The Heritage School, Kolkata

Promoted in 2001, Heritage is perhaps the only secondary in Marxist-ruled Kolkata to qualify as a state-of-the-art nexgen five-star school

In the past decade the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Bangalore have witnessed the promotion of a rash of showpiece five-star schools offering resort style, landscaped, fully-wired campuses bristling with hi-tech equipment and teaching aids, expat headmasters and affiliation with highly reputed offshore examination boards. Although these capital intensive nexgen schools levy chastening annual tuition fees ranging from Rs.1-6 lakh, they have found ready takers in India’s aspirational new middle class. Perhaps the only megapolis relatively untouched by the five-star schools fever is Kolkata (pop. 11 million), from where the Communist Party of India (CPI-M) has ruled West Bengal for the past 30 years. Reason: the disdain of the intelligentsia for private enterprise and institutions offering expensive education had scared away education entrepreneurs.

Consequently while the city of joy boasts several British-inspired private schools of colonial vintage such as La Martiniere Boys and Girls, St. Xavier’s School, etc, new genre international schools are conspicuous by their absence. Perhaps the only secondary in Kolkata to qualify as a nexgen school is the state-of-the-art The Heritage School. Promoted in 2001 at an estimated project cost of Rs.30 crore by the Kalyan Bharti Trust (estb.1990), Heritage is perhaps Kolkata’s first five-star school offering high-end academic, information technology, sports and extra-curricular facilities. From an initial student enrollment of 421 students, this co-educational kindergarten-class XII day school has grown to 2,300 students and is fast emerging as Kolkata’s most preferred secondary.

“The objective behind the promotion of The Heritage School was to provide Kolkata with a primary-cum-secondary which broke away from the traditional school system characterised by rigidity of access, outdated pedagogies, admission and examination systems. The distinguishing feature of Heritage is that it offers an academic experience which is a unique blend of contemporary pedagogies and technologies, combined with India’s ancient Gurukul system and cultural traditions. Our focus is on holistic development of children with appropriate emphasis on extra-curricular and sports education.

“Moreover Heritage is the first school in the city to offer IT-enabled classrooms, state-of-the-art laboratories and a wide range of sports facilities and extra-curricular activities. Within a short span of six years Heritage has transformed into a benchmark institution, setting new standards in contemporary school education,” says Seema Sapru, a Masters in chemistry and education of Meerut University and former principal of Kothari International School, Noida, who took charge as principal of the Heritage School in July. Sapru (the third principal Heritage has seen in the past six years) boasts over 20 years of teaching experience in top schools across the country including Calcutta International School; St. Thomas Boys, La Martiniere Boys, Kolkata; Baldwin Boys School, Bangalore; and Eklavya, Ahmedabad.

Spread across 9.5 acres in a Kolkata suburb, the beautifully landscaped Heritage School is affiliated with the Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and offers this Delhi-based board’s class X (ICSE) and class XII (ISC) exams. In the academic year ending 2007, 30 percent of Heritage students who wrote the class X board exam averaged above 90 percent. Sapru attributes this commendable performance to a teaching-learning environment which is rigorous yet joyful.

“At Heritage we have moved beyond chalk-and-talk pedagogy. Our teaching-learning methodology is stress-free, student-centred, experiential and interactive. Each classroom has a computer and television monitor so that the teaching process is a multi-sensory and interactive experience. A teacher-student ratio of 1:13 allows teachers to provide individual attention to each student and innovate new ways of teaching,” she explains.

However the USP (unique selling proposition) of Heritage is the special attention the school’s management gives to sports and extra-curricular education. Sports facilities include a regulation size soccer field, 200 m athletics track, volleyball, tennis, basketball and badminton courts, roller skating rink, a swimming pool and multigym. Swimming and yoga training are compulsory activities.

Likewise the menu of extra-curricular activities comprises music, dance, art and crafts, needle craft, textile printing, among other activities. In addition there are several student clubs on campus including science, journalism, computer, nature, and photography clubs. The school library boasts 18,176 volumes, subscribes to 36 magazines and journals and offers 24/7 internet access.

Moreover since its inception in 2001, Heritage School has followed a policy of inclusion, wherein children with learning disabilities and other development delays are co-opted into mainstream classes. Special educators monitor the academic progress of challenged children and administer personalised needs-based programmes in specially designed resource centres to help them cope with mainstream learning. Committed to offering a stress-free learning environment, the school management has also made a special effort to provide a highly qualified team of counsellors on campus.

Given that in the short span of six years the Heritage School has established an enviable reputation for offering a stimulating combination of tradition with technology, it’s unsurprising that it is one of two schools in Kolkata to be selected by the British Council for a student exchange programme with schools in the UK under the Dream and Teams Programme.

“Academics and co-curricular activities are well integrated in our school. The challenge is to ensure both areas are accorded equal importance. Though we’d like to better our last year’s board exam results, we need to ensure that it’s not at the cost of extra-curricular and sports education,” says Sapru.

Ritusumita Biswas (Kolkata)