The Beginning

Gulmohur School was founded by All India Women?s Conference, Golmuri branch, in Jamshedpur in 1954.

It first started as a nursery school, but today after 50 glorious years with the dedicated efforts of its founding members and teachers, the school has made a name for itself in the country?s academia.

The school is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi from 1976 and the first batch for the ICSE examinations appeared in 1978. Prior to that, the school was affiliated to the state board.

With time, the school started to expand both in space and student-size and 1979 onwards the school was housed on two premises.

The primary section (UKG to Class III) is near The Telco Ram Mandir, while the middle and high school (Classes IV to X) is situated near the Telco Club.

From 1985, the school?s management was handed over by AIWC to a managing committee affiliated to Shiksha Prasar Kendra, Telco.

In 1989, the school introduced science in its Plus Two syllabus. Arts was introduced in 1993 and commerce in 1995.

School story

The medium of instruction is English. Hindi is taught as a compulsory subject while the school offers Sanskrit from Classes V to VIII as per council norms.

The academic year starts in March. New admissions are done only for UKG and Class XI.

Students are taken in only after an admission test. Admission to any other class is done only when there is a vacancy.

The school offers value-based education from Classes IV to VI.

Curriculum

It is a practical-based education system that is followed.

Here an integrated course follows the method of continuous assessment and no examinations are conducted.

Moreover, the school prepares graph sheets and not marksheets of the performance of every student.

Parents are kept informed of the child?s progress all through the year. At the junior level, the school does not allow the usage of textbooks and provides encyclopaedia and other valuable books from time to time to enhance the students? knowledge.

Principal talk

Principal Manjula Chatterjee says, ?Our aim is not to burden the children with too much of studies but to give them a chance for a healthy growth.?

Tech meets tradition

Technology and culture go hand in hand in this school.

Computer is offered right from Class IV. The school also offers bio-technology in its Plus Two section.

There are hordes of club activities that the school offers. The school not only offers music in its lower classes but it also has a provision for music lessons in Plus Two.

Bookworm

The school library is a veritable storehouse of knowledge and houses more than 10,000 books.

For the junior classes, however, the books are given to the respective class teachers who distribute it among the students in the prescribed period.

House rules

Tata House stands for vision, Raman House for tenacity, Tagore House for learning and Bhagat House stands for courage.

Sport talk

The school conducts various intra-school and inter-school events from time to time.

Academics and sports are given equal importance.

Apart from the annual sports meet, the school provides training in volleyball, basketball, football and various other sports.

Culture calls

Though the school today has made a name for itself, it has never lost touch with its traditional roots. The various cultural events organised by the schools over the years goes on to prove this.

?We make it a point always to have a theme for all our shows and its generally some educative topic or taken from literature,? says the school principal.

The school authorities give immense importance to enhance the latent talents of its students so every programme put up clearly shows that it is a outcome of relentless effort by everybody to maintain a certain standard.

Apart from this, the school also conducts quizzes and various other contests from time to time. The school students also take on social activities and work with organisations like Parivar kalyan Sangh.

?Everything we do has to be issue based. There is no room for any film-based or light entertainment, Our main aim is the students should learn something from the life of great leaders,? says the principal.

The school celebrated its golden jubilee in 2004 and every one associated with the school believes that it has come a long way from its humble beginnings. In future the school would make a difference to the education graph of the steel city.

Nilanjana Ghosh Choudhury