Starting from five students and a Rs 300 loan, a Lucknow school has travelled a long way to become the school with the most number of pupils in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
The 57th and 2013 edition of the book says the City Montessori School (CMS) in Lucknow had a record enrolment of 39,437 pupils on Aug 9, 2010, for the 2010-11 academic year.u00a0School authorities said that the number of pupils now stood at 45,000-plus.
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The entry in the Guinness has enthused the students and staff. “We are very happy that not only our size but also our philosophy of world peace is being recognised at a global level,” said school founder Jagdish Gandhi.
The school was founded in 1959 by Jagdish Gandhi and his wife Bharti Gandhi in a rented premises with just five students. The school has also been awarded UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 2002, becoming the only school worldwide ever to receive this honour. u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0