A school in Sion continues to uphold 67-year-old tradition of providing a safe space for students to study uninterrupted for their class 10 board examinations and never miss a day of the ‘shibir’
D S High School at Sion has upheld the tradition of the 10-day shibir for over 67 years. Pic/Aditi Alurkar
This Sion school would have made education reformists Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule swell with pride as educators continue to preserve the tradition of letting students due to appear in class 10 board examination come to study for 12 hours.
The 67-year tradition is held up by D S High School located in Sion where a ‘shibir’ or ‘study camp’ is held ahead of Maharashtra State Board Examinations. Here the students pay only Rs 400 for the textbook and if that is not possible, the school trust steps in and pays on the student’s behalf. This year the shibir is being conducted from December 30 to January 12.
The school is known to cater to Marathi speaking students with only Math and English being taught in a non-Marathi language.
The students in this school hail from areas such as Dharavi, Pratiksha Nagar, Chunabhatti, and Kurla, among other localities, where finding space to sit in a crammed house, without noise and interruptions is next to impossible.
The educators who have help preserve this tradition in a school located in the heart of the city
Kalpana Patil, the principal, explains that for 90 per cent of the students attending the Marathi or semi-English medium often find it difficult to concentrate in the cramped homes they reside in. One can gauge the lack of infrastructure back home from Patil’s remark: “They get the Sunday off so they can wash their uniforms.”
“When the whole family resides in a 10x10 room, the child may not get the right environment for board preparations. Sometimes it’s the familial environment, living conditions, or other responsibilities of the parents which may hamper the child’s readiness for this milestone exam. We want to help our children up until the last mile,” said Patil.
Which is why D S High School’s 10-day study camp, where students spend half of the day — a total of 12 hours — at school, has been a tradition closely guarded by each generation of educators and principals.
This year, the school hall is filled with the hum of morning prayers by 176 students at 7 am sharp. Soon after, an hour of revising the syllabus is ticked off as the first task of the day and then students attempt their first mock paper.
Shaurya Utekar and Siraj Mulani
A timeout from academics is introduced via breakfast and then, the drill repeats. Students end up attempting four exams of different subjects throughout the day and take quick breaks in between and refuel on food.
In order to ensure some other form of relief from the continuous study, students are asked to do a brief yoga session and a few eye exercises for visual reprieve.
Other than providing them a study discipline, the school is gently shepherding the students to perform under pressure. One of the ways the school does this is by making the students race against time. The student gets one-and-a-half hours to attempt an exam that is otherwise allotted three hours by the Maharashtra State Board. “This helps them improve their writing speed,” said Adesh Arun Patil, the teacher who is co-ordinating the camp this year. “We thoroughly correct two papers and share feedback on the other two. Even when students are attempting the exam in the open-book format, they are able to gauge their weak spots. Additionally we have separate sessions to resolve doubts if any,” he added.
The batch of 2026 then logs off from their 12-hour schedule with meditation and pasaydaan and heads back home at 7 pm.
Over these 10 days, the students end up attempting 36 question papers which are compiled in a textbook, four for each subject.
What might be perceived as gruelling has turned into a fun discipline that takes away the exam jitters from students. It doesn’t feel like a drill but serves as socialisation during one of the most tense and defining exams of a student’s life. Lunch boxes are shared in the school hall, with stolen moments for mischief, all while studying.
In a rare display of dedication that might be absent during a time where education has become synonymous with business, all 28 teachers at D S High School, who are responsible for students from Class 5 to Class 10, take turns manning the ‘shibir’. Everyone, including the principal, puts in nearly two extra hours during the camp.
When the shibir sees challenges — like it does during every civic election, when many educators are called upon for poll duties — parents come to the rescue and volunteer time and manpower.
But in the day of online classes, study music to help you concentrate and the Internet feeding into not just students but even the adults’ know-it-all syndrome, are students even interested in this shibir?
The answer is evident when students like Shaurya Utekar, who steps out with his father to distribute newspapers to doorsteps, rushes back to make it in time for the morning prayers. “I wake up at 5 am to help out my father,” said Utekar. “I distribute newspapers around our locality in Takiya Ward, Kurla, and show up at school by 7 am,” he added. The 16-year-old fell out of the habit of studying on his own after the lockdown and the camp has helped him get back in the zone.
Siraj Mulani, Shaurya’s friend, wakes up at 4 am too. But for wrestling practice, in order to achieve his dream of becoming a sportsman. Mulani is a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri Vyayamsahala near Matunga’s Z-bridge. “I practise kushti from 4.30 am to 6 am, have food, and show up for study camp. After returning by 8 pm, I practise again till 10 pm and fall asleep instantly,” he told Sunday mid-day.
The routine was tough at first, says Mulani, who now has got the hang of things.
The camp closes with a ceremony, where students are to share their feedback and pupils who worked the hardest get felicitated. The classroom doors will remain open for them until February 17, two days before the SSC board exams commence.
“What helps is that most of our teachers and trustees from Shiv Shikshan today are our alumni, which is why our Marathi school is given as much importance as the schools following other boards, languages,” Principal Patil added.
Parents Speak
Nisha Koli, Parent, Dharavi resident
‘Owing to the camp, my daughter has gotten better at writing and learning. She now feels more responsible about her academics. We’ll know the full effect of this activity once we get their papers back’
The tradition
Students at the shibir solving an exam paper on a timer
The Sion-based school has been running a study camp for Class 10 students for the past 67 years. Up until 1995, the camp was residential. Owing to preferences of parents and space crunches, students now only spend the daytime at school. While they bring their own tiffins for lunch, the school manages to get tea and pav for their other breaks on their own buck.
Ripple Effect
. After class 10, the school has also involved 44 students from Class 8 to prepare them for the scholarship exams.
. 40 students from Class 5 also attend the camp, but only for 7 hours.
Alumni Speak
‘I came from a modest household in Kurla. Money was always tight, and there were times when even basic necessities felt like luxuries. When competitive exam fees were due, my teachers would quietly pay them for me and my friends.
The education camp pushed us far beyond what we thought were our limits — not just academically, but mentally. The rigorous schedule, the focused environment, and the shared sense of purpose among students built a mental toughness that proved invaluable during the board exams. When exam day arrived, we weren’t nervous; we were prepared. The shibir had already tested us in ways that made the actual exams feel manageable. It gave us the confidence that comes from knowing you’ve put in the work.’
School alumnus, Rohit Mandage, who now resides in California
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