handball Championship 2017 held in Sangli.

“The distinguishing feature of PGGS is our focus on using latest information communication technologies to provide engaging experiential education. In the 1980s, we were among the first ICSE schools in Mumbai to establish a computer science laboratory, following this up with introduction of computerised academic reports and smart-boards in 2006. Moreover, we provide excellent facilities for co-curricular education — music, arts and sports — delivered by trained professionals,” says Garodia. 

Continuous professional development and training of the school’s 90 teachers is also a focus area with the student-teacher ratio capped at 1:20. This commitment to delivering individual attention to students has paid off handsomely in terms of board exam results. PGGS has recorded 100 percent pass percentage in the class X board exam for the past six years. In 2016, of the 168 students who wrote the class X board exam, 67 scored over 90 percent.

Now firmly established as one of Mumbai’s Top 25 co-ed day schools, the PGGS management is focusing its attention on similarly developing the group’s CIE and IB-affiliated new international school sited on a 100,000 sq. ft campus nearby. The school will begin operations in August and will offer state-of-the-art facilities such as visual art and design studios and a Lego lab. “We are committed to implementing and adapting best education practices that we have developed and perfected over the past 48 years, in this new institution. Simultaneously, we will also ensure the continuous growth and development of our pioneer PGGS,” says Garodia.