Baishali Mukherjee

Sited on a 3.8 acres campus in Kolkata (pop. 15 lakh), BDM International, (BDMI, estd. 1966) is a CBSE-affiliated co-ed day school highly reputed in the City of Joy for providing nationally benchmarked play group-12 education to its 7150 students including 3094 girls mentored by 300 teachers and 26 non-teaching and 76 support staff. During the past 58 years since it admitted its first batch the school’s reputation has spread far and wide. Over the years BDMI has been conferred more than 35 awards. The school received 10 awards in 2023-24 including – Most Influential School awards by 12th Edition of World Education Congress Global Awards 2023 in July, best CBSE School award at Asian Education Award held by Asian Education Conclave in June, Certificate of Honour for excellence in co-curricular activities and certificate of excellence in maintenance and eco-friendly initiatives by The Telegraph Education Foundation, ranked No. 2 in India, No. 1 in West Bengal, and No. 1 in Kolkata under Top 20 CBSE Schools by Education Today, and India STEM Award, 2023 for ‘Outstanding Initiatives of the Year’ in Robotics.

In 1966, (Late) GN Khaitan, Chairman and Managing Director of Khaitan Chemicals , and his wife (Late) Draupadi Devi Khaitan, founded and promoted BDMI with the dream of setting up an institution that offers world-class education focusing on academic excellence, ethics and values, physical health and sports, and state-of-the-art infrastructure. They envisaged a quality school system which imparts sound values based on the foundations of humanitarianism and integrity and at the same time makes students future ready for careers of the 20th century.

Credit for excellent public notices, awards and encomiums that BDMI has received over the past 58 years is universally given to the school’s commitment to providing a balanced blend of contemporary pedagogies, academic rigour and value-based education. “BDMI offers a conducive learning environment by recognising the uniqueness of every individual learner and seeks to bring out the best in one and all by implementing the method of inclusive learning. Our teaching strategy attempts to give equal and accessible learning experiences to all students, regardless of their various backgrounds, skills or learning styles. We nurture curious minds by providing training in Robotics and AI, keeping them updated along with the fast advancing world of technology. The students reap the benefits of collaborative learning by participating in various international projects like STEM sessions organized at the American Centre and also by interacting with global educators like, Dr. Swati Popat Vats, who visited our school campus in February 2023,” says Madhumita Sengupta, Principal of the school. 

An alumnus of Loreto day School, Seth Anandaram Jaipuria College, Kolkata, and Calcutta University, Sengupta started her career in 2000 in Smt. Jawahari Devi Birla College of Commerce, Kolkata, as part time lecturer and has also worked with Birla High School (Boys) as Head of the Department of Commerce, and as the principal with Army Public School, Binnaguri, Ashok Hall Girls’ Higher Secondary School, and Delhi Public School, Barasat before she was appointed Principal of BDMI in December, 2021. 

“The school develops a sense of philanthropy in students through various interactive club activities. From August 2023 students (VI and above) of BDMI has started the each one teach one project, where each student will teach a non-literate adult individually from their own community or family as a part of Diksha-Each One Teach One program implemented by Rotary India Literacy Mission to educate 1 crore adults per year for the next 5 years,” says Sengupta. 

Built by Kolkata based firm, Kothari & Associates, BDMI is a nature-friendly, ecology sensitive institution. The school’s 3.8-acre campus, with built-up area of 14329 sq.m, hosts one U-shaped and three more academic units including 151 fully air conditioned classrooms fitted with smart boards, 11 air-conditioned and wi-fi enabled labs including Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Biotech, Geography, Computer Science, AI, Composite Science, Robotics, and 3D painting, more than 600 IP based CCTV surveillance in all the classrooms and laboratories, turf area of 11,000 sq.ft. The school’s three libraries house more than 20,000 books, along with several journals, cds, dvds etc. 

Participation in sports and co-curricular activities is given high importance. Sports facilities include Chess, Badminton, Yoga, Karate, Football, Cricket, Table Tennis, Basketball, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Athletics, skating, darts, archery, and kickboxing. Co-curricular education facilities include Dramatics, Radio Jockeying, Debating, Foreign language-French, Dance, Music, Scout and Guides, School band-drummers, Craft activities, Graphics Designing, Interaction and Debate. 

As an inclusive school, BDMI believes no child is a ‘poor fit’ in the institution. The SEN (Special Education Needs) department of the school is equipped with the basic infrastructural prerequisites like ramps, elevators and disabled-friendly washrooms. “With the conviction that all students can learn, the school makes an effort to provide additional academic and skill based learning support to all the special students enrolled in the department. We have 5 specialist qualified teachers guiding children with Autism, ADHD, Specific Learning Disability, Developmental Delay, Dyslexia, Intellectual Impairment and Muscular Dystrophy,” says Sengupta. 

The focus of the management at BDMI is on holistic education provision has paid off by way of excellent academic outcomes. Unsurprisingly, this year’s national topper in CBSE – SSE, was Sabyasachi Laskar from BDMI who scored a perfect 100% (500/500). Moreover, of the 513 BDMI’S students who wrote the CBSE class XII school-leaving exam in February-March 2024, 81 averaged 90 percent-plus. In the 2024 class X board exam, 230 of 673 students averaged above 90 percent. Moreover three students cleared the West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), three cracked JEE advanced 2024, while three cleared NEET. 

B.D.M.I plans to continue providing excellence in terms of infrastructure, technological advances, teaching standards, co-curricular and sports facilities, in order to create a rich learning environment which unleashes the latent potential of the learners enabling their holistic development. To align the curriculum to the National Education Policy 2020, B.D.M.I is working on building a strong STEAM education curriculum in which Artificial Intelligence, Coding and Robotics feature prominently alongside the pursuit of the Arts. “In my understanding, School must epitomize vibrancy and dynamism within a holistic learning environment. School education should focus on imparting value- based learning with the aim to bring forth overall development of the students. And that is exactly the Mantra we follow at B.D.M.I,” says Sengupta.

Admission & fees 

BDMI is a CBSE affiliated K-12 co-ed day school. Admissions into Toddler I, II and Prep, are through interview/interaction system, in KG I through worksheets, and from class II onwards writing Admission entrance exam is mandatory. 

Tuition fee: Rs. Rupees 2,950 to Rupees 4,550 /- per month 

For further information, contact BDM International, Tel: (033) 24358402/ 8434; e-mail: [email protected]

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