City Montessori School, Lucknow
The world's largest single-city private school has taken extra-cuuricular education to an entirely new plane and in the process has acquired a global reputation for the high-quality academic experience it offers
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| CMS exterior: many landmark achievements |
A citation in Guinness World Records for the largest number of student enrollments in a private school operational in a single city is just one of the many landmark achievements of Lucknow’s City Montessori School (CMS). The school which started off with just five students in 1959, currently has a mind-boggling 29,000 students instructed by 2,000 teachers spread over 21 campuses on its muster rolls. But CMS’ claim to fame is not just its massive enrollment. Over the past four decades since it was promoted, among the many awards that have come its way are the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education (2002), whose citation lauded the school for promoting "the universal values of education for peace and tolerance at a time when these values are increasingly being challenged"; the Friend of Young Physicists Award of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, and the first Henry Derozio award instituted by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations, New Delhi.
Moreover incredibly, the school has hosted four international conferences of chief justices of the world to push the case for Article 51 of the Constitution of India which inter alia articulates that "The State shall… foster respect for interna-tional law". To this end, concerned about the stockpile of 36,000 nuclear warheads accumulated by seven nations (including India and Pakistan), the school has appointed itself the advocate of the "world’s two billion children and generation yet unborn" to press for the establishment of a World Parliament "with powers to enact enforceable international laws for the entire world". Undeterred by indifferent official reaction to this initiative, CMS is clearing the decks for the 5th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World scheduled to be held in Lucknow on December 10-12 this year.
Founded by Jagdish and Bharti Gandhi, the former who put himself through Lucknow University by doing a variety of jobs that included shoe shining and hawking newspapers and the latter an educationist with a doctorate in the Montessori teaching method from the Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwa Vidyalaya, Varanasi, the school’s motto is Jai Jagat. Gandhi explains how this motto has energised the CMS mission. "Jai Jagat translates into ‘glory be to the world’, or ‘hail the world’. We believe that our schools are institutions in which children essentially learn to interact harmoniously with each other. The three R’s are important but perhaps more important is our emphasis upon children learning social skills and moral values. Godliness and globalism are important tenets for us because there is no point in spreading education that leaves children socially disabled. A school is after all a building with four walls that holds tomorrow within it," says Gandhi.
These objectives are to be achieved through the four building blocks of education devised by the Council for Global Education, a Reykjavik (Iceland) based not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting development of the whole child. These blocks are: universal values, global understanding, excellence in all things and service to humanity.
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| Jagdish Gandhi |
According to Gandhi, these themes are woven into the larger fabric of academic experiences at CMS. Thus classroom activities centre around collaborative problem solving with students choosing themes such as unity, peace, respect for the environment or service for their essays, art, music and drama compositions. The Gandhis’ belief that parents are a child’s best role models has led to a strong focus on parent training which takes the form of parental involvement in school curriculum design, reading of special literature and attendance at workshops and seminars that the CMS management regularly organises. Mothers of children who secure the first ten positions in every class are honoured with titles and certificates. Moreover students are encouraged to actively participate in civic projects like trash collection and tree planting as well as adopt villages where they educate children and adults in the three R’s, first aid and hygiene.
The efforts invested by the CMS management in devising curricula beyond the syllabus has yielded excellent academic achievements apart from a calendar full of extra curricular activities. In 2003, of the 1,509 CMS students who wrote the ICSE school-leaving (class X) exam, 1,371 passed in the first division with as many as 801 getting honours. Of the 1,171 students who wrote the ISC (class XII) exam in 2003, 1,068 got first divisions. Likewise, of the 20 students selected for the National Talent Scholar-ship from Lucknow, 15 were from CMS. In addition, 408 class XII school-leavers were admitted into medical and other professional colleges while two students bagged the coveted Singapore Airlines Scholarship valued at Rs.12 lakh each.
CMS spokespersons insist that the school’s excellent academic record is the consequence of the management’s emphasis on holistic education driven by vibrant extra-curricular programmes. Every year the CMS calendar is marked by 15 international events as varied as MacFair, a maths and computer fair and seminars for ICSE and ISC students; QUANTA, the science, maths, astronomy, computers and robotics olympiad; an astronomy olympiad; an international school-to-school exchange (ISSE) programme under which 11-12 year olds visit ISSE member countries for three weeks. Moreover under the aegis of the Children’s International Summer Village Camp Society, London, the school organises four-week camps which teach peace and co-existence. Another widely lauded initiative is the Indo-Pak children’s pen friends’ club aptly titled Aao Dosti Karein (‘Come let’s be friends’) under whose aegis CMS students correspond with students of several schools in Karachi, Pakistan.
Strongly influenced by the tenets of Japanese kaizen philosophy which stresses continuous improvement, Gandhi has been putting its principles into practice to transform CMS students into "total quality people". "I am very impressed by the Japanese striving for betterment and the idea that if adults can be pushed towards perfection, so can young students. I believe students have the potential to transform the educational landscape of the nation," he says.
Gandhi’s future plans for CMS include a sharper focus on digitally aided learning and setting up an in-house FM radio network. "Of the 21 branches that we run, only five are in our own buildings and we are becoming increasingly aware of the need to construct buildings according to our own specifications. But our larger objective is to discover the potential of each and every student who has the capability to light up the world," he says.
Surely that’s a goal within the world’s largest and arguably most successful school.
Admissions and fees
New admissions begin in February. Applications for admission should be made separately to the principal of each branch on the prescribed form. The age criteria for admission are two-three years for Montessori, four for nursery and five years for kindergarten. Admissions to all other classes are made through a pre-admission test and on production of a valid transfer certificate. Tuition fee (monthly)
Montessori, nursery and kindergarten: Rs.600
Classes I-V: Rs.950
Classes VI-VIII: Rs.1,280
ICSE (classes IX and X): Rs.1,880
ISC (classes XI to XII): Rs.2,000
Other fees and levies range from Rs.2,320-6,350 per year
For further details contact CMS Head Office, Jai Jagat Building, 12 Station Road Lucknow. Ph: 0522-2638738/ 2637658. Fax: 0522-2638008. E-mail: info@cmseducation.org. Website: www.cmseducation.org.
Puja Rawat (Lucknow)
School of Oriental and African Studies, London
Situated in the heart of London, SOAS has acquired a global reputation for the high quality Asia, Africa and Middle East programmes it offers to over 3,000 students from 110 countries
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| SOAS facade: global reputation |
Situated in Russell Square, in the heart of London, over the past 88 years the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) has acquired a global reputation for its high quality Asia, Africa and the Middle East research and studies. Affiliated with London University SOAS has over 3,000 students, instructed by over 200 research-cum-teaching faculty on its musters. It’s a testimony to the quality of its study and research programmes that students from 110 countries represent one-fourth of its enrollment. Within Britain as well SOAS enjoys an excellent reputation. The 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) of the education ministry ranked SOAS among the top research institutions in the country, with ten of the 15 departments rated the maximum 5 or 5*.
Founded in 1916, SOAS which offers specialist degrees in the languages and cultures of Asia and Africa has acquired new relevance in the contemporary globalised world. Its wide range of undergraduate, postgrad, doctoral and certificate degree programmes in the humanities and social sciences as well in several non-European languages is unmatched by any institution of this genre.
Comments Prof. Colin Bundy, director and principal of the school: "SOAS is synonymous with intellectual excitement and academic achievement. Students who study here are passionate about their subjects and are dedicated to expanding their knowledge of the world around them. In the sphere of higher education, SOAS remains a place that dares to be a little different. It is our academic focus on the languages, cultures and societies of Africa, Asia and the Middle East that makes us distinctive. At SOAS, students have an opportunity unparalleled in British higher education to learn more about the most urgent issues confronting two-thirds of humankind."
London. The political, financial and cultural capital of Britain, London attracts millions of visitors each year drawn to its wealth of galleries, theatres and museums, palaces, parks and squares, restaurants and shops, not to mention famous and familiar landmarks such as Big Ben, the red bus, the black cab and the tower of London.
SOAS is sited in the epicentre of London. Students can walk to the British Library, the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace, sip coffee in Soho and do light shopping in Oxford Street. Further afield are the museums of South Kensington and galleries and theatres of the South Bank.
For those who believe that there’s more to the academic experience than study, London is another city by night. ‘Cosmopolitan’ does not do justice to the number of cuisines available and the range of theatre (West End and fringe), cinemas, music, clubs, pubs, social and cultural events, lectures and discourses on offer.
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ampus facilities. SOAS has two campuses — in Russell and Vernon squares. The Russell Square campus is situated in the legendary Bloomsbury area, the birthplace of Fabian Socialism, and is surrounded by other colleges and buildings of the University of London. The British Museum, Oxford Street, Covent Garden and the West End are all within easy walking distance. The Vernon Square campus is located between Kings Cross and Islington, a 15-minute walk from Russell Square. Adjacent to two SOAS student halls of residence this new facility offers state-of-the-art teaching and learning resources and an internet café besides spacious social amenities.
The recently refurbished library on the Russell Square campus specialising in Asian and African studies is one of the finest in the world. It contains more than one million volumes in over 4,000 languages, subscribes to 4,500 periodicals, and houses an audio collection of over 4,000 items of music, poetry and plays.
Many of the social and sports activities offered by SOAS are either on campus or staged in the premises of the University of London Union (ULU), two minutes from Russell Square. The SOAS Students Union in Russell Square has a large common room with a snack bar, stationery shop and a cash machine. The union also runs a very popular bar with regular evening events — including musical and cultural evenings.
Admission. Applications for undergrad programmes at SOAS must be made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. Students can obtain a UCAS handbook and form from any of the 11 British Council libraries in India or from UCAS directly (e-mail: enq@ ucas.ac.uk). Applications for 2005 should be submitted between 1 September 2004 and 15 January 2005. However students applying for admission into SOAS’ postgrad and certificate programmes should apply directly to the university.
The minimum eligibility criterion for admission into undergrad programmes is successful completion of Plus Two (class XII) and a bachelor’s degree for postgrad programmes. Proof of proficiency in the English language is also a necessary admission requirement (IELTS score of 5.0 or TOEFL score of 637+). Students whose scores fall below the acceptable test scores are required to take a pre-sessional or in-sessional course in English.
For more information contact the School of Oriental & African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7637 2388; Fax: +44 (0) 20 7436 3844; e-mail study@soas.ac.uk; Website: www.soas.ac.uk.
Accommodation. SOAS students have exclusive access to two student halls of residence located on Pentonville Road, a 20-minute walk from the Russell Square campus. Shaftesbury Student Housing owns Dinwiddy House which accommodates 510 undergrad and postgrad students; and Paul Robeson House which accommodates 252 postgrad students in single rooms and both undergrad and postgrad in the seven double rooms available to couples.
Each building offers purpose built, self-catering accommodation which features individual study bedrooms and en-suite facilities, telephone and internet cabling. Six or seven rooms are clustered around a shared kitchen/ diner. A launderette and common room with television and vending facilities are located on-site and each residency has bicycle covered storage. The price of a single room for 2004-05 is £98.42 (Rs.8,070) per week.
SOAS students are also entitled to apply for a place in one of the seven inter-collegiate residences owned and maintained by London University. Moreover a wide range of private accommodation is available.
Degree programmes. SOAS offers a full range of social science and humanities degree programmes, as well as languages and cultures, with distinctive regional focus. Over 300 degree combinations are available at the undergraduate level and over 70 at the Master’s level. The school is structured academically into three faculties: arts and humanities, languages and cultures and law and social sciences (see box). In addition to academic departments SOAS also has regional and interdisciplinary centres which are responsible for a vigorous programme of activities such as conferences, colloquia, seminars and publications.
Scholastic options at SOAS
The School of Oriental and African Studies offers a wide range of foundation, undergraduate, postgrad, certificate and diploma programmes. The three faculties include:
Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Anthropology and sociology, art and archaeology, history, study of religions
Faculty of Languages and Cultures. Languages and cultures of Africa, languages and cultures of China and inner Asia, languages and cultures of Japan and Korea, languages and cultures of the near and Middle East, languages and cultures of South Asia, languages and cultures of South east Asia, linguistics
Faculty of Law and Social Sciences. Development studies, economics, law, political and international studies
NB: For details of courses visit www.soas.ac.uk
Cost of study (annual)
Tuition fee
Degree £9,500
Certificate and diploma courses £9,500
Accommodation £3,762
Food & living expenses £7,350
NB £=Rs.85
Summiya Yasmeen