Page 30 - EducationWorld June 2022_Neat

Institution Profile

Army Public School, Barrackpore

Set to celebrate its silver jubilee next year, this K-12 school for children of armed forces
officers has earned an excellent reputation for providing holistic, values-based education
to its 3,700 students including 1,489 girl children

BAISHALI MUKHERJEE

ITED ON A TEN-ACRE
eco-friendly campus on the
banks of River Hooghly in
Sthe British East India Com-
pany’s first factory town of Barrack-
pore (pop.1.5 lakh) — a 90-minute
drive from Kolkata — the CBSE-af-
filiated Army Public School, Barrack-
pore (APS-B, estb.1998) has earned
a statewide reputation for providing
holistic, values-based education to its
3,700 students, including 1,489 girls
mentored by 130 teachers. In the lat-
est EW India School Rankings 2021-
22, this low-profile school is ranked
among West Bengal’s Top 40 co-ed
day schools and #2 in Barrackpore.
Established over two decades ago
by patron Maj. Gen. Jitendra Singh
(VSM) and chairman Brig. M.S.
Dadwal under the aegis of the Army
Welfare Education Society (AWES) APS-B campus: safe, secure & stimulating environment. Inset: Dr. Moitreyee Mukherjee
— which runs and manages 137 Army
Public Schools and 249 Army pre- attention to all children and also for person schooling in February, teach-
primaries countrywide — APS, Bar- excellent professional development ers had little difficulty in making good
rackpore provides K-12 education to programmes to our 130 teachers,” the learning loss of students,” says
children of serving, short service com- says D r. M oitre y e e M u k h e rj e e , Mukherjee.
missioned and retired armed forces an alumna of Calcutta and Kalyani Since APS-B admitted its first
officers. Under the AWES charter, a universities who brought two decades batch of 450 pupils and 20 teachers
small number (10 percent of total en- of rich teaching and admin experience in a modest building 23 years ago,
rolment) of civilian children are also in reputed schools (Nivedita School, the school has blossomed. Current-
admitted into the school. Barrackpore, Air Force Sr. Sec School, ly, the school’s campus spread over
“Our objective is to nurture chil- Hindon, Ghaziabad) into APS, Bar- green acres, hosts ten state-of-the-art
dren’s academic, co-curricular, and rackpore when she was appointed buildings interspersed with mani-
socio-emotional learning skills in a principal in 2015. cured lawns and Chinese herbal gar-
safe, secure and stimulating environ- In particular, Mukherjee is satisfied dens. Academic facilities include 100
ment. Therefore, the curriculum inte- with the school’s smooth transition to spacious technology aided learning
grates rigorous academics with sports, online learning after the lockdown of (TAL)-enabled classrooms fitted with
co-curricular and life skills education. education institutions countrywide on Smart boards, seven air-conditioned
Our mission is to shape students into March 25, 2020 following outbreak of and wi-fi enabled labs including four
well-rounded and confident school- the Covid-19 pandemic. “During the science and three computer labs, three
leavers equipped with academic, so- past two years when schooling moved 200-seat multipurpose halls, and two
cial and life skills needed to succeed online, our teachers made extraordi- well-stocked junior and senior librar-
in their chosen vocations. With a nary efforts to devise engaging online ies housing over 17,000 volumes and
teacher-pupil ratio of 1:20, we pride lessons and worksheets. Therefore, 27 subscribed magazines and journals.
ourselves on providing individual when our children returned to in- The school’s sports infrastructure

30 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2022