Shaping dreams of a new east

Across the river schools in east Delhi have adapted themselves well to the demands of integrated learning. Hindustan Times profiles schools ranked 4 to 10 in the HT-C fore East zone schools survey.

Ahlcon International School

The school wanted to cater to the changing aspirations of a new generation of parents.

“Parents are not just looking for academic excellence. So we focused on how to teach the subject and integrate co-curricular activities that would explore other dimensions of the child,” said principal Ashok K. Pandey.

Students are currently working on 15 projects of national and international level.

One thing that parents welcome about the school is the transparent nursery admission process.

“I did not qualify but I knew exactly how many points I scored and the fact that many scored more than me,” said Ashutosh Guar, a parent who applied to the school in 2008.

Somerville School, Mayur Vihar

The Class XII students here celebrate Thanksgiving every year by sharing things with p

eople from a nearby slum.

“We insist because we want them to leave school with some idea of what they want to do with their lives,” said acting principal Esther Mani.

The school also ensures that every student participates in some activity, even if it is as simple as reading the thought of the day during morning assembly.

The school is already doing the continuous and comprehensive evaluation that the CBSE has now extended to Classes XI and X, said Mani.

The school also believes in counselling parents.

ASN Senior Secondary School

This school believes in catching them young.

It has a lab for nursery children with an interactive screen and customised furniture.

Teachers make their own CDs to cater to the level of the children and teach them at their own pace.

The huge amphitheatre of the school is used by students for a variety of activities, including role-playing, theatre and other competitions.

The school also has a golden hour at the beginning of the day, which it uses for doing yoga and discussing moral values through stories.

“We put great emphasis on moral values and teach students by making them enact the lives and doings of great men,” said Madhu Kapoor, in-charge of the primary wing.

The school has its own badminton foundation and lawn tennis court and boasts of national champions in swimming, taekwondo and judo.

Mother Teresa Public School

The school dedicates each academic year to a particular cause like environment, heritage or the differently-abled.

“We want to give out students the roots of culture and wings of technology,” said Neeta

Jethy, the principal of the school. And, therefore, the stress on moral values and use of multimedia in classrooms.

“Devotion, discipline and character are the motto of our school. We put a lot of stress on encouraging these qualities in children,” said Jethy, who has been with the school since its inception in 1984.

The school has two basketball courts, a cricket pitch, a volleyball court and facilities for indoor games.

It also organises counselling sessions to help students cope with the demands of the world. Sessions with people like Arun Jaitley and Pandit Birju Maharaj are held to expose students to the world and different fields.

Lovely Public, Krishna Nagar

The school has a mini amusement park for its students and holds pranayam classes for selected children to improve their concentration and learning capacity.

“We want to train our students for life, not just educate them,” said Inder Malik, the managing director of the school.

From the nursery level, the stress is on activity-based education.

“We stress the use of multimedia a lot during lessons. All our textbooks come with video CDs,” said Malik.

The school’s secondary and senior secondary branch in Priyadarshini Vihar has a swimming pool, basketball court, skating ring and a cricket academy. Meditation and yoga are regular features at the school assembly from the pre-primary level.

Ryan International, Mayur Vihar

Last year, Ryan International sent 11 students to the Indian Institutes of Technology. But if you thought the school was all about academics, think again.

The students here engage in a variety of activities. They have an active rock band and pa

rticipate in international theatre festivals every year.

“We give a lot of importance to music. Every student should be tuned to music because we believe it brings out the sensual aspect of life, which is lost in the daily grind,” said principal Sandhya Sabu.

From Class 9 onwards, a zero period allows students to indulge in something of their interest.

G.S. Chaitanya, a Class 12 Humanities student and member of the school prefectorial board, said the school has improved its infrastructure and opportunities. “We have various clubs, including astronomy, environment, music, etc, that give students a chance to explore,” said Chaitanya.

Shahid Rajpal DAV public school

The students here design robots out of interest and read the newspaper every morning before classes start.

“We use newspapers in a big way to develop awareness of the children and it begins from junior classes,” said Heemal Handoo Bhatt, the linguistics and phonetics teacher of the school.

A lot of effort also goes into making pure sciences interesting. “We have a science education centre where workshops are held for students and teachers,” said Renu Laroiya, the principal.

There is also has a section for spastic students. “We merged one girl with the regular students in class 3 this year,” said Laroiya.