CIDER International School, a campus for extensive education

G.C. Tripathi, Principal of CIDER International School.

CIDER International School came into being in 1997 through a group of visionary entrepreneurs. CIDER, which stands for Chittagong Institute for Development of Education and Research, is one of the most prestigious English medium schools in Bangladesh. CIDER administers its academic endeavours at a 4-acre campus that includes extensively expansive playgrounds in the lap of natural splendour. The school is co-educational with more than 1,000 students enrolled in the Junior School (nursery to class 5, inquiry-based learning system), Cambridge (class 6 to A-Level), and National Curriculum (class 6 to 10) programmes.

Curriculum

CIDER offers two streams of education, namely CAIE and N.C. CAIE stands for Cambridge Assessment International Education while N.C. refers to the National Curriculum.

Learning facilities

The School fosters the nation's rich cultural heritage and attempts to imbibe a sense of nationality and patriotism in students. The learning facilities at CIDER have been devised in keeping with international standards. We offer subjects in two streams, where a prospective student can major in Science or Business.

The school's goal is to instil in students a passion for learning and a desire to excel at every level to become accomplished citizens of a highly competitive world and meet inevitable challenges in the future.

Embracing a comprehensive and holistic education, the school assimilates social and moral values with a broad and balanced curriculum to promote critical thinking and lifelong learning that steer to developing sensible, adaptable, and integrated personalities. Pursuing a practical and interactive approach with the latest technologies encourages students to be rigorous in their work habits and take responsibility for their learning.

The school incorporates an academic curriculum based on the courses followed in the UK and Bangladesh to provide a continuous period of all-round education, from primary level up to university entrance, and pursues a wide range of co-curricular activities with a particular focus on music, dance, drama, debate and a wide range of sports as well.

The school nurtures the development of individuality and freedom of thought in students while simultaneously encouraging self-discipline and mutual respect for the opinions and values of others, and provides an environment in which discipline is firm without being repressive and where the school and parents work closely together.

QUALITY OF TEACHERS

In reality, the global learning problem is a teaching issue. The most crucial factor in enhancing student learning outcomes is teacher quality. CIDER boasts a rich faculty of highly experienced teachers. It never compromises in terms of quality while appointing faculty members so that the students get the best available.

We emphasise identifying, educating, and mentoring the most potential teachers for positions as teacher trainers, educators, and supervisors. We have teachers with extensive teaching experience, in-depth topic knowledge and, command and comprehension of excellent pedagogical approaches.

We also ensure that the most outstanding teachers are selected, trained, and deployed to the most critical places. We examined policies and incentives to support career trajectories and teacher professional development programs. These are expressed in a framework that defines the regulations, structure, and resources needed to be a successful teacher. Our teachers are kind, approachable, energetic, and caring, making themselves available to students and parents in need. They participate in school-wide committees and events, and show a dedication to the school.

The effective and stable hierarchical vigilance has ensured the smooth execution of academic works in CIDER, which recently commemorated its 25th year of operations.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

CIDER runs many extra-curricular activities intending to transform its students into worldly-wise citizens of the country. The extracurricular activities have been assigned to every department. Every department has to conduct a certain number of activities around the session. Some are spelling-bee competitions, intra-school English debates, inter-school English and Bangla Debates, English and Bangla essay writing competitions, and poetry recitation competitions.

Akin to these, all other departments organise Olympiads and department-wise fortnights. The sports department also organises inter-school football, cricket, and table tennis championships for the junior and senior sections.

Our Junior School remains vibrant and lively as it organises different activities and celebrations all year round, namely the spelling bee competition, storytelling competition, Science Fair, Good Touch-Bad Touch Session, parent's phonics workshop, Road Safety Week, World Poetry Day, Music Fest and much more.

MEASURES ARE TAKEN TO MAKE EDUCATION INCLUSIVE

CIDER management promotes philanthropy in its approach. Right from its inception, it has been functioning as a trust. Hence, unlike other institutions, it is not driven by monetary gains. There is the scope of availing scholarships for meritorious or financially handicapped students. In case of sudden financial problems, CIDER waives as much of the fees as possible. During the global pandemic, there were innumerable instances of CIDER waiving the entire session fee for its students. Students with learning disabilities are treated with great compassion by teachers, and a tailor-made syllabus is prepared for them as required from time to time.

The motto of CIDER is to equip its students with all the required skills to face the challenges of the 21st century and to inculcate leadership qualities in them so that they can transform this verdant deltaic plain into "Sonar Bangla" as envisioned by our Father of the Nation.

Principal speaks:

At CIDER, we tend to go to every extent to achieve holistic development of our children, where we guide students to develop competencies, acquire knowledge and virtues and provide services. We are on a path of building an ideal structure for education, which would prove best for our future generations. We aim to work harmoniously to unleash the inherent intellectual, social and emotional capacities of all students who pass through the gates of this institution as we strongly believe in the 'Vision with a Dream' concept.