The outcome of its founder Joginder Mann’s vision to promote a world-class residential school in the national capital, TMS is ranked among India’s Top 10 co-ed day-cum-boarding schools in the EW India School Rankings 2020-21, writes Autar Nehru
Independence Day at TMS
Sited on a pristine green 20-acre campus in Holambi Khurd, a village 25 km from the heart of the national capital, The Mann School (TMS, estb.1989) has developed an excellent reputation for providing children high-quality day-cum-boarding school education. In the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings 2020-21, TMS is ranked among India’s Top 10 co-ed day-cum-boarding schools and #6 in Delhi NCR.
A member institution of the Indian Public Schools Conference (IPSC, estb.1939), an exclusive fraternity of 80 premier boarding schools countrywide, the CBSE-affiliated TMS has an enrolment of 1,058 students including 200 boarders mentored by 65 teachers, on its muster rolls.
Joginder Mann
The growth and development of TMS into a top-ranked school is the outcome of founder Joginder Mann’s vision to promote an internationally benchmarked residential school in West Delhi. An alumnus of the wholly-residential Birla Public School (BPS), Pilani and Delhi University, Mann “absolutely loved” his own boarding school experience and aspired to provide his students an even better experience of a “world-class boarding school”.
“I was a boarder at BPS-Pilani from age five until graduation and derived great benefit and nurturance from the excellent pastoral care and holistic education I received at BPS-P. Following keen awareness that Delhi lacked a genuine boarding school which provided excellent co-curricular, sports and all-round education, over three decades ago I took the plunge and promoted my dream school offering a blend of boarding and day school education,” recalls Mann, who worked with the Taj Group of hotels for nine years before transforming into a full-time educationist. A passionate advocate of liberal, well-rounded boarding school education, Mann is also author of an inspiring book titled Let’s Pray Before our Meal (2010).
Given this history of commitment to a cause, it’s unsurprising that TMS provides its 1,058 including 395 girl children, an excellent blend of academics, sports and co-curricular education. A well-designed academic programme delivered through child-centred IT-enabled pedagogies is supplemented with 18 sports and 38 co-curricular activities. Sports facilities include a 400 metre athletics track, swimming pool, Deco synthetic tennis courts, a roller skating rink, football and cricket fields, billiards room, mini-golf and horse-riding. The school’s equestrian team has won several state and national competitions and its NCC student cadets have participated in Republic Day and Independence Day parades.
The co-curricular menu features Indian/Western music and dance, school band and orchestra, debate, quiz, theatre, trekking among other character-building activities.
To maintain balance, the school management has also invested substantial resources in providing enabling academic facilities which include 23 Smart classrooms, 12 well-equipped science, maths, computer, and geography labs, an Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) and a unique celestial lab housing one of the largest telescopes of Delhi NCR. Other facilities include a library stocked with 25,841 titles, open-air amphitheatre, 300-seat auditorium, separate residential blocks for boys and girls, and a 500-seat dining hall. Moreover, the school’s Scientia permanent open-air science park hosts 30 explanatory models to boost students’ understanding of physics.
Ranked India’s #1 ‘environment-friendly’ school by an EducationWorld Grand Jury in 2020-21, the TMS campus also hosts five 2,000/3,000 sq. yd mini forests, a rain harvesting unit and solar power panels generating 300 KVA of electricity. Campus highlights are memorabilia of the Vijayanta tank of the 1971 war, RCL gun and a jeep used by martyr Param Vir Chakra Havildar Abdul Hamid in the 1965 Indo-Pak war, displayed at the entrance to the school’s imposing main block.
“In TMS, we attach great importance to character-building primary-secondary education to nurture disciplined, knowledgeable youth who will mature into national assets. We have taken great pains to design a balanced curriculum delivered through contemporary pedagogies to develop critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creative skills of our children. These are supplemented with a wide range of sports and co-curricular activities to enable them to develop their sports and artistic intelligences,” says Srinivasan Sriram, an alumnus of Madras University who taught at the top-ranked Mayo College, Ajmer, for three decades before he was appointed principal of TMS in July 2020.
According to Sriram, following outbreak of the global Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and government-mandated closure of all schools and education institutions countrywide, TMS has successfully moved academic and co-curricular programmes online. “Over the past year, we have provided intensive training to our teachers to master 21st century information communication technologies to deliver effective online learning. We carefully map the progress of every student to ensure that no child is left behind and conduct regular remedial classes,” says Sriram.
The TMS management’s unwavering commitment to delivering 21st century education grounded in relevance and innovation has won the school numerous encomiums and awards. Among them: the British Council’s International School Award 2018-2021, 5 Star Rating of the Noida-based Centre for Educational Development Foundation and Standalone School of the Year Award 2016 of the Indian Education Congress.
Despite the disruption of its mission and education programmes caused by the pandemic, founder Joginder Mann is confident that TMS is fully ready to restart on-campus classes. “We are prepared with all safety protocols and eager to welcome students back on campus. The silver lining of the pandemic is that TMS is now a contemporary ICT-enabled school. This development combined with our tradition of providing balanced all-round education that develops sound mind, body and soul augurs well for the future,” says Mann.
Admission and Fees
Admission into classes I-IX is based on aptitude tests. Class X admissions are only under special circumstances with permission from CBSE. For class XI, the admissions are based on marks obtained in class X. The school admits boarders from class I onwards.
Fees (per year): Day scholars: Rs.1 lakh; boarders: Rs.4 lakh
For further information, contact 91-7777041041; e-mail: info@themannschool.com; website: www.themannschool.com