DPS Chandigarh is part of a network of ever growing private schools in India. Chandigarh is capital of the state of Punjab and Haryana, about 600km North East of New Delhi. DPS takes students from age 4 up until age 18 and has a total of 3 300 students, with over 160 teaching staff. The staff, as is often the case in schools in Asia, are 90% female and class sizes average between 35 and 40.
Grade 11 and Grade 12 are the equivalent of our AS and A level years. Students specialise in a stream of subjects (e.g. science, medical science, maths, commerce or humanities). In addition, all students must study English. Students take their exams in February/March each year and these lead to award of CBSC, which facilitates entry to university. Interestingly, religious education is not taught in any Indian schools.
DPS is an English Medium school, meaning all classes are conducted in English and assessed as such. Fees are around £500 per term and the school has a long waiting list.
Teaching and Learning strategies are advanced, the school being equipped with interactive whiteboards and lessons taking on a Multiple Intelligence approach. All lessons have 3 parts- introduction/objective- theory- testing, the latter part always being inter-active.
Most students choose to go on to University at age 18, about a third study overseas, mainly in the US but also the UK, Canada and Australia.
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Indraprastra is a less exclusive school than DPS and is in the suburbs of West Delhi. It is led by a dynamic Principal (Dr Rajesh Hassija) who helped the school win a British High Commission International School award this year. It has a more decentralised management structure. It has over 2000 students from age 4 to 18. The school was built 3 years ago and has a 25m outdoor pool, football pitches and a cricket square.
The school offers the same curriculum as DPS but this time is keen to foster links in teaching and learning approaches, with staff from common departments offering their advice on how to deliver different topics.
Students in the IT department have already produced a twinning website for BSFC/Indraprastha based upon some economics teaching resources we exchanged a few weeks ago. It would be nice to add to this with work from other departments.
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Global Partnership – Bolton Sixth College -- A Report
“ East is east ,and West is west , and never the Twain shall meet”
Today i.e on April 7, 2010 east was meeting west when Mr. Bob Hindle from Bolton Sixth Form College U.K came on a personal visit to Delhi Public School Chandigarh. He reached school at 8.30 a.m. and attended a special assembly organized on the theme “Save Environment” and was taken to various classes where he attended a food festival and enjoyed Indian delicacies like Jalabies Makki Ki Roti with Saag , Paneer Pakora etc.
Since Mr. Bob is an Economics teacher he was keen on interacting with Economics / Commerce Students so enthusiastic children of class 12 th with their presentations had a good session with him. Children asked questions pertaining to U.K. economy , impact of recession on its economy , role of government in its economy , reasons of recession and how people and govt. trying to cope with the situation , inflationary trends in its economy etc. They were amazed to know similarities as well as dissimilarities in their economies. They asked about education system in U.K. and it was interesting for them to know that students are given a wide range of subjects to choose from and combinations like History , Biology , Business Studies , Physics is also possible to opt. They asked about examination system and realized grass is not greener on the other side too as pressures are just the same may be a degree less .
Students made a presentation on INDIAN ECONOMY and told the reasons of less impact of recession on its economy and Mr. Bob commented that people in U.K. must learn from Indians to save more and depend less on credit. Students showed their work on ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROJECT and made a presentation on their company DEEPSHIKHA LTD. which was appreciated a lot by Mr. Bob. He was amazed to see the professional approach with which various departments and even website of the company is designed. The session lasted for two hours and concluded with a hope of meeting again in future may be with some students from Bolton Sixth Form College next time.
Following points were discussed for future exchange programme:
1. Our children can visit their college in June/ July when schools are closed in India but working in U.K.
2. Exchange possibilities were discussed in the areas of Psychology, Business Studies , Economics ,Social Work.
3. Children can exchange views on various issues through their e-mail and in the process learn about cultures of each others country
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