The Ashok Hall Girls’ Higher Secondary School was established in 1951 in Kolkata, West Bengal. Recognized by the state government and affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), New Delhi, the all-girls’ Ashok Hall has earned a good reputation for academics as well as extra-curricular education.
The junior school and the senior school function from two separate locations in the city. While the junior section with classes from Lower Infant (nursery) to class V is located in the up-market Palm Avenue of South Kolkata, the senior section comprising of classes VI to XII, is situated in the business hub of Minto Park. Ashok Hall employs 160 teachers and 17 administrative staff and 72 support staff.
According to a school spokesperson, “Apart from education, the institution is also motivated to provide holistic upbringing of the students. In keeping with this spirit of philosophy, the authority aims to develop a healthy body and a healthy mind. This is achieved through the institution’s varied and versatile extra-curricular, sports and club activities.”
Ashok Hall has two campuses, the junior school campus at Palm Avenue and the senior campus in Minto Park. The junior school at Palm Avenue offers a well-equipped library and essential laboratories for science, maths and computers. It has an all-purpose hall for music, dance and other cultural programmes.
The senior school near Minto Park also has a spacious library and a separate reading room. There is one laboratory each for physics, chemistry, and biology. Labs for other subjects like biotechnology, psychology, computer science, fashion studies and home science are also available. It has a commercial art room and a huge hall for extra-curricular activities. Extra-curricular activities include art &craft, dramatics, training in piano and the Spanish guitar, various forms of dance, puppetry, quizzing, etc. Classrooms are airy and large, and have computers and laptops for effective learning. The audio-visual room has LCD projectors, DVD players and iPods for educational purposes and makes schooling enjoyable.
Both sections have adequate fields and playgrounds for outdoor games and sports, like basketball, kabaddi, volleyball, kho-kho, throwball etc. and facilities for indoor games such as table tennis and dart games.
The school is affiliated to CBSE. The medium of instruction used is English, with Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, French and Mandarin offered as second and third languages from class V. The academic session at Ashok Hall commences from the first week of April and ends in the last week of March.
A separate co-educational vocational course is available in the morning solely for classes XI and XII.
Extracurricular education
Students learn art, craft, dramatics, vocal music, instrumental music, piano, Spanish guitar, creative dance, puppetry, quizzing, debate, and phonetics. Coaching is provided in basketball, yoga, taekwondo, darts, badminton, tennikoit, kabaddi, volleyball, kho-kho, throwball and table tennis.
Students also learn the basics of journalism, graphic designing, interior design, commercial art, personality grooming, meal planning and fashion designing in SUPW classes (Socially Useful Productive Work).
Atrayee Sengupta (principal)
Registration forms are issued in December-January for Lower Infants (nursery). Parents are required to accompany their child for an interview on the date specified by the school on the registration receipt. A child should be aged 3+ as on 1st of April, for eligibility to the Lower Infant class. Admissions to classes Upper Infant to IX are generally carried out around March and April and may go up to July, subject to vacancies.
Fees
Fee details are available from the school office on request.
According to a school spokesperson, “Apart from education, the institution is also motivated to provide holistic upbringing of the students. In keeping with this spirit of philosophy, the authority aims to develop a healthy body and a healthy mind. This is achieved through the institution’s varied and versatile extra-curricular, sports and club activities.”
Being a day school, accommodation facilities are not provided.