The Daly College in Indore is a 146-year-old institution that has a glorious history of being established during the British Raj. The sprawling campus is a striking sight given its stately architecture which can put modern architecture to shame. The co-ed residential cum day boarding school has garnered a reputation at national and international level to emerge as one of the top schools of India. A S Ansari, Vice Principal, Daly College, Indore has made unparalleled contribution to the esteemed school both as an English teacher and Officiating Principal. He looks back in nostalgia at the years spent at the school and its achievements that are growing by the day...
In 1870, General Sir Henry Daly, who was the representative of the Governor General in Central India and Resident at the Court of the Holkars-the rulers of Indore, evolved a unique concept and established a school for the sons of the Indian princes. This, it was felt, would help bridge the cultural gap between the Indian princes and the British to their mutual advantage.
In 1940, showing great vision, the board of governors decided to prepare students for a modern and free India. The Daly College came together with a few other institutions and started what is known as the Indian Public Schools Conference (IPSC). Its doors were thrown open to admissions on merit, regardless of caste or creed. Ever since then, the Daly College has grown in strength and reputation and now offers the most modern of education in a heritage setting. It has now become a member of the Round Square (International Conference). The school also became a co-educational residential in 1997, in response to the desire of parents to give an equally good education to their sons and daughters.
In 1998, under the Headship of Dr Prasad, the Daly College Business School was established in partnership with De Montfort University, Leicester, England. Students can pursue undergraduate studies in Business Management at DCBS. The course is known as BMBS or Bachelor in Management (Business Studies).
Daly College (DC) is one of India’s most respected boarding schools and our alumni have contributed significantly to India’s development. It’s a school which combines tradition and modernity, offers a rigorous academic curriculum, generous sports facilities, excellent pastoral care and well-developed student support systems. DC offers excellent holistic education and is committed to producing citizens of the world.
DC has been ranked as India’s best school in all categories of internationalism, for infrastructure and for sports management too. DC has been ranked the best day cum boarding school in India for the past few years.
Global Alliance of Leading-Edge Schools (GALES), an organisation from 25-plus countries, has only one Indian partner, Daly College. It is for the very first time that GALES decided to shift the venue of its bi-annual summit for October 2014 from Raffles Institution, Singapore to DC, Indore.
The Daly College is proud to be a global member of the Round Square. RS is a nonprofit charity organisation registered in the UK. It is a worldwide association of almost 150 schools in five continents. As members of the Round Square, children go all over India and abroad to mix, work and compete with children from other schools and cultures. At the same time, ample exchanges between teachers and students take place with schools abroad and students attend international conferences as well as service camps. Round Square schools are founded on a philosophy which embraces a series of six pillars or precepts which can be summed up in the word ‘IDEALS ’. They are Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service. Students at Round Square schools make a commitment to addressing each of these pillars through exchanges, work projects, community service and adventure
AFS, another international organisation, is one of the world’s largest community-based volunteer organisations. The essence of any AFS program is stay and study in a different cultural setting. Daly College sends its students for AFS exchanges for short-term and year-long programs. It greatly promotes intercultural learning.
A state-of-art hobby centre (CTDC) caters to the creative talent of the students. It has facilities for Fine Arts, Sculpture, Pottery, Ceramics, Graphics, Woodcraft, Electronics, Photography, Bamboo Craft, Needlework amongst still arts and Music, Band, Dance and Dramatics in performing arts. The school has won All India IPSC Championships of Dance, Music, Drama, Debates, Fine Arts, Quizzes etc. The school organises various co-curricular activities. The school has very active literary societies in English and Hindi. Debates, Declamation, Elocution, Essay Competitions, Group Discussions and Poetry Recitation are some of the activities which are organised by these societies. Children are involved in the publication of a magazine, newsletter and its supplements.
30 Clubs are offered to students like Cooking in Chef ’s of DC, Baking, Film Appreciation, Robotics, Economics Forum, Debating, MUNs, Art Appreciation, Art Positive, Mathemagic, Green Club and Nature Club, Scientific Society, Historical Society, Bridging The Gap, Dramatics, Quizzing, Cooking, Baking, Creative Writing, Adventure Club, IAY P, SSL , Economists, Motor Mechanics, Photography, Electronics, Readers’ Club, Electrical, Brand Imaging and DClan Film Appreciation, New Music, Psychology, Parallel to Technology and Femina.
Some of the most famous names in history and present times have served as patrons to the Daly College...
The school is well recognised for its high sports standard especially in Hockey, Football, Squash, Basketball and Shooting. Approximately 150 girls and boys participate each year at the national level and close to 10 at the international level. In the last twelve months, two girl students and a boy student have shot for India while one girl student of the DC played Tennis and is in the Top Hundred in the World in U 18. At the same time, two girl students and a boy student have represented India in Football and one girl in Indoor Hockey. One of our girl students is participating at the international level in Horse Riding, Show Jumping. In the Equestrian Premier League in her second league, she finished with a silver medal.
The school is thus well known and enjoys a brilliant reputation for being home to some budding sports talents.
As far as the facilities are concerned, there is a tennis academy which utilises four of the nine courts. There are eight squash courts, nine basketball courts, two volleyball, badminton and table tennis courts, a skating rink, a gymnasium and a chess hall. The two cricket grounds are of Ranji Trophy standard. That said, there are two soccer pitches, two hockey pitches, an athletic complex with a 400m track, cross country, three swimming pools including a 50m pool, a 25 lane indoor shooting range, an outdoor shooting range and an obstacle course. There are a total of seven sports pavilions. The oldest Pavilion is the Scindia Cricket Pavilion built in 1910 and described by the sports correspondent of the London Times as the best in India during the MCC tour of 1933.
The Bolia Fund and the Vikram-Rajadhyaksh Fund sponsor overseas coaches. The Central India squash is held regularly at DC and the school hosts a tennis academy. Other games include football, volleyball, table tennis, karate, aerobics, gymnastics, skating, athletics, swimming, water polo and shooting. There are 49 physical training coaches assisting the students in various disciplines.
Girls are emerging with strong teams in the sports of cricket, hockey, squash, basketball, athletics, swimming, football and shooting. Yoga is also offered. There are 40 Physical Training teachers and coaches assisting the students in various disciplines.
There are excellent facilities for Obstacle Course in shape of wall climbing, rope obstacle and walking on the wooden bars.
“There is a temple and a mosque in the premises, but attendance is voluntary and open to all communities. The Daly College believes in absolute Secularism and respects all religions. Temple means ‘House of Gods’, as the name suggests, it is the place of silence, meditation, etc. The temple of Daly College was built in the Malwa style”
As mentioned before, the Scindia Cricket Pavilion is the oldest one at the DC, founded in 1910. There is an ongoing Quarterly Programme to maintain the Scindia Cricket Pavilion and to keep the ground in good shape. It involves refurbishing, repairing of the pavilion as well as watering and rolling of the pitch and the ground. A total renovation on plan is also on the anvil.
Community Service programs are being offered to the students generously:
“Our student club ‘Bridging the Gap’ has done good work in the home for the hearing impaired and also in an orphanage and have provided drinking water facility for the visually handicapped. The students also donated to the unfortunate in Uttarkashi and have selected recipient schools in Indore for 152 chairs and 162 tables”
The club basically aims at bridging the gap between two stakeholders.
For example, students visited the City Prison and talked to prisoners and their problems, just to empathise with them. They also visited old age homes and came back with more sensitivity and emotions.
One of our student clubs ‘Bridging the Gap’ has done good work in the home for the hearing impaired and also in an orphanage and have provided drinking water facility for the visually handicapped. The students also donated to the unfortunate in Uttarkashi and have selected recipient schools in Indore for 152 chairs and 162 tables. Our students have painted the classroom walls of school for the hearing impaired.
Making children aware of social responsibilities and sensitising them to their environment are important priorities. A Nature Club and Green Club, both primarily student-driven bodies, organise a number of activities during the year including awareness drives, voluntary work and fundraising. The Daly College has built the Mukesh Jhaveri Green Centre in the school which is committed to environment protection and sensitising the community to the need of sustainable future, aiming to conduct eco-friendly processes in every way including organic farming, paper recycling, etc. DC is also a natural habitat for Peacocks. Karuna International, Chennai conferred DC as the Natural National Bird Sanctuary Institute of India in 2012.
Yes, there is a temple and a mosque in the premises but attendance is voluntary and open to all communities. The Daly College believes in absolute Secularism and respects all religions. Temple means ‘House of Gods’, as the name suggests, it is the place of silence, meditation, etc. The temple of Daly College was built in the Malwa style. The temple is open every day in the morning as well as in the evening. On festivals and special occasions, functions are organised in the temple.
Muslim students and teachers come to the mosque to perform the holy prayers on a daily basis. On every Friday, almost the entire Muslim community of the campus assembles at the mosque to offer special prayers.
The Daly College takes pride in and understand the importance of making students understand the importance of all religions and be tolerant towards them.
A state of art hobby centre (CTDC) caters to the creative talent of the students. It has facilities for Fine Arts, Sculpture, Pottery, Ceramics, Graphics, Woodcraft, Electronics, Photography, Bamboo Craft, Needlework amongst still arts and Music, Band, Dance and Dramatics in performing arts.
The Dalians have been winning prizes in Performing Arts in IPSC competitions. They have been champions in dances like: Choreography, Folk Dance and Western Dance Competitions as well as Classical Dance. They were the winners of a Festival in Dance—UDB HAV. It is an International dance festival organised by Udbhav Sports and Cultural Association, Gwalior. The competition has participants from India and foreign countries.
DC stood first in national category and was selected for Shanghai Tourism Festival to China where Dalians gave a spectacular performance and stole the show!
The Daly College was placed 1st in 16 out of a total of 42 events at the IPSC all India Cultural Festival, with 780 students participating from 23 schools
The first ranks were obtained in Indian Orchestra, Western Orchestra, Classical Vocal Solo, Classical Solo Dance, English Skit, Choreography, and other competitions.
The Durbar Hall possesses the valuable portraits of all the original chief patrons of DC. It also houses the relics of the former kingdoms of Jhabuas and the Marathas as well as some original trophies donated by eminent personalities and units are kept there. It is also used for important meetings and for receiving dignitaries visiting the institution.
Career counselling is the answer to that question. The career counselling cell arranges talks by eminent subject experts and counsellors, primarily for classes IX-XII . Seminars are organised with follow-up programmes. Aptitude testing is also offered and students are familiarised with opportunities for higher studies in a fast-changing world.
The alumni of the Daly College hold prestigious posts in various fields around not just the country, but also across the globe. Here are some names that have put Daly College on the world map...
USA is the most popular destination. Students go to study Engineering, Business Management, Economics, Design and Fashion. They are studying in some of the topmost universities like, UC Berkeley, University of Massachusetts Amherst, UCLA , Cornell, University of Washington, University of Michigan, University of Southern California and many more. In UK, they are in London School of Economics, University of Arts London, UCL, Westminster and others. LaSalle and NUS in Singapore, Monash in Australia and University of Waterloo, McGill and UBC in Canada.
Daly College is also a centre for conducting Cambridge lnternational Examination (CIE) since 2010 and a section of students switch over to this system from class Vl. CIE programmes and qualifications at The Daly College lead seamlessly from grade VI to grade XII. It provides globally recognised qualifications including Cambridge IGCSE and Cambridge International AS and A level that opens doors for learners.
The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) is our regular Board. There are four streams: Medical, Engineering, Commerce and Humanities. Majority of the students opt for Commerce. Next is Science, followed by Humanities and Medicine. As per the CIE, the students are not bound to follow the stream. They can take up subjects of their choice which they have an interest in.
Old Dalians' Association (ODA ) is the alumni association of The Daly College (DC), Indore. DC is one of the most coveted public schools of India, having a great history of its own. The ODA is a devotedly active organisation with an objective of helping each of its members through networking and to make a contribution to their alma mater's betterment. It has strength of over 4,100 members across the globe, which includes professionals, businesspersons, industrialists, sports-persons, artists, politicians, social workers, etc. from the most elite strata of the society. Each year, at least, a hundred members are added to the ODA fraternity as they pass out from DC after their Class XII examinations.
In the CBSE Class XII exams, an average of seven students with 84 per cent are awarded CBSE Merit Certificates. Besides, 100 per cent marks in Economics, Maths and Fine Arts is a rare academic feat achieved by the Daly College. Besides, 25 CBSE Class X students were awarded with Merit Certificates for securing an outstanding 10 CGPA. DC is known for producing excellent CIE-IGCSE results. In fact, the school has even produced one national subject topper. Excellent AS and A level results is our forte. The list does not stop here either. Our students have been world toppers in various subjects as History. There has been a world topper from our school in ICT. And in subjects such as Mathematics, English, Geography and ICT, DC has produced country topper.
Around 70 per cent of the students are inducted from Indore whereas the remaining 30 per cent are from outside of Indore including some of them from the Gulf, Poland, Singapore etc. Within India, students are primarily from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kanpur, and many more Indian states.
Daly College has evolved as a popular, strong and happening co-ed public school. Its emphasis is on internationalism. Its enviable infrastructure of sports and other facilities and its uncanny ability to mingle modernism with traditions make it a unique institution in the world.
The Daly College aspires to foster a democratic environment that encourages lifelong participation in the acquisition of knowledge and is supportive, innovative and demanding of excellence, combining the best of traditions with modernity. The ambition is to develop well-rounded, independent thinking and confident individuals with leadership and communication skills who are socially, emotionally and spiritually secure.
And finally, this will help us to create global citizens with strong, values, who are environmentally and socially conscious and who have the ability to constantly drive and benefit from change. The school's motto- "Gyanamev Shakti" or "Knowledge is power"-sums up the schools philosophy extremely well.
My achievement has primarily been as an English teacher to the students. I would say that I have been able to achieve a lot in the classroom. Here, I would add kids have been working very hard with me over the last three decades. Consequently, the results have been highly satisfying.
I take pride in sharing that I have been very successful as a house master because kids keep coming back to me even now when they are married and have their own kids studying at the Daly! But what is the most special about my association with the Daly is forming a precious bond with my students and nurturing a relationship based on mutual love and respect.
More recently, I have been able to achieve very good results in the cultural sphere. In 2003, the Daly College began participating in the national cultural festival and there has been no looking back ever since! However, pre-2003, we had never really discovered this amazing facet of ourselves. Once we did, we realised that we are an exceptionally strong co-ed school wherein the boys as well as girls get together on the stage to achieve together handsomely. In the last 13 to 14 years, we have only grown from strength to strength in the arena of the visual or performing arts. The Daly College has been performing outstandingly to say the least and I feel joyous and content to have been a part of this school as the Vice Principal and the officiating Principal (until April 1, 2017). Until last year, I was the Dean of the cultural affairs in the Daly College.
“In the CBSE Class XII exams, an average of seven students with 84 per cent are awarded CBSE Merit Certificates. Besides, 100 per cent marks in Economics, Maths and Fine Arts is a rare academic feat achieved by the Daly College. Besides, 25 CBSE Class X students were awarded with Merit Certificates for securing an outstanding 10 CGPA ”
One of my favourite hobbies is writing. I am extremely fond of reading too. I also enjoy listening to good music. I love playing the sport of cricket. I have coached the school cricket team for as many as 10 years.
My message to the students of the Daly College is this—“Work hard with determination, observe the quality of time management and believe me, tomorrow is yours!”
By Namrata Gulati Sapra
