Sunshine School gets CBSE affiliation

TEAM HERALD

bureau@herald-goa.com

OLD GOA: Sunshine Worldwide School (SWS) will become the first CBSE-affiliated school in the State to start Std XI classes from the academic year 2014-15.

Stating this at a news conference in the school premises at Bainguinim-Old Goa on Tuesday, SWS founder and Managing Trustee Deepak Khaitan informed that the school will start Std XI classes in the three streams of Commerce, Science and Humanities, for which CBSE has already granted affiliation.

“Only 30 students each will be admitted in the three streams as the school management believes in quality and not quantity,” said Khaitan and added that admissions for the same will begin once the SSC board exam results are out.

“Currently, we are only holding the aptitude test for students intending to join the Std XI and for this, the students have to register with the school,” said Khaitan. “Based on the aptitude test, the school will decide in which stream the student will be admitted. The school will offer various combinations and optional subjects like travel & tourism, media studies, etc as per the aptitude of the child,” he added.

Khaitan further informed that there is a proposal to do away with the Std X board exams entirely. 

“Of the 24 students who answered their Std X exams recently, 16 opted to answer the external board exam while eight answered the school-based exam,” he informed.

“In another two years time, the Std X board exams will be done away with completely and the focus will be only on Std XII board exams, so that there is less burden on the students.”

SWS conducts full-day schooling from 8.30 am to 3.45 pm, ever since its inception in 2003. 

“The school provides pure vegetarian food to students,” he said, but added that the students are free to get food from their home.

“Transportation is available to students from places like Siolim, Assagao, Baga, Candolim, Bicholim, Sanquelim, Ponda, Dona Paula, Taleigao, Panjim, Merces, Bambolim, Succour, Brittona, Pomburpa, etc,” he said and informed that all buses are equipped with CCTV cameras so that there is no untoward incident.

“Each school bus is accompanied by a teacher and a conductor,” he added. “There are CCTV cameras in the school premises as well, and these are constantly monitored,” Khaitan said.

Speaking on the occasion, school principal Anil Kashyap informed that there are currently 629 students in the school, from nursery to Std X, and a total of 63 teachers.

“The school also focuses on group studies, so that the students learn from each other and also are able to gel together,” he added and informed that the school policy is that the students should love what they do so that they enjoy what they are learning. “The students are evaluated regularly through the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation, which could be in the form of project, activity, dance, drama, etc,” Kashyap said and added that the school doesn’t promote any sort of competition.

School vice-principal Sunita Rodrigues also spoke on the occasion.