Currently celebrating its 31st anniversary, the K-12 Central Public School, Udaipur is ranked among India’s Top 30 co-ed day-cum-boarding schools and # 3 in Rajasthan in the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings 2019-20 – Paromita Sengupta Sited on an eco-friendly three-acre campus on the banks of River Ayad in Udaipur, Central Public School (CPS, estb.1989) has emerged as the most preferred day-cum-boarding school of this charming city of lakes and temples (pop.650,000). Currently celebrating its 31st anniversary, this K-12 school is ranked among the Top 30 co-ed day-cum-boarding schools nationally and #3 in Rajasthan (68 million) in the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) 2019-20. Promoted three decades ago by Alka Sharma — chairperson of the Child Welfare Society, which also runs the city’s Rockwoods High School (estb.2009) and Rockwoods International School (2016) — to offer high-quality English-medium education in then underserved Udaipur, this CBSE-affiliated school provides holistic education rooted in traditional ethics and values to its 2,000 students, including 240 boarders, mentored by 87 teachers. “Our goal is to nurture children in a safe, secure and stimulating learning environment to develop competencies and skills required for success and leadership in the emerging global economy. Therefore, our curriculum integrates rigorous academics with sports, co-curricular and life skills education to produce well-rounded and confident school leavers who are physically strong, mentally alert, emotionally stable, spiritually enlightened and equipped with social and life skills, with excellent command over the English language. Under our unique English champ pedagogy, students in all age groups are regularly tested for creative writing, elocution and debating skills. For our teachers, we routinely conduct in-house workshops to ensure their continuous professional development,” says Sharma, an English postgrad of Rajasthan University, managing director of CPS and recipient of the Union ministry of Communications and IT’s Computer Literacy Excellence President’s Award in 2003. The CPS management takes particular pride in the school’s smooth switch to digital learning after all education institutions countrywide were ordered to shut down on March 25 following outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We boldly accepted the challenge to start online classes which we are supplementing with in-house designed worksheets and notes. Nor is our online education restricted to academics. Given our culture of holistic education, students have celebrated Indian festivals apart from World Environment Day, World Heritage Day and International Yoga Day online,” says Sharma. Udaipur’s top-ranked day-cum-boarding school has certainly come a long way since it admitted its first batch of 85 students in a nondescript rented building. Today the school is spread over three green acres hosting four three-storeyed buildings with a built-up area of 60,860 sq. ft. These buildings house 50 air-conditioned Smart classrooms, four state-of-the art science and computer laboratories, hi-tech multimedia, music and art rooms, and separate junior and senior libraries with 10,000 volumes and more than 30 magazines and e-journal subscriptions. Residential accommodation includes separate air-cooled dormitories for 180 boys and 60 girls. “A global outlook and special emphasis on life skills education is a well-established tradition in CPS. In…
