Ambitious educationist

Dr. P.C. Thomas, founder-principal of the state-of-the-art Good Shepherd International School (GSIS), Ooty, was the genial host of the 48th annual conference of the Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate (AIISC). The three-day conference (November 23-25) held in the verdant 90-acre Mt. Palada campus of GSIS was a slickly choreographed faculty-student event which showcased the institutional management skills of this hill station’s largest fully residential school, and mightily impressed 700 principals of the country’s top-rung schools affiliated to the Delhi-based Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).  “We have been associated with the CISCE board since we admitted our first batch of students in 1977. During the past 28 years a substantial share of the credit for GSIS having transformed into the largest and most-respected primary-secondary school in the Nilgiris needs to be given to the council for the excellent syllabus, curriculum and teacher training support it has given us. Therefore it was a privilege to host this year’s AIISC conference, which gave us the opportunity to exchange notes and discuss new pedagogies at a time when school education is experiencing radical changes around the world,” says Thomas who was awarded a doctorate in education management by the Pacific Columbia University, USA. Starting his academic career as a teacher in Sainik School, Bijapur, Thomas served as principal of several reputed schools including Cordite Factory School, Aruvankadu (Tamil Nadu) and Breeks Memorial, Ooty. In 1977 he purchased and refurbished the crumbling Baroda Summer Palace from his Ooty-based family’s savings to promote GSIS with 54 students of both sexes. Since then GSIS has grown in strength and currently boasts an enrollment of 1,200 students including 400 from over 40 countries such as UK, Italy, Australia, Bhutan, Kuwait, Malaysia, etc. Sited amid the scenic Nilgiri ranges, GSIS now comprises two campuses: the erstwhile Baroda Summer Palace located on the original 20-acre wooded space overlooking Ooty lake which hosts kindergarten-class V students and the sprawling 90-acre state-of-the-art campus completed in 1999 atop Mt. Palada for classes VI-XII. Certainly no expense or effort has been spared to build its impressive infrastructure facilities. Among them: a half Olympic size six-lane indoor heated swimming pool maintained at a constant temperature of 270 C; an Olympic size athletics stadium with an eight-lane 400-metre synthetic track and facilities for all indoor and outdoor sports including football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, badminton, squash, rifle shooting and horse riding. Residential facilities include 30-strong centrally heated separate dormitories for boys and girls, with one bathroom unit for three pupils. Thomas is strongly committed to making GSIS into a globally competitive institution. “The way to achieve this is to upgrade teachers’ skills, so that they are able to teach international syllabuses and curriculums. Two years ago we introduced the IGCSE curriculum as an option for class X students and the IBO diploma for classes XI-XII. Within the next two years our teachers will be ready to teach the IGCSE ‘A’ level curriculum,” he says. Quite obviously, Thomas takes the word ‘international’ in GSIS…