The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Admissions to International Baccalaureate on till August 30

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Monday, Aug 03, 2009
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Admissions to International Baccalaureate on till August 30

Staff Reporter

First Indian school to offer this diploma programme

— Photo: M. Vedhan

Myriad emotions: Students performing at the Founder’s Day celebration of M.Ct.M. Chidambaram Chettyar International School and Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: M.Ct.M Chidambaram Chettyar International School is the first Indian school to offer the International Baccalaureate diploma programme, said M.Ct.P. Chidambaram, secretary of the school. The programme is being offered from this academic year.

He was speaking at the Founder’s Day celebrations organised by the schools of M.Ct.M. Chidambaram Chettyar Foundation here on Sunday.

Admissions to the international school would be on till August 30, said Jayanthi Thiagarajan, Principal. Talking about the establishment of the school, she said a team of educationists from Singapore had done an exhaustive inspection to ensure that the school met global standards.

The authorisation to run the Baccalaureate programme was obtained in 20 days, which was remarkable, she said, adding that despite heavy investments many institutions could not obtain the authorisation for a long time.

As part of the programme, students had to devote 150 hours towards Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS), said Ms. Thiagarajan, speaking about the unique features of the course.

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, said education had to be kept strictly secular.

Schools had to provide grounding in culture, while ensuring that narrow interpretations of culture are not taught, he said.

Mr. Ram advised the students to take an interest in social issues and public affairs and gain general knowledge, adding that this had to be consciously developed and nurtured at the school level. Despite the time constraints due to a demanding curriculum, students had to be provided time and space to participate in public events and other such activities, so that they could be more sensitive to the lesser privileged, he said.

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