South Point School

For other schools using this name, see South Point High School.

South Point is a higher-secondary co-educational private school located in Kolkata, West Bengal and affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education, consisting of three organisations – South Point School (Nursery to Class V), South Point High School (Classes VI to XII) and South Point Education Society (administrative authority).^[4][5] The school operates in two shifts for all classes – Morning and Afternoon. The school opened in 1954, and was the first co-educational school in Kolkata. Higher Secondary (10+2) education was introduced in 1960. Initially operation as a single unit, the school split into two buildings with the high school shifting to Ballygunge Place in 1980.^[6][7] It is claimed to be the only school in Kolkata to have a Nobel Laureate as an alumnus. It is regarded by many as one of the best schools in Kolkata.^[8][9][10]

South Point School and South Point High School, Kolkata
South Point High School entrance
Address
Birla Building, 9/1 R. N. Mukherjee Road^[1] (Education Society) 16 Mandeville Gardens (Junior School) 82/7A Ballygunge Place (High School) Kolkata, West Bengal India
Coordinates	22°31′33″N 88°22′36″E / 22.52583°N 88.37667°E / 22.52583; 88.37667
Information
Type	Private school
Motto	Courage to Know
Established	1954 (1954)
Founder	Satikanta Guha
Principal	D.K. Chadda (Junior school)
Principal	Rupa Sanyal Bhattacharjee (High school)
Faculty	120 (Junior school) 75 (High school)^[2]
Teaching staff	70 (Junior school) 40 (High school)^[2]
Grades	Nursery I to V (Junior school) VI to XII (High school)
Number of students	~ 12000
Colour(s)	Navy blue, gold and white
Publication	Nursery books, Mathematics books, song books and CDs^[3](Junior school), Pointer (School magazine)
Affiliation	Central Board of Secondary Education
Website	www.southpoint.edu.in

History

South Point School is an English-medium and co-educational school which was founded on 1 April 1954 at 16 Mandeville Gardens, Kolkata.^[11]

Safety standards and certification

The South Point Education Society received the OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management Certification from the British Standards Institution (BSI) in respect of South Point School, Mandeville Gardens, and South Point High School, Ballygunge Place on 2 August 2017.^[12] The OHSAS certification has been upgraded to ISO 45001:2018 standard.

The school has an integrated fire-fighting system, CCTV surveillance throughout the two campuses (barring Staff Rooms and washrooms), GPS tracking facility on South Point School buses and other Occupational Health and Safety measures which are vital in maintaining the ageing school-buildings.^[13]

The Priyamvada Birla Campus

In order to address space constraints and enhance infrastructure, South Point School and South Point High School will move to a new and much larger campus named the Priyamvada Birla Campus of South Point named after Late Smt. Priyamvada Birla, philanthropist and wife of M.P. Birla Group founder Late Shri Madhav Prasad Birla. The campus is currently under construction.^[14][15]

Emblem and objective

The School Emblem, showing a bird (dove or paloma) in flight, symbolizes "man's everlasting quest for knowledge and the desire to soar above the mundane."^[16] The motto of the School is 'Courage to Know'.^[17]

Notable alumni

• Saurabh Bagchi, Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University, ACM,^[18] IFIP,^[19] IEEE^[20] Distinguished Scientist, Humboldt Fellow^[21]
• Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Professor of Economics, MIT, Nobel Laureate in Economics ^[8][22]
• Abhik Ghosh, chemist, professor, and winner of the Hans Fischer Career Award (2022) for lifetime contributions^[23]
• Abhijit Mukherjee (Earth Scientist), scientist and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (Prize) laureate ^[24]
• Avinandan Mukherjee, Provost and former Dean, Marshall University^[8][25]*
• Pratim D. Gupta, journalist, film critic, screenwriter and film director

 

Priyamvada Birla Campus

References

1. "Contact Us". South Point School. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
2. "Faculty". South Point School. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
3. "Nursery Books" (PDF). South Point School. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
4. "Kolkata Schools". Coaching Indians. Retrieved 18 August 2009.
5. Dey, Anurag. "In twilight years, gift of love to teachers". The Tribune. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
6. "History". South Point Education Society. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
7. "after which he took charge as assistant principal of South Point high school for seven years". Times of India.
8. Banerjee, Sudeshna (15 October 2019). "Abhijit was a quiet boy from class of 1976 at South Point". The Telegraph (Kolkata). Retrieved 16 October 2019.
9. "Alumni2". The Times of India.
10. "SOUTH POINT SCHOOL-Guinness Book". 14 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
11. "History – SOUTH POINT SCHOOL". Retrieved 28 July 2020.
12. IANS (2 August 2017). "Health, safety certification for schools a rarity in India". Business Standard India. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
13. "Safety Steps & Certification – SOUTH POINT SCHOOL". Retrieved 17 October 2020.
14. "2022 date for Bypass campus". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
15. "The New Campus – SOUTH POINT SCHOOL". Retrieved 17 October 2020.
16. "Aims and Objectives – SOUTH POINT SCHOOL". Retrieved 16 October 2019.
17. "Aims and Objectives – SOUTH POINT SCHOOL". Retrieved 28 July 2020.
18. "ACM Honors Distinguished Computer Scientists, Engineers and Educators for Innovations". www.acm.org. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
19. "IFIP WG10.4 Members". www.dependability.org. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
20. "Saurabh Bagchi | IEEE Computer Society". Retrieved 7 June 2021.
21. Service, Purdue News. "Purdue engineer receives Humboldt Research Award". www.purdue.edu. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
22. "Abhijit Banerjee". The Times of India. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
23. "Society of Porphyrins & Phthalocyanines". www.icpp-spp.org. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
24. "Abhijit Mukherjee". The Times of India. 27 September 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
25. "Avinandan Mukherjee". WV Metro News. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2023.