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 2015, we introduced student exchange programmes with schools in Sweden and Germany for our students to explore new countries, cultures and ideas and improve their communication and collaborative learning skills,” says Deepak Sharma, a commerce and business management alum of Pune and Symbiosis universities who quit a high-profile corporate career in 2009, to lessen the burden of managing the three thoroughly modern and progressive schools promoted by his mother.
An avid biker and fitness enthusiast, Deepak’s first priority is to sharply improve sports education in this 31-year-old school. Its sports infrastructure includes a multi-sports ground, a 15-metre swimming pool, synthetic badminton and tennis courts, cricket and soccer fields and Rajasthan’s first roller skating rink. CPS students have excelled at the International Roller Speed Championship in 2019 as also in other sports events organised by CBSE and the School Games Federation of India.
Co-curricular education — debate, elocution, vocal and instrumental music, art and crafts, wood and stone sculpture, pottery, batik art and the performing arts — is an integral component of the school curriculum.
The CPS management’s holistic education strategy has paid off by way of excellent academic outcomes. Of the 171 CPS students who wrote the CBSE class XII school-leaving exam in February-March this year, 21 averaged more than 90 percent with toppers Shrikant Dixit (science) and Ramesh P. Choudhary (humanities) averaging 97.4 and 96.4 percent respectively. In the 2020 class X board exam, 31 of 198 students averaged 90 percent-plus.
“Although I am fairly satisfied with the development and evolution of CPS and our rank as Udaipur’s premier school in the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings, we have drawn up a strategy to improve our scores under every parameter of school education excellence with special focus on continuous professional development programmes for our teachers. Our goal is to become Rajasthan’s #1 day-cum-boarding school within the next two years and replicate the CPS holistic education model in other districts of Rajasthan,” says Deepak Sharma.
Admission & fees
Central Public School, Udaipur is a K-12 co-ed day-cum-boarding institution affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi. Registration forms are available at the school office in November.
Admission is through a written test followed by separate interviews with parents and students.
Tuition fee (annual): Rs.32,220- 51,725
For further details contact Ph: 02942415641; email:info@cpsudaipur.com
Recommended: Alka Sharma, MD, Central Public Sr. Sec. School