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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