City Montessori School

City Montessori School (CMS) (Hindi: सिटी मॉन्टेसरी स्कूल, लखनऊ) is a co-educational English medium private school that offers education from Pre-school up to K-12 (Grade 12) level in Lucknow, India. The school was founded in 1959 by Dr Bharti Gandhi and Dr Jagdish Gandhi. It held the 2010-11 Guinness Book of World Records for the largest school.^[2] In 2016 its enrollment has reached nearly 52,000 pupils.^[1] CMS is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations. The City Montessori School, Gomtinagar Campus has been ranked 1st by academic reputation nationally by the Education World magazine recently in its September 2015 edition^[3] and has received numerous awards.^[4] According to an independent analysis of ISC (Grade 12) results of 2015 carried out by the website TheLearningPoint.net, City Montessori School, Gomti Nagar Campus stood second among all the ISC schools in India by the parameter of average across Eng+best 3 subjects of all the appearing students. Kumar Yashasvi and Ishaan Arora are its alumni.^[5] On the same parameter, as declared by TheLearningpoint.net, the Aliganj and Mahanagar Campuses of City Montessori School stood 5th and 6th nationally.

In 2014 CMS society was accredited with the United Nations Department of Public Information as affiliated NGO.^[6]

Background

The husband and wife duo of Jagdish Gandhi (b. 10 November 1936)[3] and Bharti Gandhi founded the City Montessori School with just 5 students and a borrowed capital of just Rs 300 or US$5 (approx) in rented premises in 1959. The first words that the students wrote on their slate on the first day of the school were 'Jai Jagat' or 'Glory be to the World' which later became the motto of the school. Currently CMS has 20 separate branch campuses spread across the city. City Montessori School is well known for its comprehensive peace education curriculum which can be witnessed in all the school activities like All-Religion Prayer, World Peace Prayer, World Parliaments, Peace Marches etc.^[7] In 2002 CMS was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education.^[8] The CMS philosophy revolves around the "twin poles" of globalism and godliness, and the school's mission is to promote world unity and peace by shaping future generations as "world citizens" whose minds have the virtues of unity and peace impressed upon them from day one.

"A school must act as a lighthouse to society; providing direction, guidance and leadership to students, parents, and society and also concern itself with the affairs of the age" is one of the core beliefs of school.

City Montessori School organizes over 2 dozen international educational events in a calendar year.^[9] Thousands of children from different countries of the world regularly participate in these international events.

Conferences

Since the year 2000, City Montessori School has organized an annual international conference for chief justices of the world where chief justices and judges from the supreme courts of many nations of the world, world statesmen, interfaith leaders, experts from the fields of education, civil rights, and others, share perspectives and inspire governments, students, teachers, their parents and society to actively work for peace, not only in their community, city, province and country but also globally.^[10] Personalities like the Hon’ble Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader has been guest speakers at these Conferences.^[11][12][13]

His Excellency the Late Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India and an idol for millions of aspiring young minds has also visited the school.^[14]

Campuses

The campuses of the school are spread all over the city of Lucknow. The campuses include:^[15]

1. Station Road Campus
2. Gomti Nagar Campus
3. Gomti Nagar Campus 2
4. Mahanagar Campus 1
5. Mahanagar Campus 2
6. Mahanagar Campus 3
7. Aliganj Campus 1
8. Aliganj Campus 2
9. Rajendra Nagar Campus 1
10. Rajendra Nagar Campus 2
11. Rajendra Nagar Campus 3
12. Rajajipuram Campus 1
13. Rajajipuram Campus 2
14. RDSO Campus
15. Kanpur Road Campus
16. Asharfabad Campus
17. Jopling Road Campus
18. Anand Nagar Campus
19. Chowk Campus
20. Indira Nagar Campus

Controversies

In August 2015, the Allahabad High Court issued a contempt notice to the school because it had refused to admit 13 students of economically weak backgrounds under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act.^[16] The 13 students were admitted after a Supreme Court judgement.^[17] The school had previously stopped a Pakistani school from taking part in the 2014 International School Cricket Premier League for security reasons. The event was organised by CMS itself.^[18] The school is well known for its high fees. In 2013, it increased its fees by up-to 16% in comparison to previous year's fee.^[19] In an example of School corporal punishment, one of the school's teacher slapped a student so hard that he became deaf from his left ear. The student lodged an FIR against the teacher. Despite the incident receiving media attention, the school's founder maintained that "physical punishment is banned in the school".^[20]

Reportedly, a student of class 10 at the school's Mahanagar branch committed suicide in 2011, after his principal Nalini Sharad, threatened him to move around the school's campus, naked. After the student's suicide, his parents filed a complaint with the police and the school's employees testified regarding the incident. Despite this, the police did not register a case against the then principal and a court ordered in 2013 that a case should be registered against Sharad.^[21]

Alumni

Actress Celina Jaitley is one of the most noted alumni of this school.^[22]

References

External links

• Official website
• Website of City Montessori School (CMS) founder Dr. Jagdish Gandhi

Coordinates: 26°47′23″N 80°53′39″E / 26.7896°N 80.8942°E / 26.7896; 80.8942