GIF to open 100 campuses

Sets up second campus in Hyderabad

Global Indian Foundation (GIF), a Singapore-based non-profit foundation that operates a pan-Asian educational chain of 21 institutions, plans to open 100 Global Indian International School (GIIS) campuses in India – each entailing an investment of between Rs 25 crore and Rs 40 crore – over the next seven to eight years.

Launching GIF’s second campus – its eighth in the country – in Hyderabad on Sunday, GIF chairman Atul Temurnikar said the foundation currently had one GIIS at Trichy down south and was looking at opening campuses in Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Kurnool and Thiruvananthapuram over the next three years.

“All the eight schools that we have in the country are operated by GIF. We are now looking at the possibility of going in for the franchisee model for the new campuses,” he said.

The Hyderabad, which has come up on eight acre at Patancheru, will offer a choice of curricula including the Montessori programme, Central Board of Secondary Education and the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme.

Temurnikar said the school, which was scheduled to open its doors in the academic session starting June 2010, would initially provide classes from kindergarten to Grade 8 with a new grade added every subsequent academic year up to Grade 12.

“The first academic year will have a student intake of 400 and reach 3,000 over the next five years. Faculty strength will also touch 150 by then,” Temurnikar said, adding the average admission and tuition fee per year would be Rs 40,000 and Rs 52,000 respectively.