When Kota comes to your school classroom

GURGAON: While IIT coaching centres are seen as hubs of rote learning and blamed for creating individuals who are unaware about the world around, such institutions are a market response to failure of schools in training engineering aspirants to crack one of the toughest tests — Joint Entrance Exam (JEE). A school in neighbouring Faridabad, however, has solved the much feared IIT-JEE puzzle without burdening the students excessively and ensuring their all-round development.
Modern Vidya Niketan (MVN), a CBSE school in Faridabad, has successfully created a model where JEE coaching is provided along with regular school classes. The school has not only produced this year’s IIT-JEE topper in Arpit Agrawal, but has also created 65 other IITians.
“MVN’s approach is unique as it integrates NCERT syllabus with competitive examination training,” says Madhu Singh who moved her son, Vibhanshu to MVN from a nearby Kendriya Vidyalaya, having read about MVN students’ success in the papers. Vibhanshu is one among the 50 students who were offered scholarships by MVN. Ever since MVN developed this approach in 2000, 412 students made it to IIT. The year 2008 saw as many as 140 students achieve success in the IIT joint entrance exam.
Students at MVN attribute their success in competitive exams to the environment the school creates for them. “The environment here is highly competitive as the school attracts the best students from all across Faridabad, Gurgaon and Delhi,” says Salil Sharma, who is now preparing for his first day at IIT. Salil had moved to MVN in his eleventh standard.
The school creates homogeneous classrooms, where students are grouped according to their ability and performance in the admission entrance test. Though as many as 1,700 students appeared for the MVN admission tests last year, only 400 were accepted to the eleventh standard. The school year begins in March. Students get only a month of summer holidays in June and teacher instructions are completed by September. This enables students to spend six months on their competitive exams. Sanju Ahuja, a student recalls receiving hours of individual attention during her study holidays, when she visited the school for help from her teachers.
Teachers at MVN play an important role in their students’ success. “I cannot impart knowledge to my students unless I connect with them,” says Sonia Chaudhury, a visiting faculty for chemistry. Hence, she works on building a strong relationships with her students, enabling them to engage in debate and discussion about science.
Principal, Santosh Sharma offers her employees rewards and incentives based on their students’ performance and she believes this goes a long way in improving quality of teaching. Vice principal, Jaiprakash Gaur visits higher secondary classrooms on a weekly basis and elicits feedback from students about the teachers, administration, infrastructure and testing methods.