Niraj International School, Hyderabad

Spread over a meticulously landscaped pollution-free seven acre campus in Kandlakoya, on the outskirts of Hyderabad (pop.7.75 million), the CBSE-affiliated Niraj International School (NIS, estb. 2009) is the latest new genre school to spring up in the coveted city, the joint capital of the new state of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (aka Seemandhra) for the next ten years, after which it will be given the status of admin capital of Telangana. NIS is promoted by the Hyderabad-based Niraj Education Society (NES) which established the city’s well-known co-ed CISCE-affiliated Niraj Public School in 1986, and which currently has an enrolment of 1,275 students mentored by 120 teachers. Moreover, the society has experience of higher education having promoted the Niraj College of Hotel Management (1992) and the Nirvana Institute of Professional Studies (2001). But in 2006-07, the society exited the professional education segment to focus on K-12 education and promotion of NIS in particular. A great deal of research and debate has been invested in conceptualising the syllabus and curriculum of NIS. Primary school children in classes I-V follow the enquiry-based, contemporary PYP (primary years programme) curriculum of the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organisation. Subsequently from class VI-X, they follow the curriculum of the Delhi-based CBSE. This mix has worked well. In the CBSE class X exam held in March, of the 15 students who wrote the exam, three averaged 95 percent plus, four 91-94 percent with the entire batch averaging 85 percent plus. We believe there’s more to K-12 education than mere assimilation of knowledge. Our teachers make students think rationally and to learn by doing, says B. Gavish Reddy, a commerce and business management graduate of Osmania and Oxford Brookes universities, executive director of NIS and trustee of NES. To justify its positioning as an upscale, international K-12 school, the management has taken considerable pains to develop the school’s infrastructure. Its 30 centrally air-conditioned fully wired classrooms are equipped with multi-media systems and LCD monitors, to engage the attention of its 229 students and enthuse them to learn. Moreover, NIS boasts four science (physics, chemistry, biology and math) labs, a computer lab with 25 terminals, a 25-seater English language learning lab and a library with 4,500 volumes, and eight journal subscriptions. Co-curricular education is also accorded prime importance with a literary week staged annually at the school. Moreover, a Young Learners English Programme is conducted in association with the British Council and debates are regularly organised to make English language learning more interactive and enjoyable. Indian and Western classical music and dance, creative arts and crafts, robotics clubs and classes are on the co-curricular time-table with special attention given to developing life skills such as communication, presentation and confidence-building, says Dr. Sundar Gandikota, an alumnus of Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, and Pondicherry universities and former principal of Ambitus World School, Hyderabad, and Orchid International School, Nashik, who took charge as principal of NIS in May. Likewise, age-appropriate sports are compulsory for all students and options include swimming, cricket,…