SVKM’s CNM School of Mumbai Shortlisted for Five World’s Best School Prizes For Innovation

SVKM’s CNM School has added another feather to its cap by making it to the coveted World’s Best School Prizes shortlist. This news has added to the achievement and celebratory mood of the school, which is now in its silver jubilee year, having completed a successful 25 years in imparting pathbreaking education. The school has been shortlisted in the Innovation category, which acknowledges unconventional and pioneering educational practices that influence teaching and learning. 

The Five World’s Best School Prizes, founded by T4 Education, in partnership with Accenture, American Express, Yayasan Hasanah, Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Lemann Foundation, celebrate schools that are transforming the way students learn and their impact on the community at large. 

A school that began its journey humbly in 1997 with merely twenty-five students, one teacher, and one support staff under the guidance of the Late Mukesh Bhai Patel, has come a long way. In its 25th year, SVKM’s CNM School is a name to reckon with in the field of education and has 3,000 students and two hundred teachers. The school’s firm focus has always been on building the 6C’s in education - Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Confidence, Citizenship, and Creativity.

SVKM’s CNM School has been receptive to the changing times and has evolved its curriculum and pedagogy regularly to make the maximum impact on students. Constructivism and Inquiry-Based learning have been the mainstay of the school since its origin. When the school observed a diminishing interest in STEM subjects amongst students, it decided to transform its curriculum, making it competency driven. This gave birth to a new subject called Global Outlook in 2019 for the students of Std I to VIII.

Kavita Sanghvi, the Principal of the school, who played a significant role in designing the subject, says, “We applied for our in-house STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) subject. It is a skill-driven subject where every student participates. Each unit runs for nearly two months, and all the learning is driven by the students who research, create hypotheses, experiment, conclude and present.” 

Under the Global Outlook, experiential learning is encouraged to build concepts and skills among students. An annual event titled ‘HI-STEAM’ (History with STEM) is organized to celebrate the history of every discovery, invention, or event, in which participation is mandatory for all the students. This event offers them an opportunity to present their STEM learning to the entire community and fraternize the Global Outlook curriculum. Kavita Sanghvi is proud that her efforts to promote STEM learning and skills have been appreciated globally.

Meanwhile, congratulating the schools that have made it to the Top 10 shortlist of the World’s Best School Prizes, Vikas Pota, the Founder of T4 Education, said, “I want to congratulate the schools for making the Top 10 shortlist for the inaugural World’s Best School Prizes. Educators all over the world will now be able to learn from the examples of these outstanding Indian schools.” Apart from SVKM’s CNM School, the other shortlisted schools are SDMC Primary School, Khoj School, PCMC English Medium School, Bopkhel, and Samaritan Mission School (High).

The World’s Best School Prizes winners will be announced in October this year to coincide with the World Education Week, and the award money of US $250000 will be shared equally amongst the winners. As for SVKM’s CNM School, the jubilation will be magnified with several programmes to celebrate the silver jubilee of the school.