Assam Valley School, Balipara

Assam Valley School, Balipara

Since it admitted its first batch of students in 1995, AVS has emerged as north-east India’s sole internationally benchmarked secondary, setting new paradigms for boarding school education

Sprawled over 270 acres of immaculately manicured tea-gardens in Asom’s (formerly Assam) Sonitpur district, the generously endowed and fully-equipped Assam Valley School (AVS, estb.1995) has quickly established itself as north-east India’s premier residential school and among the best countrywide. Offering state-of-the-art infrastructure, high-quality faculty, contemporary IT-enabled pedagogies, advanced pastoral care and a plethora of co-curricular and extra-curricular options, within 13 years since it was promoted with the objective of “training young minds for citizenship in a globally connected world,” AVS has set new paradigms for globally-benchmarked, holistic education at affordable prices.

An eclectic blend of British-inspired boarding schools and India’s new genre international secondaries, admission applications into this path-breaking class III-XII school outstrip yearly vacancies by a 4:1 ratio. This co-ed primary-cum-secondary which has 891 pupils, including 300 girl students on its rolls, offers the curriculum of the Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and is a member of the International Round Square Movement.

Promoted by the Williamson Magor Education Trust, AVS admitted its first batch of 149 pupils in 1995. The Williamson Magor Group is the world’s largest producer of tea (75 million kg per year) and owns 48 tea estates in Asom and six in the Dooars district of West Bengal. Industrialists and reputed academics constitute the school’s governing board. Among them: B.M. Khaitan (chairman, McLeod Russel), David Summerscale (former headmaster, Westminster School, UK), Abha Adams (former director, the Sri Ram School, Delhi), and Gulab Ramchandani (former headmaster of the Doon School), with legal luminary Pinto Khaitan officiating as chairman of the board.

“The AVS mandate is to provide contemporary, internationally bench-marked school education to the growing middle-class population of the seven sister states of north-east India. And I believe that within the relatively short span of 13 years, AVS has not only attained this objective, but has also mainstreamed the hitherto neglected state of Asom onto the secondary education map of India,” says Derek Mountford (36), perhaps the youngest headmaster of a major residential school in India.

A history honours alumnus of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Mountford has brought an impressive package of teaching and administrative experience into the spacious and well-appointed head-master’s office in AVS, having served with Vasant Valley School, Delhi (1996), the Doon School, Dehradun, (1997-2002) and Lawrence School, Sanawar, where he was deputy headmaster. In November 2003, the AVS board of governors stunned India’s esoteric public (i.e. private, exclusive) school academic fraternity by passing over some of the most experienced principals in India and abroad to appoint Mountford (then only 31) headmaster of AVS. Since then Mountford has attracted several of the country’s top public school teachers to AVS with emolument packages which are among the best in secondary school education.

Under Mountford’s watch, the school (which employs 102 teachers with impressive academic credentials, giving it an enviable 1:8 teacher-pupil ratio) has improved its academic outcomes significantly. In 2007, of the 106 pupils who wrote the class X (ICSE) board examination, 56 averaged 85 percent plus. Likewise of the 75 students who wrote the ISC (class XII) exam, 41 averaged 85 percent plus. Little wonder AVS school-leavers are being welcomed in India’s top-rung colleges such as St. Stephen’s and Lady Sri Ram, Delhi; St. Xavier’s, Mumbai, and universities abroad. “A good school,” says Mountford, “should rise beyond mere exam success to assume responsibility for university placements.”

Yet perhaps the distinguishing characteristic of this meticulously-engineered 21st century school, designed by celebrity Delhi-based architect Romi Khosla, is its focus on provision of holistic, all-round education. Consequently, there is elaborate provision (eight sound-proof rooms and a plethora of school-provided instruments) for learning western and Indian music and dance, and last year an AVS duo from its active debating society won the NDTV Bone of Contention all-India inter-school debate. Furbished with a spacious 6,250 sq. ft library stocked with 16,300 volumes and 34 journal subscriptions, AVS is also among the country’s most IT-savvy schools, equipped with 176 computer terminals and 24x7 internet connectivity.

But perhaps the most generous provision of them all has been made for games and ‘activities’. AVS offers thoroughly contemporary sports facilities including an olympic-size swimming-pool, a multi-utility gymnasium, an indoor sports complex, eight fields for cricket, hockey and soccer; four synthetic international tennis courts, three squash and four badminton courts, 11 horses for equestrians and an archery range. “In AVS there is complete unanimity about the healthy-body-and-mind connection,” says Mountford.

Moreover, a social engineering experiment in “pupil ownership” is also a unique feature of AVS. A democratically-elected school council is actively involved with the administration of the school, maintaining discipline and managing student welfare activities, providing students opportunities for developing team-building and leadership skills.

Astonishingly, despite the provision of modern, IT-enabled academic education, extensive pastoral care and superb infrastructure, school fees (Rs.1.5 lakh per year) are way below the norm of new genre international schools. Mountford ascribes this phenomenon to “running a tight ship managerially” and the parent trust’s generosity in writing off the massive capital cost (Rs.170 crore) of the school.

With its teething problems over and AVS having established a nationwide reputation, Mountford is bullish about the school’s future. “In terms of curriculum review and development, modernisation of the academic and sports infrastructure, faculty development and strengthening of parent-school ties, this is a period of consolidation for AVS. Nevertheless, we are also navigating towards the International Baccalaureate curriculum and transforming AVS into a secondary education hub which will raise educational standards across this region,” he says.

Although off to a flying start, evidently this pioneer institution’s best is yet to come.

Dilip Thakore (Balipara, Asom)