here - City Montessori School

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The latest edition of
Guinness World Records
awards the title to the City
Montessori School in the
Indian city of Lucknow, with
39,437 registered pupils in
the 2010-2011 academic
year.
The school says enrolment
numbers have already risen
above 45,000, with 2,500
teachers, 3,700 computers,
1,000 classrooms - and one
of the hardest first XI cricket
teams to break into.
CMS, as it is known, was
opened by Jagdish Gandhi
and his wife Bharti in 1959
with a loan of 300 rupees ($5.50 at current rates) and just five pupils.
Today it sprawls over 20 sites in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, and is as famous for
its exam results and international exchange programs as for its scale.
"The phenomenal growth of our school is a reflection of our efforts to please our parents with our
service to their children," said Mr Gandhi, who is still involved in the school's management at the
age of 75.
"Our students have exceptional academic results each year and outstanding global exposure.
Getting this Guinness record is heartening but it's not just about size," he said.
The pupils, who are aged between three and 17, all wear uniform and each class has about 45
members, but the whole school never gathers for assembly as there is nowhere big enough to
hold them.
CMS, which receives no government funding, charges 1,000 rupees ($18) a month in fees for
younger pupils, rising to 2,500 ($46) a month for seniors.
"In such a large school, there are many advantages, one being you get to make a lot of friends
across the many sites that we have," Ritika Ghosh, 14, who has been at CMS for two years, said.
"But as the school is so huge it takes a lot of effort to get noticed. Otherwise you are just one of
the thousands that study.
"There are certainly more challenges and competitions, which in the end prepares us for real life."
Idealistic ambitions
Fellow pupil Tanmay Tiwari, 16, credits the large size of the school for making him more outgoing.
"I used to be very shy but the school has given me that confidence," he said.
"Now I am in the college team, debating in national competitions."
The school's size is matched only by its idealistic ambitions, with pupils taught a philosophy of
universal peace and globalism under the motto "Jai Jagat" (Victory be to the World).
With pupils under fierce pressure to get good exam results, sport is not always a top priority, but
cricket coach Raju Singh Chauhan says selecting a team is still tricky.
"To fish out sports talent in the 45,000-plus students can be a huge problem," he said.
"For this reason we hold inter-branch competitions to dig out the best children and then
eventually we get the bigger picture and our best XI for the team."
CMS first held the title of the world's biggest school in 2005, when it had 29,212 pupils, beating
the previous record holder, the Rizal High School in Manila, Philippines, which had 19,738 pupils.