City becoming hub for international schools

CHANDIGARH: Move over Dehradun and Mussorie, Chandigarh is now one of the favourite new destination for education trusts to set up multicultural international schools with the ‘Indian culture’ intact. Despite being a late entry, Bangalore and Pune are already on the list due to its IT tag and salubrious climate, the ‘City Beautiful’ has picked up a substantial portion of international schools.
Among the schools which have opened centres here are the Ryan International, Shemrock International; Strawberry World School, Chitkara International, Ananda International and Dikshant International.‘‘Today we have about six well-known international schools around the city, while Bangalore and Pune have over the years added more than a handful. But we are not very far behind in the race," said a viceprincipal of a international school.
Chitkara International School, Sector 25, one of the new entrants which was started last year with about 50 students in play school and nursery, is expected to start class I this year, said Ashok Chitkara, chairman of the school.
Most of the schools offer the ICSE/CBSE or IGCSE curricula. Classes start very often at the kindergarten level and are till class XII. Along with studies, the stress on co-curricular activities is significant. Sports, swimming, horse-riding, yoga, dance, music, fashion shows, hobby clubs, theatre, excursions are part of the curriculum.
‘‘Some of these schools even offer an option of choosing between the International Baccalaureate course, an internationally recognised curriculum, and the Central Board of Secondary Education pattern of education," said Chitkara.
Even though these schools claim to be international, there are no signs of any foreigner students so far, said a teacher coordinator of a private school adding that it will be years before one can expect any. There should be some criteria to term them as international schools, she urged. But the teaching staff of these schools are optimistic and expect NRI students to form a large chunk here, with Indian-born parents wanting their children to keep in touch with their culture. Even students from Germany, Africa, Thailand, Nepal, Malaysia and the Middle East are eager to join the schools.
While maths and science subjects would be the same as those being taught abroad, the social sciences curriculum would be modified to suit the Indian standards. However, such education comes with an international price tag too, the fees vary from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs three lakh per annum. But the schools indicate a different figure. ‘‘We charge Rs 15,000 as one-time fee at the time of admission in addition to Rs 25,000 as charges of the entire year," says vice-principal of one of the schools.