The Indian army, which boasts its own 123 schools countrywide, inaugurated its first primary-secondary school — The Golden Palm Army School (GPAS) — in the port city of Chennai on May 26, to educate children of serving army officers, as also grandchildren of ex-servicemen. The new school is expected to end the uphill struggle faced by army personnel in getting their children admitted into the Central government promoted Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) schools — the first choice of defence services officer corps. The 981 KVs across the country were directed to restrict student intake per class (35 in primary and 40 in the secondary) by the Central government earlier this year.Located in Nandambakkam, a suburb of Chennai, the CBSE-affiliated GPAS was inaugurated on July 6 as a regimental school with a complement of 15 teachers offering instruction to children enroled in classes I-VII, and will be handed over to the Army Welfare and Education Society in 2010. Built at a project cost of Rs.8.91 crore, the school will give admission priority to children of defence officers, but has reserved 20 percent of its 1,800 capacity for children of civilians. A modestly priced fee structure for different ranks of army personnel has been fixed, though civilians are required to pay slightly more as tuition fees. Admissions are strictly merit-based. Our objective is to promote all-round development of children by according equal emphasis to academics, sports and extra-curricular activities. We want to mould students into disciplined, but confident youngsters who display exemplary conduct within and beyond the school campus. A host of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities have been integrated into the curri-culum. We intend to provide a strong academic foundation through child-centric, activity-oriented pedagogy, says Uma Chandrasekaran, principal of GPAS. An alumna of Madras and Annamalai universities, Chandra-sekaran brings 20 years of teaching and administrative experience in schools affiliated with differing exam boards in the city. Prior to her current appoint-ment, she served as the principal of the CBSE affiliated Sri Narayana Mission School, Chennai. In accordance with Indian Army tradition, the GPAS management committee comprising distinguished army officers has spared no efforts in equipping the countrys newest army school with excellent infrastructure. Spread over eight acres, GPAS offers 45 well-ventilated classrooms; separate libraries for primary and secondary schools with the secondary school library stocked with over 7,500 books and periodicals; and two well-equipped laboratories for physics, chemistry, biology and computer science. Inevitably, sports education has been given prime importance with the school equipped with three volleyball, two badminton, and three basketball courts, a cricket field and two football grounds. Special coaching is offered to students depending on their interest and aptitude. In its inaugural year, GPAS has admitted a first batch of 300 students in classes I-VII. Institution development plans include addition of one class every year until GPAS grows into a full- fledged senior secondary school. Our efforts will be directed towards growing in terms of school strength, excelling in sports, academics and extra-curricular activities and inculcating discipline and moral values…
