Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Delhi

Sardar Patel Vidyalaya (SPV) is sited at Lodi estate in New Delhi. Promoted in 1957 by the Gujarat Education Society, it boasts an enrolment of 1,500 students from nursery to class XII and is affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), New Delhi.

The school is named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the leaders of the Indian independence movement and independent India’s first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. The school is managed by a governing body comprising the president and the secretary of the Gujarat Education Society as well as the principal and manager of the school. It boasts faculty strength of 200.

SPV is affiliated with CBSE and follows a bilingual medium of instruction. It is the only private school in India that uses Hindi as the medium of instruction at the primary level. English is the medium of instruction from class VI onwards and Hindi and Sanskrit are mandatory till class VIII. In class IX, students can choose between Hindi and Sanskrit. Students of class VI and VII has are offered a choice of four regional languages – Tamil, Gujarati, Urdu and Bengali – as the third language.

SPV has produced a number ofRhodes scholars. In 2006, for example, three of the five Indian Rhodes Scholars were alumni of SPV. In 2005, two of the six were SPV alumni.

SPV promotes sports such as athletics, shot put, javelin throw, discus throw, high jump, long jump and triple jump and encourages music, public speaking, art, chess, theatre, and clay modelling, crafts, cooking, computers, gardening, and painting, quiz and poetry appreciation.