New Era High School

The New Era High School (or NEHS) is located in Panchgani, a hill station town known as an educational centre, in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a private co-educational internationalist Bahá'í school, drawing students from all over the world and is under the supervision of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India.

It was founded in August 1945, and was one of the first Bahá'í education projects in India. In the 1970s and 1980s, the school setup programmes to assist the poor and underdeveloped villages in the region. It started as a service project for students and evolved into a separate institution known as the New Era Development Institute in 1987. The National Spiritual Assembly of Norway established an institution - Norwegian Agency for International Development Cooperation - and in 1988 it began a working relationship with the institute, with support for a two-year rural community development program. In 1989, funding was extended to cover a one-year community development facilitators course and short courses on agriculture, rural technology, literacy, and domestic science.

NEHS is one of the top boarding schools in India. It did have a higher secondary school(11th-12th) till 1999, but discontinued it from 2000. Class 11th and 12th have been reintroduced from 2010 and the school offers Science and Commerce fields. The shooting of the film "Taare Zameen Par" took place here. The school played host to "Amul Junior MasterChef Swaad ke Ustaad" (a cooking reality show) where the contestants prepared food for the students of the school. The show was aired on Star Plus on October 26, 2013. Prominent students include Twinkle and Rinke Khanna - daughters of the Indian actress Dimple.

The principal Dr. Mehrassa supervises the school from Canada, Mr. Kalmadi is the acting principal. The school regularly reaches district level in sports such as football, basketball and cricket.

The present site was moved into in 1953 and consisted of five buildings. A play field and several added dormitories in 1980s gave the school the room to add over 500 students bringing the total student population to over 1000. In the 1990s the campus went through massive infrastructure growth and renovation - gaining its own power plant, campus fencing, intercom system, phone system for students, parents and staff, three wells, solar heating for the dining hall and a large garden. Computers handle student records, accounts, maintenance, personnel, and other administrative areas as well as facilitating student-parent communication.

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