The latest presentation of the Bangalore-based Indus Trust, which has promoted Top-10 rank international schools in Bangalore and Hyderabad, is IIS-Pune, off to a flying start.One of the most inspiring success stories of high-end, upscale K-12 education in post-liberalisation India is of the Bangalore-based Indus Trust, constituted in July 2003 by Silicon Valley-based entre-preneur Kumar Malavalli and Bangalore-based real estate tycoon Sushil Mantri. Since 2003 when the trusts first Indus International School (IIS), Bangalore, affiliated with the International Bacca-laureate Organisation (IBO), Geneva and the Cambridge International Examination (CIE) Board, admitted its first batch of students, two Indus International clones have sprung up in Hyderabad and Pune (estb.2008).

Remarkably, under the leadership of Lt. Gen (Retd) Arjun Ray, PVSM, VSM, who was hand-picked and appointed chief executive of the Indus Trust in 2003, within less than a decade not only are three international schools under the flagship brand up and running, two of them — Bangalore and Hyderabad — are ranked among the Top 10 inter-national schools countrywide in the latest EducationWorld-C fore Indias Most Respected Schools Survey 2011.

The latest presentation of the Indus Trust is IIS-Pune — a day-cum-boarding co-ed school affiliated with IBO and CIE — which admitted its first batch of 40 students in August 2008 and currently has an enrolment of 200 students from 22 countries in classes K-XI. Theres a great shortage of leaders in society. Therefore our objective is to shape evolved leaders of tomorrow by delivering balanced, holistic education to produce citizens who think globally and act locally. The motto of Indus International schools is in omnia paratus — prepared for all challenges.

We offer our students K-12 education based on the core character-building values of love, empathy, discipline and respect, says Shouquot Hussain, an alumnus of St. Pauls School, Darjeeling and Gauhati University who began his teaching career with DPS, Digboi, and served with Pathways World School, Gurgaon (2003-07), before signing up with IIS-Bangalore as vice principal. In 2010, he was deputed to head IIS-Pune.
According to Hussain, under IIS-Punes carefully designed curriculum, boys and girls in K-V classes are schooled in the time-tested and globally accepted primary years programme (PYP) of IBO, Geneva. Thereafter in classes VI-VIII, they are integrated into the Middle School Programme (MSP) — a liberal, holistic curriculum common to all Indus International schools — before switching to the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) curriculum of CIE, UK in classes IX-X. Subsequently, in classes XI-XII they revert to the IB diploma programme. We believe this thoroughly international academic programme promotes independence, love of learning and a connection to the world with a sense of social respon-sibility, says Hussain.

In keeping with the best traditions of the parent IIS-Bangalore, no pains have been spared to provide an ideal learning environment for IIS-Punes 200 children. Spread over 36 green acres on the periphery of the Manas Lake on Mulshi Road, the school offers a serene and scenic environment, and clean oxyg-enated air amid undulating countryside. The campus designed by Chisel Architects comprises a built-up area of 1.5 lakh sq. ft, housing fully-wired classrooms — each equipped with several multimedia desktops and LCD monitors — with the teacher-pupil ratio averaging 1:9.

Moreover, the school boasts three science labs and separate computer and language labs for students. This superb infrastructure is supplemented by the schools senior and junior libraries equipped with 7,000 volumes, 27 journal subscriptions and 258 digital resources. The schools 62 boarders are separately housed in en suite residences with three students per room. All students lunch in the schools multi-cuisine dining hall/refectory with a seating capacity of 500, served by separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian kitchens.

Replicating the tradition of Indias vintage legacy boarding schools, IIS-Pune offers excellent sports and games infrastructure. The schools extensive sports infrastructure includes a 25-metre, athletics track, a grassed football and cricket field, two outdoor basketball courts and two lawn tennis courts. An integrated indoor sports complex offers three badminton courts, a squash court, a multi-gymnasium, table tennis room, a yoga and aerobics room, and indoor basketball court.

According to Major Rishi Tiwari, director of administration, co-curricular education receives equal importance in this state-of-the-art internat-ional school, which is beginning to attract students from across India’s western seaboard states and in particular Mumbai, now conveniently linked by the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Nurturing and developing core leadership competencies in our students through inclusive and well rounded education is a top priority with IIS-Pune. The school has developed a thoroughly contemporary resource centre which houses the senior and junior libraries, music and dance rooms where students can learn and practice western and Indian classical music and several dance forms, and theres a spacious studio for painting, clay-modeling and sculpture. Notably, our environment-friendly campus hosts 100 botanical species which together with the green neighbourhood offers students considerable scope to learn and explore the ecology, says Tiwari.
With IIS-Pune smoothly on stream as the third internationally affiliated and benchmarked Indus school, its hardly surprising that Hussain is gung-ho about its future prospects. Although IIS-Pune is attracting students from India and abroad, it is still a work in progress. Students of our first batch who wrote the IGCSE exam earlier this year, passed with flying colours. The first batch of class XI students will write the IB diploma exam in 2013. Meanwhile to cope with the growing volume of admission applications, especially boarding school applications, we are building additional boarding facilities which will accommodate another 100 boarders. This will also require provi-ding more housing facilities for teachers and staff even as we gear up for stables and related facilities for horse-riding, which we plan to introduce as a sports option next year, says Hussain. Quite obviously, another jewel has been added to the Indus Trusts crown.

Admission & fees
Indus International School-Pune is a K-12 co-educational school affiliated with the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO), Geneva and the Cambridge International Examination (CIE) Board, UK.
Admission applications are accepted through the year, with January-July being the peak months. The admission forms are available on the school website.
Tuition fees (per year). Kindergarten: Rs.2.33 lakh; classes I-IV: Rs.3.50 lakh; classes V-VIII: Rs.4.5 lakh (boarders: Rs.6 lakh); classes XI-XII: Rs.6.7 lakh (boarders: Rs.7.8 lakh).
For further details, contact Indus International School, 576, Bhukum, Near Manas Resort, Mulshi,Pune 411 042. Tel: 020 3917 22 05; email: karl.mascarenhas@indusschoolpune.com; website: www.indusschool.pune.com

Huned Contractor (Pune)