Housed in two magnificent buildings with a built-up area of 1.7 million sq. ft, BGS International School, Bengaluru is a thoroughly contemporary CBSE affiliated school offers holistic, culturally enriched education driven by universal human values
The dawn of the new millennium has witnessed the establishment of a spate of new, nexgen capital intensive primary-cum-secondary schools on the peripheries of the garden city of Bangalore (pop. 6 million) aka the Silicon Valley of India, for the large number of IT and related corporates and start-ups which have set up shop in the city. With its multiplying number of internationally benchmarked schools and several world class institutions of higher learning, the garden city has arguably emerged as the education capital of India.
Inevitably the fastest growth has been in the independent schools sector particularly of those affiliated to national (CBSE and CISCE) and foreign (IGCSE and IB) examination boards which tend to be relatively free of interference from state-level education ministry bureaucrats. Consequently there’s been a spurt in the construction and commissioning of upscale primary-cum-secondary institutions such as the Jain International Residential School, The International School, Bangalore, the Indus International School and the Bangalore International School among others. To this list of mushrooming first world-style schools offering international quality education at third world prices in and around Bangalore add the Bala Gangadharanath Swamiji or BGS International Residential School situated on the Bangalore-Mysore highway after the 26 km milestone, a 40 minute drive from the city.
Promoted by the Sri Adi Chunchunagiri Shikshana Trust” a registered society (of whom Sri Sri Sri Bala Gangadharanath Swamiji is the 71st peetadhipathi or head) which comprises five education institutions including engineering, medical, commerce and arts colleges across Karnataka with an aggregate enrollment of over 5,000 students, BGS International was formally inaugurated by prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on January 19, 2000. It admitted its first batch of 50 students on June 15, 1997.
Though the school’s name and antecedents are suggestive of an austere religious institution, in reality BGS International housed in two magnificent buildings with a built up area of 1.7 million sq. ft and modelled on Bangalore’s famous Vidhana Soudha, is a thoroughly contemporary capital-intensive CBSE affiliated school. Currently BGS International has 550 students, including 187 boarders of both sexes — instructed by a faculty of 49” on the school’s muster roll.
“The highest function of education is to develop integrated individuals capable of dealing with life in its totality,” says Sri Sri Sri Bal Gangadharanath Swamiji. “BGS International School Bengaluru was started with the aim of moulding children into students with active, creative and enthusiastic minds and to build their self-esteem and self-confidence to ensure the all-round development of their personalities. However we also believe that our youth should be taught to pray and meditate. Education without purity of mind is value-less.”
Given the lofty and ambitious objectives Swamiji has set for Bangalore’s newest international school, it’s hardly surprising that its management turned to Col (Retd) William Hector Grant, AVSM, a highly experienced education professional, to translate Swamiji’s noble ideas and vision into workable school and classroom action plans. An alumnus of Bombay University and the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington (Tamil Nadu), after stepping back into civvy street following a long and distinguished career in the Indian Army (1948-80), Grant was appointed the first principal of the Army School, Bangalore (1981-92). Subsequently he moved on to establish other greenfield education projects” the Hamdard Public School, Delhi (1992-94); the National Academy for Learning (NAFL), Bangalore (1994-96) for NPS group chairman K.P. Gopalakrishna prior to signing up in 1997 to bring BGS International on stream. As such Grant has the unique distinction of having success-fully established four high-quality schools from drawing board to operational stage.
Perhaps because BGS International has been promoted by a highly revered Hindu saint and a massive painting of Goddess Saraswati adorns the facade of the main school building, Meera Krishnaswamy, a biology postgraduate of Mysore University and former principal of Kumaran Children’s Home, Bangalore (1994-97) who is the principal of BGS International, takes pains to stress the secular character of this well-equipped, state-of-the-art school set amidst lush green fields in the suburbs of the garden city. “Swamiji’s objective upon starting this school for children of the upper strata in Indian society and of non-resident Indians was to encourage them to excel in whatever they are capable of. This is a commitedly secular institution; festivals and special days of all religions are celebrated here. We believe that learning must be a joyful experience correlated with activities like trekking, horse-riding, swimming and outdoor sports,” says Meera Krishnaswamy.
Certainly in terms of provision of adequate infrastructure for the school’s 400 male and 150 girl students, little expense has been spared. The school boasts fully-equipped laboratories for biology, chemistry and physics; an IT lab with 36 PCs connected to the internet; a well-equipped gymnasium; playgrounds for football, hockey, cricket, basketball, tennis, volleyball and badminton; a special playground for kindergarten children; a swimming pool which is being supple-mented with an Olympic size pool for senior students, and roomy dormitories supported by spic-n-span bathrooms and toilets. Though typically the school’s management is reticent about disclosing the capital expenditure incurred by the trust to construct BGS International, construction industry sources estimate it at Rs.15 crore.
Academically too, the school’s students have got off to an excellent start. In the CBSE class X board exams of March 2003, 23 of the 34 students who wrote the exams were placed in the first division.
With the school having completed its first phase of growth and successfully navigated into midstream, the management has set its sights on upgrading its pedagogies and academic standards. “Our objective is to develop our students for higher studies anywhere in the world. Therefore our curriculum will increasingly become IT-driven and library and computer lab infrastructure will be upgraded. Within the next two years aggregate enrollment is expected to rise to 800 students but we will maintain the teacher-pupil ratio of 1:11. We are totally focussed upon our mission of delivering value-based school education imparted in a healthy, joyful environment,” says Grant.
Even if that sounds like a challenge to the host of other international schools which have sprung up in the environs of Bangalore and beyond, nothing but good can flow from it.
Admission & fees
Affiliated with CBSE and the Karnataka State Secondary Education Board (Plus Two), BGS International School, Bengaluru (est. 1997) is set within 150 acres of sylvan countryside on the Bangalore-Mysore road” a 40 minute drive from downtown Bangalore. Currently this capital-intensive co-educational school endowed with world-class infrastructure and equipment has 550 students including 187 boarders from ten countries instructed by a faculty of 49, on its muster roll.
Fees (NRIs)
Prospectus and application form Rs. 675.00 $200
Registration and admission Rs 30,000 $ 3000
Tuition & residence (per year) Rs 120,000 $ 5,500
Tuition, conveyance etc (day scholars) Rs 90,000
For further particulars write to the Director BGS International Residential School, Nithyanandanagar, K. Golahalli P.O. Bangalore South 560 060 Tel: 080 28437582/652/655; Fax: 28431025; e-mail: [email protected]; www.bgsirs.net.
Dilip Thakore (Bangalore)
