Mita Mukherjee

St James’ School, a 159-year old ICSE-ISC school run by Church of North India (CNI) and one of the most sought after institutions among parents in Kolkata opened its second campus in the city on Thursday to meet the demand for more seats.

The school on AJC Bose Road in central Kolkata will have its new campus on the premises of a school run by the Oxford Mission, a Christian missionary voluntary organisation on Diamond Harbour Road in South West Kolkata.

The new school will start functioning from the coming academic session starting in April 2023, Terence Ireland, principal of St James’ School said.

Considering the huge demand for seats, the school had been planning for its expansion for a long time and the school’s board of governors took a decision in September last year to open a new branch from April 2023.

St James’ School later approached the Oxford Mission Trust with the proposal to use their South-East portion covering nearly four acres to start its new branch. The decision to open the new campus was finalized once the trust agreed to the proposal, Ireland said.

“ The demand for seats in our school is continuously increasing every year. We have increased our intake capacity several times and constructed new buildings on our existing campus. But we still have to reject many applications. We were looking for land and when we came to know about the availability of the space in Oxford Mission, we immediately approached the trust,” Ireland told EducationWorld.

The new campus will work independently under the board of governors of St James’ School, AJC Bose Road.

The school will begin with classes in the new branch from Nursery to Class VII. The school has a plan to run the ICSE-ISC curriculum once it starts functioning in full swing.

The Oxford Mission Trust runs a primary school for orphans on the same premises. All the 150 odd students now studying in the school will be admitted to the St James’ new branch. The orphan school has a hostel. St James’ will bear the expenses of education, boarding, lodging and medical care of all the 150 odd students.

The school has a plan to include music and games as compulsory subjects in all classes in its new branch.

There is a plan to set up a general degree college on the campus, Ireland said.

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