The Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai has been regarded as one of India’s best schools. With skilled, experienced teachers and an incredibly diverse curriculum, the school has gained a great reputation among established Universities both, India and abroad, educationalists and parents & students alike. One criticism of the school has been its location in Bandra-Kurla Complex which unfortunately meant that it was a far travel for suburban school-going children. Those fears have been put to rest with the inauguration of Reliance Foundation’s first school in Navi Mumbai. This school will be based out of an eight-storey complex on a two-acre campus at sector 14 in Koparkhairane. The school, which has admitted 450 students, will follow the CBSE curriculum.
One School, Multiple Campuses:
Education has become one of the highest priorities for Indian parents. In fact, parents are spending more than ever to ensure that their children get quality education without any compromises. As a result, many iconic schools have started to branch out into the suburbs. In Mumbai, prominent schools such as the Podar group of schools, Jamnabai Narsee, Cathedral & John Connon School, etc., have kicked-off the process of acquiring land and collaborating with other local institutions to offer education to children based out of suburbs. Nita Ambani, when asked about the new Reliance Foundation School in Navi Mumbai was quoted as saying, “This is, in fact, our 13th school since I took the initiative of starting our first school at Patalganga in 1992.” Nita Ambani, in fact has been involved in the education sector for some time now. “Education is all about igniting young minds and enabling them to attain their fullest potential. At Reliance Foundation schools, we lay special emphasis on value-based education, sports and overall development of students. That is why the teacher-students ratio is kept at a healthy 1:20 so that all children get proper attention in class,” said Ambani.
The new school at Navi Mumbai has started functioning with classes up to Grade 8. There are plans for this to go up to Grade 12 in the near future and enable students to directly seek admission for their undergraduate courses. The two computer centres have 72 computers with independent workstations for every child. From lower KG to fifth standard the annual school fee is Rupees 57,800 per head, and from sixth to eighth standard it is Rupees 64,000.
An interesting thing to note is that Reliance Foundation has taken special care to ensure that the weaker students in class have enough of additional teaching so that they don’t fall back. . “For relatively weaker students, special additional classes will be arranged in the school itself,” added Mrs. Ambani. On the opening day of the school on Wednesday, Ambani was seen interacting with the kindergarten students and also held a storybook reading session in one of the KG classes.