Akshara High School Kandivali Mumbai infrastructure and admission process

Akshara High School, Kandivali, Mumbai is a Government-recognized school affiliated to the ICSE Board, Delhi with students of Class 10 appearing for the exams conducted by the Council for The Indian Schools Certificate Examinations (CISCE). There are currently over 200 students on the rolls from Nursery to Std. X. Initially started with the aim to provide inexpensive education to children of low-income families, this inclusive school's reputation grew so much that other parents too were eager to get their kids admitted here. 

About Akshara High School 

Akshara High School, Mumbai is inclusive because, in the words of the school's Executive Director Timira, it "Celebrates differences not by highlighting them but by making them part of the fabric." The school's teachers have conveyed the core value of the school to be sensitive to each child's needs and provide them with opportunities to be an active participant in all academic and non-academic activities, so much so that the children take it upon themselves with no prompting to help their classmates who are having difficulty in understanding a subject. An understanding of gender equality is given as much emphasis as social and cultural equality.

The school campus

Akshara High School, Mumbai has a fairly spacious campus with a lovely garden and its own playground where the little ones can enjoy fun times in the sand pit or on the safe playground equipment and the older children participate in sports and games, including track and field events, volleyball, basketball, throw ball, table tennis, etc. Classrooms are large with a special library corner and the main school library is well-stocked with picture books and fiction, magazines and encyclopedias, as well as publications in a variety of languages, including English, Hindi, and Marathi. 

Read this charming poem on the library by Niraja, a Class V student, published in their February 2019 Newsletter (Issue 7) -

Library Love

The librarian's a friend

Who loves to lend,

So see if there's a book

That she can recommend.

Read that book,

And if you're bitten,

You can borrow all the others

The author has written.

There are students revising,

Deep in concentration,

And school kids doing projects,

Finding inspiration.

This is a place full of good ideas

And neve-ending quests,

Whish is forever

And truly - the best!

 

Other infrastructure include individual labs for physics, chemistry, and biology, an Art lab with professional art materials, a language lab, activity rooms, a computer lab, a medical room, spaces to learn music, dance, drama and yoga, and a counselling and remedial center. Safe bus transport facility is also provided for the students. 

Academics and activities

While the curriculum of Akshara High School, Mumbai follows the CBSE syllabus and students learn from NCERT books, the teaching-learning methodology is such that it focuses on age-appropriate learning and is not sticking to rote learning and bookish knowledge. All aspects of a child's wholesome development is given equal attention, including language and communication skills, motor and sensory skills, social and emotional development, etc. 

The pre-primary section is called Being Children. In these classes, there are no text books or work books. Instead, lessons are based on activities; and there are no tests or exams either. It is only from Class 1 that students are assigned grades based on class work and activities in groups and individually. Twice a year the children are taken on field trips and special activities are regularly scheduled, such as ones based on creativity or sports, and ones related to festivals. Students of the higher classes, too, are taken on excursions and work on projects alongside interesting classroom discussions. Some of the doing-and-learning activities that the school has organizes include Science week, Book Week, Sports Week, Annual Days, etc.

The admission process

Parents have to obtain the registration forms for admission to Akshara High School, Mumbai, these generally issued in the first week of November, with admission given on first-come-first-serve basis as per seat availability. Parents should check out the school website to know the documents to be mandatorily submitted along with the application form, such as the child's birth certificate, residential proof, etc. Preference is given to children staying nearby and to siblings of already-enrolled children. While there are no admission tests at all from Nursery to Class IV, neither for the kids nor for the parents, for the higher classes, students are assessed to gauge their proficiency in English, Mathematics and Science subjects. Students can avail of fee sponsorship as per the norms of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Contact information of Akshara High School

Address-

Plot No.1, R.S.C. 12,
Charkop Sector 8,
Kandivali (W), Mumbai 400067, Maharashtra, India 

Ph: +91-22-29674000, +91-22-29674001. 

Email: aksharahighschool@gmail.com 

Website: https://aksharahighschool.org/