The first day in class for any new pupil can be an overwhelming experience, so imagine arriving for lessons as one of 40,000 pupils on the roll-call of the world’s biggest school.
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 that enrollment numbers have already risen above 45,000, with 2,500 teachers, 3,700 computers, 1,000 classrooms — and one of the hardest first eleven 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 ($ 6 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 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 told AFP. 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 a month in fees for younger pupils, rising to 2,500 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, told AFP.
“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.”
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 told AFP. “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 eleven 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.
Alumni include Ushhan Gundevia, an executive banker at Goldman Sachs, and Prakash Gupta, a senior United Nations diplomat in New York, as well as Harvard scholars and several leading surgeons and scientists.
“The school is an inspiration not only to the pupils, but also to anyone, anywhere who wants to make a positive difference,” Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, told AFP from London.
“The school understands that teaching is the most sacred of professions, and from humble origins to being the largest and one of the most respected educational establishment in the world, it is a truly awe-inspiring story.”
World’s biggest school gives Indian kids lessons for life
World’s biggest school gives Indian kids lessons for life
Draped in history, Saudi fashion designers look to the future
- Saudi designers are reimagining the Kingdom’s heritage through modern fashion
RIYADH: The fast-growing fashion industry in Saudi Arabia is looking through the lens of history and heritage to produce clothing draped in the history of traditional garb worn during the time of the Kingdom’s founding.
At the Saudi Cup on Feb. 13, a number of designers showcased their couture inspired by the country’s rich history.
Saudi designer Fahda Al-Battah, one of the minds behind brand Adara by Fa alongside Abeer Al-Moammar, spoke to Arab News about their debut collection “Journey Through Time.”
The emerging brand’s collection was designed with the intention of displaying the country’s diversity.
The collection’s six pieces each represent a region of the Kingdom, either through motifs, symbolism, or patterns that are hand drawn by Al-Battah and her team.
The first dress is heavily inspired by the Qassim and Al-Ahsa regions, and features illustrated scenes of people collecting dates from palm trees and using them in various ways. “It’s a story, basically,” Al-Battah said.
“Heritage must be preserved and if anything new comes up now, we must create new heritage and not replicate the past,”
Amar Al-Amdar, Saudi designer
Another piece uses the patterns and colors that are prominent in the Southern region as motifs, with a backdrop of lush mountains and colorful architecture.
A drapey blue piece is inspired by the coasts of both Jeddah and the Eastern Province. “It's very fluid, even in design,” she said.
Two other pieces are inspired by the central Najd region, the designer said, a dark green ensemble with wing sleeves and another white dress, each elevated with decorative pieces resembling a string of dates.
The hero piece is an extravagant gown that displays every part of Saudi Arabia chronologically along the trim, starting with Najd and meshing into the other regions.
“The last dress has each part of Saudis, any culture and heritage, and it unifies us with the sheila (headscarf), which has King Abdulaziz’s quote, ‘We united on the word of monotheism, and so our hearts and lands united,’ which shows unification of us as a whole region,” she said.
“Saudi is very rich in heritage. So, most of the designers right now are looking for a way to identify themselves in the global market and showcase the beauty of what Saudi has.
“Each designer in Saudi is paving the way in a new field, which makes it very exciting and very creative,” Al-Battah said.
ASL Line, for example, was inspired by the lavender found in the heart of the desert. The soul of the plant was translated into a story through stitching and colorful motifs.
“We don’t look for inspiration from far away … we go back to our land,” according to a post on the brand’s social media account.
MD29, another brand supported by the Fashion Commission, was inspired by the Saudi spirit of hospitality, taking Saudi coffee as a central element in their latest collection.
“You can see in the collection the color variations from the plant to the grind. This time, they wanted to highlight the character more, not just in the silhouettes, but in the fabrics, in the Arab spirit,” Manal Al-Dawood, founder of the brand, told Arab News.
Through their technique of layering the fabric, the prints used in the collection try to show the journey of coffee beans, from the moment they are planted into the earth to making it to the grinding process.
Saudi designer Amar Al-Amdar shared with Arab News his thoughts on the art scene through his experience of being a prominent figure in the industry.
He said: “We are now in phases of focusing on respecting the identity and culture in Saudi designs across all its regions, of course.
“And that’s a beautiful thing, but an important thing to focus on in this phase is that, in the past, when they were working on creating our pieces and wearing these (traditional) designs, that was considered innovation. That was the new look.
“When there was a swift pause on the development of our clothing, our past became heritage. But heritage must be preserved and if anything new comes up now, we must create new heritage and not replicate the past.”
He did not mince words about the wave of amateur designers that are adapting traditional clothing to use as decorative elements for newer, unconventional designs.
“For example, some of the worst things I’ve seen is taking something like the shemagh (scarf) and incorporating it into pants, or taking the agal (headwear) and making it a belt.
“This mix and crossing is wrong. Long ago, when they designed something for the head, it was intended to serve a purpose. It wasn’t decorative,” he said.
He felt it was important to caution novel fashion designers to innovate for the future and not simply look to the past for inspiration, and not create pieces that use heritage as merely a decorative motif.
“We need to form new paths, some renewal. There was a functionality to things, everything served a purpose in its design.
“But when design only becomes shifting a placement of something, that’s the biggest misuse of the original Saudi design … heritage is made to serve a purpose, so if we want to innovate it, it must have a functionality to it,” he said.
