Calcutta, Feb. 26: International Baccalaureate, the preferred school-leaving programme for universities globally, is finally coming to eastern India.

Oaktree International School opens its doors in August 2011 — with admissions open from August 2010 — on a 30-acre campus in the deep south of Calcutta with nearly half the faculty recruited from abroad and headed by Paul Regan, who has founded four IB schools in the UK, Bosnia, Ukraine and Africa.

The authorities make it clear that they are eyeing a catchment area beyond Calcutta — east and the Northeast, and Southeast Asia. “Calcutta is a strategic hub in that regard,” says executive director Aditya Kumar.

The Northeast, say the authorities, is paramount to the success of the school. “Of course, we expect children from Calcutta. But the Northeast is the primary area we want to focus on. This fall, when our admissions start, we will be conducting road shows and take our senior administrative team to Guwahati and the other states to give parents there a feel of what our school has to offer. Our survey reveals many parents send their children out to schools in other parts of the country. They would surely like to avail of a truly international choice closer home.”

In a bid to make Oaktree “the best IB school in the country”, Rs 100 crore will be invested over four years. The all-inclusive monthly fees will be Rs 30,000 to 60,000, depending on the kind of boarding facility one chooses. “It will be a lot cheaper than IB schools elsewhere,” is the promise.

The co-educational school will be built for 650 students, offering class sizes of a maximum of 20 students.

Oaktree has completed the paper work for affiliation for the Middle Years Programme (Grades VI to X) and the Baccalaureate Diploma (Grades XI and XII).

“The IB brings together the best practices from the broad-based European baccalaureate, the narrow three-subject British A-level, which is like the Indian Grade XII system, and the North American idea of bringing project work in,” says school chairman David Wilkinson, a former chairman of the IB Development Council for India.

The IB diploma requires every student to take six subjects — two languages, mathematics and one each in science and humanities. The sixth can be another humanities or science subject.

Two other components set IB apart. A 4,000-word analytical essay on a topic from the syllabus that brings students in contact with research tools used at the university level. And the Creativity, Action, Service section that lets a student take part in a weekly five hours of sports or the arts or social service, without the pressure of being graded.

“This is why the creators of IB spoke of holistic education,” says Veronica Wilkinson, the deputy chief examiner in English for the International Baccalaureate Organisation, who is on Oaktree’s advisory council.

The Joka school will open with Grade VI to XI and let students take the Cambridge International Examinations for the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) for Grades IX and X, before going on to the IB diploma.

“Schools in continental Europe and North America do not have an exam at the end of Grade X, but we are offering IGCSE as an option,” says Kumar.

Three kinds of boarding facilities will be offered — day, weekly (where students go home for the weekends), and full.

“Since most of our faculty members would stay on campus students can access them beyond class hours,” says Rishav Kajaria, another executive director.

For co-curricular activities, the infrastructure includes a 500-seater auditorium, an open-air theatre, an Olympic-size pool, indoor and outdoor facilities for a variety of sports, and arts and music rooms.