City Montessori School (CMS) (Hindi: सिटी मॉनà¥à¤Ÿà¥‡à¤¸à¤°à¥€ सà¥à¤•à¥‚ल, 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. In 2016 its enrollment has reached nearly 52,000 pupils. 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 and has received numerous awards. 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. 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.
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. In 2002 CMS was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. 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. 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. Personalities like the Hon’ble Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader has been guest speakers at these Conferences.
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.
Campuses
The campuses of the school are spread all over the city of Lucknow. The campuses include:
- Station Road Campus
- Gomti Nagar Campus 1
- Gomti Nagar Campus 2
- Mahanagar Campus
- Aliganj Campus 1
- Aliganj Campus 2
- Rajendra Nagar Campus 1
- Rajendra Nagar Campus 2
- Rajendra Nagar Campus 3
- Rajajipuram Campus 1
- Rajajipuram Campus 2
- RDSO Campus
- Kanpur Road Campus
- Asharfabad Campus
- Jopling Road Campus
- Anand Nagar Campus
- Chowk Campus
- Indira Nagar Campus
In the news
Despite its high fee, the school has remained socially inclusive since its inception with almost 30% of its students belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe/Other Backward Caste and Economically Weaker Sections of the society. In addition, it educates, virtually for free, the wards of its own staff throughout their schooling career. However, in 2015, CMS refused admission to 31 students of economically weaker section of the society under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act on the grounds that they were ineligible according to the state's own RTE rules. Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey sat on a hunger strike against CMS and other private school's refusal to admit children of economically weaker backgrounds. The school's rationale for not admitting the children was that there was a government schools near the children's residences and the "lack of space" in their school premises. A meeting was arranged between the city administration, Sandeep Pandey and the school management but the issue remain unsolved reportedly due to the school management's uncompromising attitude. CMS challenged the DM's order in the Allahabad High Court. Following an interim order by the Supreme Court on school's appeal, CMS admitted 13 children who were found eligible by the apex court.
Religious Harmony, World Unity & Peace Education have remained an integral part of the school's agenda and is thoroughly engrained in every activity of the school. The peace building activities of the school have had positive impact during testing times, especially in 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished and religious riots had cost hundreds of lives. The school's initiative of starting an Indo-Pak children's pen friend's project in the aftermath of Kargil war, when tensions were running high on both sides of the border, was widely lauded. The project has facilitated more than 90 physical exchanges between Pakistani students and students of CMS since 2003.
Following the beheading of Indian army soldier, Lance Naik Hemraj by the Pakistani forces in 2013, and Indian army responding aggressively to the incident in 2014, tensions were once again high between India & Pakistan. It was in this period of tensions that CMS had to advise Beaconhouse School System from Karachi, Pakistan, against travelling to India and Lucknow to participate in the International School Cricket Premier League due to security concerns. However, the project has been re-instated since then with schools in Pakistan recently responding to the CMS letters.
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. The school's reputation was once again challenged when one of its teachers was blamed for slapping a child hard. Reportedly, a student of class 10 at the school's Mahanagar branch committed suicide in 2011, after his principal Nalini Sharad, allegedly, threatened to shame him before the whole school. After the student's suicide, upon his parents insistence, the court took cognizance, rejecting the police enquiry and ordered in 2013 that a case should be registered against Sharad. Nalini Sharad was relieved of her services as Principal of CMS on 2013 when she retired. The matter is sub-judice since then.
On 11 April 2017, Lucknow district's DIOS, Umesh Kumar Tripathi issue notice to CMS, Chowk branch for conducting regular classes on a public holiday after receiving complaints from guardians.
Alumni
- Celina Jaitley - Actress
- Dinesh Sharma - National Vice President Bhartiya Janta Party
- Sudhanshu Trivedi - National Spokesperson, Bhartiya Janta Party
References
External links
- Official website
- Website of City Montessori School (CMS) founder Dr. Jagdish Gandhi