KV Rox

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1056229.cms


It is not just elite business schools and IITs which are flooded with requests for offshore campuses. The humble Kendriya Vidyalaya has also found more takers abroad.

The KV - which has already gone international with schools in Tehran, Moscow and Kathmandu - has now got a request from the Mauritian government for an Indian-style school.

It is not just good academic performance by KV students that has floored the Mauritian government. It realises an Indian school in Mauritius can provide good grounding to about 400-500 students, mostly of Indian origin, coming to India for university education every year.

This is a reason why the HRD ministry is also not averse to setting up a school there. The Mauritian government's request was promptly conveyed to KV authorities, who in turn have written to the Indian High Commission in Port Louis.

The HRD ministry is ready to oblige, but only after it is convinced about the project's viability. The KV authorities have written to the Indian High Commission in Mauritius, asking for details like source of funding and number of students likely to join the school.

"We have to see how is the demand, how many local students want to attend the school and whether this will be self-financing or government-funded," said a senior KV official. Besides KVs that follow the CBSE pattern, there are also several Indian schools in the Gulf countries. But most of them are privately-owned.

On Tuesday, Mauritius' IT and telecom minister Pradeep Jeeha asked HRD minister Arjun Singh for a KV. "He had heard good things about KV and wanted to have an Indian school on a similar pattern. He even asked for university-level tie-ups, exchange programmes and Indian technical institutes like IITs in his country," a ministry official said.

The ministry is however, non-committal on university-level tie-ups. "It is for the varsities to decide. Mauritius is keen to take expertise from JNU and DU. We will let the respective vice chancellors decide," said the official.