“Even Sky is not the limit, it’s just the beginning.” Capt Sumant Dang, a trained commercial pilot and founder of Rishikesh International School, has been preaching these words in his professional life.
When Capt Sumant returned to his hometown, Rishikesh, after completing his commercial pilot training, the ground reality of the place shook his conscience. The obscure future of the young kids and poor education facilities in the town started haunting him and soon, for him, life was all about pursuing a new dream and passion. In July 2013, Uttarakhand was devastated by floods and landslides. The floods wreaked havoc and as a result, Rishikesh too had to bear the brunt as its infrastructure was massively destroyed including educational institutes. To revive the lives and future of the downtrodden, he took the initiative to work towards establishing Rishikesh International School. Capt Sumant started operating the school in the foothills of Himalayas. He decided to provide quality education to young minds who often remain oblivious to such basic rights and needs.
Why did Capt Sumant build a school in a rural setting and not urban? He replied, “We founded this school in 2014. It was a challenging path as I wanted to open a school with basic yet comprehensive infrastructure and big investments. I wanted to offer this opportunity to a rural area so I picked Rishikesh, my home. The basic idea was to open a school in the nooks of the city where the idea of education is still a far-fetched reality. We’ve students coming in from the foothills of the Himalayas who do not even have a basic structure to look up to. I am not here to build the future of the youth but to build the youth for the future.”
Rishikesh International School has its own style of working which sets it apart from other institutes. Case in point, every child in the school has a separate guardian to whom he or she can look up to for any kind of help or advice. The idea is to not let the child suffer alone during tough times and also to show the right path for the future. The school is also equipped with a number of sports facilities, encouraging children to delve into extra-curricular activities. Besides that, children are also being provided excellent lab structure. Keeping in mind the paying capacity of parents the school offers several types of discounts- girl child and army personnel. Also, someone who cannot afford to study in this school but is blessed with talent and hard work is also given a special discount. What cannot be ignored is the fact that Rishikesh International School doesn’t fail to recognise the calibre of today’s youth.
Capt Sumant’s school got affiliated for the 10th board examination two years ago. This year was the first time when the batch of class X students sat for the CBSE examinations representing Rishikesh International School. As per him, children outshined in the examination with a passing percentage of 90% and above. Most of the students passed with flying colours. Teachers and students with their mutual efforts and perseverance prepared continuously for two years. The school is now looking forward to the next two years when the students will be appearing for class XII examinations.
Even during the lockdown in March, the school did not put a hold to the classes, rather conducted digital classes on WhatsApp. Gradually, the classes shifted to Zoom extracting the best from it. Capt Sumant has been running this school for a few years now. Students from the hills have been getting the best education but now his next goal is to extend the reach of education to the children who are still alien from the greener side of this world. He is now contemplating opening learning centres and conducting workshops. But before that Capt Sumant is going to come up with a pre-primary school in Rishikesh very soon.
