{"id":5113,"date":"2016-07-20T11:08:26","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T07:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/?p=5113"},"modified":"2016-07-20T11:15:55","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T07:15:55","slug":"inside-the-worlds-largest-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/inside-the-worlds-largest-school\/","title":{"rendered":"The world’s largest school"},"content":{"rendered":"

52,000 students and 1,050 classrooms: inside the world’s largest school<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Welcome to City Montessori school in Lucknow, India. Despite its vast size, no child is left behind, with nearly half of pupils scoring 90% or more in national tests<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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At 7:15am in the northern Indian city of Lucknow, a stream of children flows through the gates of the Kanpur Road campus of\u00a0City Montessori school. A dozen helpers pull school bags off roof racks and direct traffic to keep things moving.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy to get more than 7,500 five- to 17-year-old students into a single school building, but that\u2019s only a small piece of the puzzle for City Montessori (or CMS) \u2013 recognised by the\u00a0Guinness Book of World Records as the world\u2019s largest school. The institution caters to some 52,000 pre-primary, primary and secondary students distributed across 20 campuses in the city.<\/p>\n

Almost all of the school\u2019s 1,050 classrooms are full to bursting, with more than 45 students to a class. But parents won\u2019t take no for an answer.<\/p>\n

CMS, founded in 1959 by Jagdish Gandhi and his wife, Bharti, who has a doctorate in child psychology, is so popular because of its track record. In India\u2019s equivalent of A-levels, a whopping 40% of the school score 90% or higher, making it one of the top colleges. The class average is above 80%. CMS has demonstrated that large campuses and crowded classrooms aren\u2019t a bar to academic excellence.<\/p>\n

Despite its huge size, CMS is not a school for the masses. Though it\u2019s as much as 25% cheaper than some other elite schools in Lucknow. This gives CMS all the classic advantages of an elite private school. There aren\u2019t double-shifts or staggered classes (except at the pre-primary level) \u2013 just a lot of resources.<\/p>\n

Ajay Madan, who teaches chemistry and conducts a remedial session after school, finds it inspiring that CMS challenges him to be innovative with the curriculum, presenting the lesson using multimedia, for example.<\/p>\n