The first English-medium school of Ghatkopar, a populous eastern suburb of Mumbai, PGGS (estb. 1969) is ranked among India’s Top 100 co-ed day schools – Dipta Joshi Established in 1969 in Mumbai’s suburb of Ghatkopar (pop.200,000), the P.G. Garodia School (PGGS) was the first school to offer English-medium education to residents of this eastern suburb of India’s commercial capital. This co-ed K-10 day school, which began its innings as a Maharashtra state board English-medium school, sought and received affiliation with the Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) in 2008. Since then, PGGS has built itself an excellent reputation for rigorous academic, sports, music and extra-curricular education. In the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2016-17, the school is ranked #25 in Mumbai, #28 in Maharashtra and among the Top 100 co-ed day schools countrywide. Promoted by the Garodia Group, a big name in Mumbai’s real estate and construction industry for developing Garodia Nagar, Ghatkopar’s landmark residential complex, PGGS began modestly in a small garage with seven students tutored by Parmeshwari Devi Garodia, wife of Gordhandas Shivchandrai Garodia, the family patriarch. Soon, the school attracted a steady inflow of students deprived of English-medium education. In 1969, the P.G. Garodia Charitable Trust was registered to manage and plan the expansion of PGGS. Since then, the trust has expanded its operations by promoting the Garodia Academy (estb. 1999), a preschool which also offers teacher training programmes in early childhood care and education, and the Garodia International Centre for Learning (estb. 2005), which offers the curriculums of the UK-based Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Moreover, the group has also promoted six Beehive preschools in Mumbai, Delhi and Latur. “My grandmother Parmeshwari Devi was a visionary who realised that providing high-quality English-medium school education to children living in the then under-served new suburb of Ghatkopar would be of great benefit to society. I am pleased to report that over the past 48 years, PGGS has transformed into a highly-respected institution of the city offering excellent academic, extra-curricular and values-based education to students,” says Nishant Garodia, an alumnus of Huron University, USA and managing director of Garodia Education Group. Since the next generation Nishant took charge of PGGS in 2002, he has engineered the group’s steady expansion by promoting an international school, preschools and teacher training academy. Spread across 70,000 sq. ft of prime real estate in Mumbai, PGGS is housed in a six storey building also temporarily hosting the CIE board students. The campus also hosts the P.G. Garodia Conservatoire — a western music school — and the One World International Sports Centre, which offers facilities for basketball, football, handball, athletics, yoga, gymnastics, lawn tennis and martial arts. Both centres are also open to the public. Self-evidently, the trustees of Garodia Education have invested heavily in upgrading academic facilities of this school which will celebrate its golden anniversary in 2019. The school’s 40 classrooms are fitted with overhead projectors and smart-boards; three modern laboratories dispense hands-on science and computer education; a…
