ABU DHABI // More than 1,200 pupils threw their name into a lottery for a new-entrant place at the Abu Dhabi Indian School this year. Only 175 names came out of the hat.
Such is the demand at the school that hundreds of pupils and their parents are left disappointed at the start of every academic year.
The school has 5,033 pupils this academic year and the principal, Vijay Mathu, said it was an achievement to reach that point – the first time the roll had broken through the 5,000 barrier.
“It’s a big number and a big responsibility for me,” he said. “I try to do my best and move around a lot among the children and I attend four to five classes a day. It gives me feedback on the methods of teaching.”
As well as the lottery places, other spots were given to children with siblings already enrolled.
Mr Mathu said the school could take only 100 more pupils before it was full.
“Our advantage is that we have a very big campus with lots of facilities so more and more people would like to study [here], but we are not able to take on everyone who wants to come. No school can accommodate all the applicants,” he said.
The school opened in 1975 and moved to its current location near Al Salam Road three years later, after it was given land by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan.
Children join from the age of three and remain enrolled until they are 18. The school follows the Indian Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum.
Its growth has been particularly rapid in recent years. While it took 15 years for the school to grow from 3,000 to 4,000 pupils, the increase from 4,000 to 5,000 has taken just three years. Una Sabharwal, the kindergarten administrator, said her section had grown from eight classes three years ago to 18 now. There were 450 youngsters in the kindergarten.
“We could easily have another five sections but there’s no space,” she said.
She added that most pupils, when they began at aged three, spoke little English, but quickly picked up the school’s medium of instruction.
“Some might be talking in Malayalam, some in Tamil and others in Hindi, but we get them talking in English. By the end of the [first] year they are very good,” she said.
Classes are co-educational up to year one, after which boys and girls are taught separately in different blocks of the school.
Mr Mathu, who became principal two years ago after spending 13 years as vice-principal, said most pupils leaving at age 18 went on to higher education.
Between 75 and 80 per cent went to Indian universities, while others remained in the UAE for their higher education or travelled to North America or Europe.
“We do not have people who drop out. Most of the parents whose children are studying here are professionals and every parent would like to see his child do a little better than he has done,” Mr Mathu said.
“Beyond academic work, we also lay a lot of emphasis on the all-round element. Games are compulsory and we have a very strong debating team and quiz team.”
He said he was particularly proud of the fact that the school had had an environment club for more than 15 years.
Facilities include a 25-metre swimming pool, an auditorium that seats 1,500, basketball and volleyball courts and practice nets for India’s favourite sport – cricket.
Among the projects in the pipeline is the installation of a new artificial grass games pitch in the main playground area. The school, which runs on a not-for-profit basis, is closely associated with the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi, and the Indian ambassador to the UAE is on the governing body.
Daniel Bardsley