Mumbai schools spread their wings to take along many more students

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 16 Maret 2014 | 22.23

MUMBAI: Applying to schools is brutal. Young parents often complain that A-list city schools turn down multiple times more students than the numbers they admit. Finally, schools have begun to respond to that exasperation by broadening their outreach.

In Mumbai, Podar group of schools just expanded exponentially into Powai-northwards from their home base in Santa Cruz. Dhirubhai Ambani International School just bought the barren plot next to it to set up a second school. Juhu's Jamnabai Narsee will work with Gundecha Academy School that just launched a new campus in Kandivli (East). Fort's Cathedral & John Connon School will launch its IB section in 2015 in the existing building, but is looking for land in the city.

Several attribute the expansion to simple demand-supply economics. Irrespective of the supply or the quality, serpentine queues for admission are seen outside campus gates and schools have little trouble in assembling a classroom. "If you look at schools across the country, most are looking at setting up a chain of campuses, for there is suddenly a large market for quality education," said Avnita Bir, principal of R N Podar High School.

Managements have also realized that once processes-curriculum planning, teacher training, designing worksheets and planning teaching-are standardized, it is only a matter of replication and scaling up. "We did a small market survey and felt there was a case for starting a school in Powai. Such expansion will only benefit children as complacent schools will be weeded out or forced to improve if there is competition."

Podar group plans to spread its wings to other states, too. "Our new campus in Powai is part of the larger expansion program that aims to take its proven pedagogy to newer geographies such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattishgarh and Punjab," said Swati Popat Vats, president, Podar Education Network.

Mumbai's fast-growing suburbs are more than welcoming these institutes. Gundecha sits on a large expanse in Kandivli's Thakur Village and now, one of its trustees along with trustees of Jamnabai Narsee, will launch their new school campus just a stone's throw away from the current one. "The school trust had property in Kandivli itself and we realized that the admission woes for parents are never-ending. Hopefully, the new school will help ease some stress for parents," said Seema Buch, principal of Gundecha Academy. She said the school is likely to be called Gundecha International School and will start accepting admissions for the next academic year.

While Dhirubhai Ambani International School has acquired a plot in Bandra-Kurla Complex, there isn't a timeline fixed for the school's launch. Finding the right property, though, is proving to be quite a struggle for some other schools.

Fort's Cathedral & John Connon School already has an IB residential school in Lonavala but will start an IB section in its existing building in 2015. "We will only start with one division at the start and then move on based on the response," said principal Meera Isaacs. "We want to find the right property and we've ventured almost till Chembur for this purpose, but haven't got what we're looking for. Hopefully we'll place a property soon and start the new campus."

While expansion seems to be the buzzword, many are skeptical about the promise of quality. PTA United Forum president Arundhati Chavan said schools that set up multiple campuses often have to struggle in their salad years. "Many schools share some of their good teachers among their own campuses till they can get a fresh set of teachers. But that can often compromise on quality."


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