The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a boys-only independent boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. Founded in 1935 by Satish Ranjan Das, a Kolkata lawyer, the school is relatively new among Indian boarding schools. Although Das died before the school could open, he is credited as the institution's founder because of his "assiduous lobbying" for the school's founding in the 1920s. He prevised a school modelled on the British public school, but alive to Indian ambitions and desires. The school's first headmaster was an Englishman, Arthur E. Foot, who had spent nine years as a science master at Eton College, England before coming to Doon, and returned to England right after India's independence. The present headmaster is Peter McLaughlin, who has occupied the post since 2009 and is the ninth headmaster of the school.
The school houses roughly 500 pupils aged 13 to 18. Admission to the school is based on a competitive entrance examination and an interview. Every year in January and April, the school admits pupils aged 13 in Grade 7 (known as D-form) and aged 14 in Grade 8 (C-form) respectively. Doon pupils take the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education in tenth grade and are thereafter offered two strands for the final two years: International Baccalaureate (IB) or Indian School Certificate (ISC). The school began offering the IB curriculum only in 2006, before which all pupils had to sit the ISC examinations in twelfth grade. A quarter of the school's pupils are children of alumni.
Doon has consistently been ranked among the best residential schools of India by media such as The Times of India and Outlook. Doon remains a boys-only school despite continued pressure from political leaders, including President Pratibha Patil, to become coeducational. Old boys of the school are commonly known as Doscos. Although the total number of Doscos is relatively small (estimated at 5,000 since the school's founding), they include some of India's most prominent politicians, government officials and business leaders. The best known alumnus is former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Read more about The Doon School: Campus, Academic Life, School Songs, Public Image
Famous quotes containing the words doon and/or school:
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