Even as he was approaching the end of his innings as principal of Bangalore’s Bishop Cotton Boys School (estb. 1865), commonly acknowledged as one of the country’s top-ranked K-XII schools, Dr. Abraham Ebenezer had set the ball rolling for promotion of the Ebenezer International School, Bangalore (EISB), an ambitious project which promises to set new standards and benchmarks for the growing number of international schools in Bangalore and India. Now having retired as principal of Bishop Cotton on May 31 after a 13-year term during which student enrollment more than doubled from 2,500 to 5,500, Ebenezer is working round the clock with characteristic energy, to ready EISB to receive its first contingent of 600 K-VIII students on June 4 next year. “EISB is the first initiative of the Abraham Memorial Trust (AMT) registered in 2000 with the objective of establishing education centres — primary, secondary and tertiary including community schools — across the country. The trust which has a corpus of Rs.1 crore will provide scholarships for higher education and offer aid for medical care to the aged and victims of natural disasters,” says Ebenezer. And given that EISB is the first major project of AMT, Ebenezer is sparing no effort to get the project off the ground as per schedule. Construction of the school has already commenced on a 22.5 acre site contiguous to Bangalore’s famous Electronic City. Inevitably, given that several true-blue international day-cum-residential schools with five-star infrastructure have already planted their flags on the peripheries of Bangalore, Ebenezer has an ambitious agenda to match, if not best them. “The campus will comprise 13 main buildings, each with distinctive design and character. Every classroom will open out into a garden and courtyard and the school will offer an olympic size swimming pool, a sports stadium and a 1,000-seat auditorium. For day-scholars we will commission best 20-seater buses with modern safety features and commuting time will not exceed 50 minutes from any part of Bangalore. And for our 300 girl and boy boarders we will provide two and three-share suites instead of the traditional dormitories which will be supplemented by excellent dining and sports and games facilities,” says Ebenezer who adds that EISB has already generated great enthusiasm with over 700 admission enquiries received by the management. For the construction of this state-of-the-art international school affiliated with the Delhi-based CISCE (Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations) and IBO (International Baccalaureate Organisation), Geneva, the trust has budgeted a handsome Rs.42 crore with provision for more if required. “While facilitative infrastructure is important, the character of a school is defined by its leadership and teachers. We have already received over 100 applications from some of the country’s best teachers who want to serve in EISB. From among them we have shortlisted a vice-principal and 20 teachers, and on January 1 we will initiate a global search for a principal,” says Ebenezer. Tuition fees have been fixed at Rs.1 lakh per year for day-scholars and Rs.2.25 lakh for boarders in junior school and…
