Education is a crucial tool that is very useful in everybody’s life. Education is what distinguishes us from other living beings on earth. It makes man the neatest creature on earth. It empowers humans and gets them capable to face challenges of life efficiently. With that being said, education was once a luxury for people, and not a necessity in our country. Educational awareness needed to be spread throughout the country to make education accessible. But this mentality of people changed with time and more advancement.
Best education is provided in best schools. It is imparted in schools where the management is the best, teachers are the best, style of teaching is the best, facilities are the best, students are outstanding, the talents of the children are conspicuous, and the parents’ co-operation is unceasing. One such school with all these qualities is situated in Lucknow which was established with motive to make every child good and smart as well as a potential light of the world. In the year 2002, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for Peace Education awarded this school for its efforts to spread Universal values of education for peace and tolerance at such a point of time when these values are increasingly being challenged. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized this school in 2019 for having the highest number of pupils in single city. This school is the world famous City Montessori School.
Dr. Jagdish Gandhi and Dr. Bharti Gandhi established City Montessori School (CMS) in the year 1959 with an intention to create an enhanced future for the children, to increase world peace and world unity through the medium of education, and to encourage thoughtful and proactive world citizens and leaders committed to the service of humanity. With only 5 students to teach at the school’s early years, the founders never imagined to have more than 65,000 students and over 20 campuses in a single city!
The founders of the school believe in VASUDHAIVA KUTUMBAKAM. This means that “The Whole World is One Family”. The motto of this school is Jai Jagat. It means “Glory to the World”. These thoughts were earlier bounded within the school itself, but later during a speech, our Respected Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi mentioned it and he himself said that he regards these words in his life as well.
The teachers in this school leave no stone unturned to provide the best knowledge and education. They make the paramount use of technology and real life examples to make each and every topic explicable to the students. In this COVID-19 pandemic also, the teachers made the best use of technology and more advanced applications and websites to educate their beloved students without fail. Even in this hard time, these conscientious educationalists try their level best to give the same atmosphere of the school days along with some new additions. This also proved in children participating more enthusiastically in almost every activity that is conducted online.
With the efforts of the teachers, and the passion and talent of the students; almost every year the students of this institute always bring a good name to the institute in the ICSE board examinations. Their names are every year mentioned in the list of the All India toppers with a very high percentage. Most of the children clarify the NEET, IIT, IAS, PCS, IPS, CLAT, CAT and many more entrance examinations and bring laurels to the institution. Many students are also invited abroad for higher education along with high scholarships. This makes the school more proud of it’s students, whom they have been seeing since many years; when they were blossoming like the flowers of a garden which we call school. Not only in the ICSE board examinations, but also in the field of sports, academics in all the subjects and other co- curricular activities. The students of Pre- Primary and Primary sections and even the tiny toddlers win laurels for the institution in every possible competition.
The way of teaching in this school is fabulous. The school provides their students with the best facilities such as smart boards; children- friendly libraries; high- tech computer labs; laboratories for physics, chemistry and biology for better understanding of the learners; 3D model makers; high speed internet services for pupils to read e- books; and many more uncountable conveniences for the ease of their students during studies.
Almost every year City Montessori School conducts it’s own Inter- Campus Literary Fest, where the speakers are given a platform to improve and show their English Speaking Skills by participating in contests such as Debate, Turncoat, Extempore,etc. It also gives an opportunity to the youngsters to show their extraordinary talents and also many youths get a chance to explore their hidden talents. The school conducts contests for art and craft; dancing; singing; writing; speaking; vocabulary and many more.
City Montessori School has always been a support system for all its students. The parents who cannot afford the fees of this school, but their ward is very brilliant, then the school offers fee concessions to the children who have a strong will to study. The management also give a huge amount of scholarships to the eligible students. The school has quite a high fees, but they provide with the best facilities to the children.
The school also conducts international sports competitions to enhance the sporty skills of the children from different parts of the world. There are also Olympiads conducted for Mathematics, Science, Logical Reasoning, English, Geography, Art, Music and etc. It also organizes International Children’s Film Festival (ICFF) for the children where the child artists and well as other famous artists are invited to meet the young, talented children. In this event, children from different schools are also invited to meet their favourite child actors. Here, the directors and producers of short films and documentaries are invited to bless the children and to tell the children the ways of living life and the ways through which we can pursue our passion. The event ends with a show of short, meaningful movies. The students of different campuses of this school perform before the audience. They are later appreciated by the actors who join the ceremony.
CMS organizes the Children’s International Summer Village Camps (CISV Camps) where delegations i.e. a group of children are invited from different countries to visit the school and Lucknow. The students of the school meet the foreigners and feel very proud to be an Indian and a Cmsian as well. There are stalls set up by the delegates for the kids. The students feel delighted after meeting them and many people also pay for the items that are displayed by them.
To sum up we can say that studying in City Montessori School is a bliss. The school is well equipped with almost all the facilities that prove to be extremely useful for the learners. The students who complete their early schooling, are always indebted to the school for shaping their personalities and making them capable enough to face the hardships of life.
By Dharini Sharma, Lucknow, U.P
