The newest of the three DPS schools promoted by the KKEC Trust, this K-12 school constructed on a 16-acre plot with superior infrastructure, has attained full capacity in quick time.
Over the past 64 years, since it was registered to provide excellent and holistic K-12 education, the Delhi Public Schools Society (estb. 1937) has promoted 190 DPS schools countrywide under the owned (11) and franchise models. However until the dawn of the new millennium, the reputation and fame of DPS was restricted to the national capital and the Hindi heartland states of north India. But in 2001, K. Rahman Khan, former chairman of the Bangalore-based Al-Ameen Educational Society and currently Union minister of minority affairs, and chairman of KK Educational and Charitable Trust (KKECT, regstd. 1999) signed up with DPS Society to set up the first franchisee school south of the Vindhyas” DPS Bangalore South.
Quite obviously the DPS brand of school education has struck a resonant chord among citizens of India’s IT city because since then, the number of DPS schools promoted by the trust has multiplied to four (Bangalore South, North, East and DPS, Mysore) with an aggregate enrollment of 16,000 students. More pertinently, all three DPS schools of Bangalore have quickly established excellent reputations for providing high quality education in the garden city. In the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings 2013, DPS, Bangalore South (estb. 2001) is ranked #16, DPS, Bangalore North (estb.2002) #6 and DPS, Bangalore East (estb. 2007) #17 in Karnataka.
In particular over the past seven years, DPS, Bangalore East, constructed on a 16-acre plot in the suburb of Sarjapur with a project cost of Rs.35 crore and superior infrastructure, has earned excellent notices for providing rigorous academic and extra-curricular education. In quick time, this CBSE-affiliated K-12 school has reached its full capacity of 4,400 students mentored by 275 teachers.
In terms of planning, design and space utilisation, DPS, Bangalore East, designed by well-known education institutions architect Dinesh Verma, is an improvement on our previous two schools. We have a green campus because of a comprehensive water management and recycling system, and the school, which also features a one acre organic farm maintained by students who are encouraged to learn a range of life skills, is subject to rigorous energy audits. Because of good spatial planning we have been able to set aside 10 acres for sports including field games such as cricket, football and hockey. DPS, Bangalore East provides the best infrastructure of any day school countrywide proportionate to its very affordable tuition fees, says Mansoor Khan, a business management graduate of Bangalore University and chief executive of all four DPS schools promoted under the aegis of KKECT.
The school’s academic infrastructure is impressive, comprising 200 classrooms fitted with Smart class boards supported by capital intensive science, computer and maths labs, and a well-stocked library housing 15,500 books. An indoor sports complex of 50,000 sq.ft offers table tennis, squash, badminton and basketball courts, a gymnasium, swimming pool and training facilities for taekwondo, yoga and karate.
Given the school’s supportive academic infrastructure, its not surprising that of the first batch of 80 students who wrote the class XII CBSE board exam last March, 60 averaged 80 percent, and 20 over 90 percent.
Although we give due importance to academic learning, our broader objective is to provide balanced, over-all education which prepares our students for the world outside school. There-fore there is a strong emphasis on life skills education ” inter-school debates, competitions and community service. Moreover, students are given opportunities to learn organic farming, robotics, and a range of hands-on science activities, develop higher order thinking skills and engage with our water management, energy audit and air pollution abatement initiatives, says Manila Carvalho, a psychology postgrad of Mangalore University who acquired 22 years of teaching and administrative experience in Carmel Convent, Bangalore and KKCET’s DPS, Bangalore South before being appointed principal of DPS, East in 2007.
With all three DPS schools in Bangalore running to full capacity, the trust has drawn up plans to promote a new chain of K-12 schools in tier-II cities and towns of Karnataka (pop. 62 million). Within the next five years KKCET will establish schools in the headquarters of all 30 districts of the state in addition to a teachers training college in Bangalore, says Mansoor Khan.
Fair winds!
Admission and fees
DPS, Bangalore East is a co-educational K-12 day school affiliated with the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Students are admitted into kindergarten at age four with admission into other classes only against vacancies. Application forms can be downloaded from the school website. In classes XI-XII, three streams” science, humanities and commerce ” are offered.
Tuition fees: Rs.40,100-52,100 per annum
For further information contact Delhi Public School, Bangalore East, 43/1B & 45 Sulikunte Village, Dommasandra PO, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore 562125. Tel: 080-27822260/61/63; e-mail: east@dpsbangalore.net; website: http://www.dpsblr.com
Sangeetha Samuel (Bangalore)
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