Type Private Established 1 April 1954 Founder Satikanta Guha Colors White, Navy blue, Gold | Motto Courage to Know Phone 033 2440 5115 Founded 1 April 1954 | |
Director Dr. Madhu Kohli (Junior school) Principal Dalbir Kaur Chadda (Junior school) Principal Rupa Sanyal Bhattacharjee (High School) Address 82/7a, Ballygunge Place, Ballygunge, Kolkata, West Bengal 700019 Similar Modern High School F, Garden High School, Delhi Public School R, Mahadevi Birla World Academy, St Lawrence High Sch | ||
South Point School (SPS) or South Point High School (SPHS) is a co-educational private day school located in Kolkata, West Bengal. The school opened in the year, 1954 and introduced higher secondary level in 1960. The school split into two buildings with the high school shifting to Ballygunge Place in 1980.
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South Point group of schools, consisting of the junior and senior divisions, made an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest educational institute in the world in 1984 till 1992. The existing South Point school in Kolkata of the M.P. Birla Group, which was, till recently, managed by R. S. Lodha, has around 13,500 regular students on its rolls, and is reported to be the second-largest school in the world. The EducationWorld - IMRB International Survey ranked South Point High School at fourth in their 2007 list of India's most respected schools.
The school currently operates out of Mandeville Gardens, where the junior wing is housed, and Ballygunge Place, the address for the high school, in the same neighbourhood. However it will be shifting from its current premises once its new campus in Mukundapur, behind the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute is ready.
The school offers education in English medium with Bengali and Hindi taught as vernaculars. Other subjects are taught as per the norms of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education and the Central Board of Secondary Education.
History
On 1 April 1954, Shri Satikanta Guha founded South Point School at 16 Mandeville Gardens in south Kolkata with Smt. Prityalata Guha as the associate founder. It began with twenty students. The school is run by the South Point Education Society. It is English medium and co-educational.
South Point High School was the first co-educational school in the city, to be affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. It sent out its first School Final batch in 1958. Upgraded to the Higher Secondary level on 1 April 1960, the High School shifted to its present home at 82/7A Ballygunge Place on 8 April 1970. South Point has a place in the Guinness Book of Records (1984-1992) as the world’s largest school.
It now has 13,500 students, 325 teachers and 225 non-teaching staff-members. The school has Nursery, Transition and Classes I to V. Students then study in South Point High School from Classes VI to X under the Central Board of Secondary Education/West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. Thereafter, a majority of Pointers continue their studies in Classes XI and XII, under the Central Board of Secondary Education/West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education.
The EducationWorld-IMRB International Survey (August 2007) which evaluated 250 schools in India and developed a league table ranking them shows South Point High School at the fourth position in the top ten list of India’s Most Respected Schools, with an average score of 7.80.
Campuses
The school is divided into two campuses located close by:
Classes between nursery and class five are taught in the junior section, while classes between six and twelve are conducted at the high school campus.
Having started with only 20 children, the school has 13,500 students in up to 15 sections divided between morning and afternoon sessions for every standard. It has 405 teachers, and 245 members of non-teaching staff. South Point held the record for being the world’s largest school from 1984 to 1994 according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Bengali film and theater actor, Utpal Dutta was, at one time during his long career, a teacher of the English language at SPS. The quiz-master, Barry O'Brien was in charge as assistant principal of South Point High School for seven years and also taught English.