Druk Padma Karpo School in Ladakh, popularly known as “Rancho’s school,” may receive the long-awaited CBSE affiliation this year after receiving clearance from the Jammu and Kashmir board after a long delay.
Schools must obtain a No Objection Certificate’ from the respective state board in order to be affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The foreign schools require a similar docu ment from the concerned Embassy or Consulate of India in the concerned country. The school which shot to fame after it fea tured in the Aamir Khan starrer movie “3 Idiots” in 2009, is presently affiliated to Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE).
“We have been trying to get our school affiliated to the CBSE for many years, school principal Mingur Agmo said.
“Though we have all the required infrastructure in place. excellent result record, and focus on innovative ways of teaching and learning, we didn’t get the NOC from JKBOSE despite several attempts all these years,” she said.
“Finally, the document has been received this month and we will complete rest of the process for affiliation soon. We are hoping that we will get the affiliation this year and there will be no more hurdles,” she added.
The 21-year-old school is named after Mipham Pema Karpo (1527-1592), who is revered as a great scholar, while Padma Karpo means ‘White Lotus’ in Bothi, the local language.
The school’s building wall was featured in the Bollywood film’s closing scene, in which one of the characters, Chatur, tries to urinate but gets an electric shock when two kids throw a light bulb connected with wire from a first floor window at him. While the iconic idiotic wall’, which was part of a building that was damaged in the 2010 flash floods, remains on campus, the first floor, which was previously made of bricks, has been replaced with wooden structures typical of Ladakh.