Education - Roll of honour : Lucknow school sets world record
When Jagdish Gandhi and his wife Bharti founded the City Montessori School (CMS) with a borrowed sum of Rs 300, they could find no student. A fortnight later, a neighbour agreed to send his five children.
Thus, the school opened on July 1, 1959. Today, with 22,612 pupils, it is all set to enter the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest number of pupils in a single city in the world. The Guinness people have sent Jagdish a certificate recognising the achievement. The school, which opened in a dingy room at Station Road, now has 15 branches in Lucknow. "The fee was Rs 5 and the salary of teachers Rs 30. But we could rarely pay the full salary," recalls Jagdish..............
The school stands out not just for numbers but also for quality of education. Its students won prizes at the Second International Astronomy Olympiad in Moscow last year and got commendations in the Commonwealth Essay Competition. A student from the school won the child scientist award during last year's National Science Congress. The school has been organising international events like Macfair, the four-day maths, science and computer festival and Quanta, the festival of science, maths, computer and astronomy. It conducted an international conference on education with delegates from 18 countries, and an international summer village camp.
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