Oldest Indian school looks back at 60 years in Dubai

Gulf News

As the UAE celebrates 50 years of its federation, it is worth looking at how the oldest Indian school was set up in the emirate.  Girish Jethwani, chairman, and Punit MK Vasu, CEO of The Indian High Group of Schools, who traced the journey of the school, said the need for a school among Indian expats was first felt in 1957. “There was a lack of facilities for the children of Indian families who had landed on the shores of Dubai,” said Jethwani.  Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3lHl52c  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #education #Dubai

Transcript

00:00I could not be standing in a better place, watch this, 60, 50 and the Expo 2020 logo.

00:09Well, where am I? I'm standing here at the Indian High School Dubai premises.

00:15And why am I here? Because the school is celebrating 60 years of its presence in the UAE.

00:20And as you know, the UAE also is celebrating 50 years of its federation. So we're bringing

00:26both of them together. And we are rehashing a bit of history here. So I'm here to meet the

00:34CEO and the chairman of the school to understand how the school came into existence 60 years ago,

00:42and what has made it the success it is today. Thank you. Wonderful to have you

00:48at the Indian High Group of Schools. We're at the Udmeta campus. You asked us to speak a bit about

00:54the history of the school. It's a fascinating history. So we're celebrating our 60 years

00:59this year, which means we were obviously set up in 1961. And the school was actually set up in 1957

01:08by a wonderful pioneer by the name of Hemkala Bain. And she set up something which is called

01:16Bharat Vidyalaya. That's important to know why did she set it up? It's because right from day one,

01:22the focus was on the learner. So there was a wonderful need for high quality education,

01:29even at that point in time. And Hemkala Bain was very quick to realize that if the Indian

01:33diaspora needed to survive in Dubai, then they will need a good quality school. So she approached

01:39the wonderful Shri Maganmal Pancholia ji. Because initially in 1957, we started only with maybe

01:45approximately 10 children in a house in Bur Dubai. And as you know that the numbers started creeping

01:51up pretty quickly. So when she went to Shri Maganmal Pancholia ji, he said, okay, now it's

01:56time to actually take the school to the next level. And he was a visionary. And then he approached

02:03a lot of what we call today our trustees to actually set up the school on a philanthropic,

02:11non for profit basis. So right from 1957 to date, the school is remains true to its core

02:21of providing high quality affordable education to the Indian diaspora.

02:26So from 10 students to 13,000 students today, how has the growth happened?

02:33So it's been a fantastic journey. I think the growth of the school echoes the growth of this

02:38wonderful city and the wonderful country that we are in. So if you look at the vision of the late

02:43His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saidel Maktoum, he realized very quickly that the Indian community

02:50here would need a wonderful piece of land for the school. So when the Indian community approached

02:57the late His Highness Sheikh Rashid, they had two requests. They had a request for a temple,

03:03the Srinagi Shri Krishna temple, which was the land of which was given close to the ruler's court.

03:10And His Highness was very benevolent in giving us this massive plot of land, which is where you are

03:15today, for the Indian high Udh Mehta. And at that time, it wasn't known as the Udh Mehta campus,

03:20it was just the Indian high school. And it's an interesting story, the anecdote here for you,

03:25where a lot of the community members felt at that point in time that this is the back and beyond.

03:31And it's very far. But His Highness, being a visionary, felt that this is the right location

03:37for the school, and community around it would develop. And I think, where we are today,

03:44and the fact that we have 13,000 children now, okay, and we have three campuses. So we have a

03:50campus in Udh Mehta, we have a campus in Garud, and we have a very new campus in Dubai Silicon

03:56Oasis. So you have the trustees who along with the rulers of this land, look ahead and have

04:02planned and didn't want to just be in Udh Mehta. And that has contributed to the growth. Of course,

04:08the wonderful business experience, and the job opportunities available in Dubai meant that the

04:14school always has people who are interested in studying. And I would also like to say that we

04:22have been blessed with fantastic talent, and teachers who want to teach at a school. So those

04:28are probably the critical success factors behind the growth of the school. So we are in the thick

04:33of a pandemic. How is the school coping with it? And what is the school doing to give back to the

04:40community? So as a community school, as a non for profit community school, again, we remain very

04:46much true to our mission about providing high quality affordable education to the Indian

04:51diaspora. Now, obviously, there were a lot of families affected during the pandemic. And the

04:57key for any school is obviously to focus on the learner. So we were very, very keen and we have

05:02several initiatives that we launched and which still exist. So the one major initiative that we

05:08launched was offering need based admissions. So people who demonstrated financial need were able

05:13to actually get a seat in the school. As you know, there's a there's a waiting list in the

05:201000s for this school, but obviously a lot of families were affected in the pandemic. So we

05:25created a need based admission criteria. The other thing is the trustees were very, very forward

05:32thinking and very, very benevolent in creating a bursary fund. So our existing our existing

05:38parents or existing learners who were affected by the pandemic was supported by the bursary.

05:45And it has been a challenging time because for us, as a community school, we're very dependent

05:50on transport. And the pandemic meant that we couldn't operate the school transport as we

05:56normally would. And even when we came back earlier on, and now we are blessed that is 100% capacity

06:01before the capacity was lowered. So that obviously meant that that put a lot of financial stress.

06:08And there are other small initiatives that we do, whether it be monthly installments,

06:12so there's no pressure on parents. And more importantly, we also tied up with a couple of

06:17banks in offering interest free easy payment plan. So even though we are monthly, and the average

06:23fee point is at 550 dirhams a month, but we realized pretty quickly that our learners and

06:28our parents would require support. Now the beauty of in being in a community school is you know,

06:34when you have 13,000 learners, and you've got 1650 teaching and non teaching staff,

06:40being part of the community is in your DNA, it's in your ethos. So that's, I think what this group

06:46of schools is blessed with the senior leadership team, the teachers, they all rallied behind the

06:53school. Right, I'm proud to say that it's a support system, because you know, the teachers are the

07:00real heroes, the hero, and superheroes don't always need to wear a cape. Right? So the teachers

07:06are teachers and teachers across the group, across the world, I would say, but specifically in this

07:10community non for profit school, they have been very much on the front line, they have been

07:14teaching nonstop on distance learning, right, they may not have received any formal training,

07:21given the window that we had in terms of going online, they had to look after their own families.

07:27And I think the final feather in our cap was when the KHDA inspections by the government of Dubai,

07:33actually vetted the Indian high group of schools, all three of our campuses as having received the

07:39fully developed rating. I think that's a massive feather in our cap. Because irrespective of the

07:43price point, our teachers, you know, took the challenge and said, hang on a minute years and

07:49opportunity we've been you know, used to teaching with the whiteboard marker, the chalk and the

07:54traditional way, but hey, this is it, they gained probably two weeks. And they did an excellent job.

07:59So initially, when we launched online learning during the pandemic, we had parents who were a

08:03bit skeptical and saying, hey, you know, we really want to come back face to face.

08:07From that journey, we have come now a lot of parents, hey, very comfortable doing online,

08:10you're doing a very, very good job. And as we know, come October, children are going to be back,

08:16we very much look forward to receiving these children back, our hallways have been empty.

08:21And now as the government gets ready for Expo, the UAE readies to get back to the right normal,

08:27we look forward to getting our children back.

08:29So the UAE celebrating 50 years of its federation, what is the school's vision for the next 50 years?

08:36So it's befitting. So the Federation celebrates 50 years, the Indian high group of schools is

08:40celebrating its 60th Diamond Jubilee. And it's the year of the Expo. So we have created a theme,

08:47which is 60 at 50 at 2020. And that's the theme that the trustees have created to celebrate

08:54the legacy of this wonderful school, and also to celebrate the success of the wonderful country

08:59that we are in. And I think, if I have to look 50 years ahead, or 60 years ahead,

09:05I think we are blessed to be in this country, which has a vision. Right? So if you look at

09:11the vision of this country, in terms of supporting the expatriate community, in terms of supporting

09:16all the residents, and if you look at the recent 10 principles of the Federation that His Highness

09:23Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nayan

09:28launched, it's wonderful, because it gives us a bedrock, it gives us almost like a template.

09:34And I think the key focus for us going forward is going to be no different than what it used to be,

09:41focusing on our stakeholders. You focus on the people, you focus on the learners,

09:47you focus on the parents, you focus on your teachers. Right? Everything else around it is

09:54peripheral. So whether you look at technology, whether you look at other enablers, they're mere

09:59catalysts. But the human interaction and the fact that you want to provide high quality learning,

10:06if you want to continue to provide and teach effectively to students, so that they can remain

10:13in Dubai, and they can continue to call Dubai home. I think that is something that we will

10:19continue to focus on. So it's a wrap from the school here. Thank you so much, Mr. Puneet,

10:25for this opportunity. If you do know of other events that you would like to cover as part of

10:31the UAE celebration of the 50 Years of Federation, do let us know. For now,

10:37it's a wrap here. This is Anjana Kumar for Gulf News.

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