here - City Montessori School
here - City Montessori School
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LUCKNOW, India — The first day in class for any new pupil can be an<br />
overwhelming experience, so imagine arriving for lessons as one of 40,000<br />
pupils on the roll-call of the world's biggest school.<br />
The latest edition of Guinness World Records awards the title to the <strong>City</strong><br />
<strong>Montessori</strong> <strong>School</strong> in the Indian city of Lucknow with 39,437 registered pupils<br />
in the 2010-2011 academic year.<br />
The school says that enrollment numbers have already risen above 45,000, with<br />
2,500 teachers, 3,700 computers, 1,000 classrooms -- and one of the hardest<br />
first eleven cricket teams to break into.<br />
CMS, as it is known, was opened by Jagdish Gandhi and his wife Bharti in 1959<br />
with a loan of 300 rupees ($6 at current rates) and just five pupils.<br />
Today it sprawls over 20 sites in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state,<br />
and is as famous for its exam results and international exchange programmes<br />
as for its scale.<br />
"The phenomenal growth of our school is a reflection of our efforts to please<br />
our parents with our service to their children," said Gandhi, who is still involved<br />
in the school's management at the age of 75.<br />
"Our students have exceptional academic results each year and outstanding<br />
global exposure. Getting this Guinness record is heartening but it's not just<br />
about size," he told AFP.<br />
The pupils, who are aged between three and 17, all wear uniform and each<br />
class has about 45 members, but the whole school never gathers for assembly<br />
as t<strong>here</strong> is now<strong>here</strong> big enough to hold them.<br />
CMS, which receives no government funding, charges 1,000 rupees a month in<br />
fees for younger pupils, rising to 2,500 a month for seniors.<br />
"In such a large school, t<strong>here</strong> are many advantages, one being you get to make<br />
a lot of friends across the many sites that we have," Ritika Ghosh, 14, who has<br />
been at CMS for two years, told AFP.<br />
"But as the school is so huge it takes a lot of effort to get noticed. Otherwise<br />
you are just one of the thousands that study.<br />
"T<strong>here</strong> are certainly more challenges and competitions, which in the end<br />
prepares us for real life."<br />
Fellow pupil Tanmay Tiwari, 16, credits the large size of the school for making<br />
him more outgoing.<br />
"I used to be very shy but the school has given me that confidence," he told<br />
AFP. "Now I am in the college team, debating in national competitions."<br />
The school's size is matched only by its idealistic ambitions, with pupils taught a<br />
philosophy of universal peace and globalism under the motto "Jai Jagat"<br />
(Victory be to the World).<br />
With pupils under fierce pressure to get good exam results, sport is not always<br />
a top priority, but cricket coach Raju Singh Chauhan says selecting a team is still<br />
tricky.<br />
"To fish out sports talent in the 45,000-plus students can be a huge problem,"<br />
he said.<br />
"For this reason we hold inter-branch competitions to dig out the best children<br />
and then eventually we get the bigger picture and our best eleven for the<br />
team."<br />
CMS first held the title of the world's biggest school in 2005, when it had<br />
29,212 pupils, beating the previous record holder, the Rizal High <strong>School</strong> in<br />
Manila, Philippines, which had 19,738 pupils.<br />
Alumni include Ushhan Gundevia, an executive banker at Goldman Sachs, and<br />
Prakash Gupta, a senior United Nations diplomat in New York, as well as<br />
Harvard scholars and several leading surgeons and scientists.<br />
"The school is an inspiration not only to the pupils, but also to anyone,<br />
anyw<strong>here</strong> who wants to make a positive difference," Craig Glenday, editor-inchief<br />
of Guinness World Records, told AFP from London.<br />
"The school understands that teaching is the most sacred of professions, and<br />
from humble origins to being the largest and one of the most respected<br />
educational establishment in the world, it is a truly awe-inspiring story."<br />
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