New Era Secondary School (NESS), previously known as After School, located in the Last School campus in Auroville, was started with the purpose of having a more integral program for village students and Tamil Aurovilians who wanted to study for their 9th to 12th grades, so being able to pass their National Certificate Examinations exams and being able to enter Indian universities and professional courses. In the past five years, the school’s student body has steadily increased from 62 students to 104 at present.

The school became affiliated with CBSE in 2008, one of the best educational programs available in India. The primary purpose for taking this direction was to offer to the students from Auroville, the surrounding villages, and outside, an Indian program giving them access to higher studies in the country. This program is particularly appropriate because the curriculum is activity based, child centred, and generally recognized by institutions of higher education in India and in many other countries.

The CBSE curriculum covers a variety of subjects and there are both the Humanities and a newly added Science Stream. The science stream has been included in order to cater to the strong desire from students in the region to pursue their further education in scientific fields. The school also provides a range of co-curricular activities such as computer science, sports, ecology programmes and educational field trips.

Sports are offered by the Auroville facility Dehashakti Sports, and a wide range of activities are offered, such as individual (athletics and gymnastics), aesthetic (gymnastics and acro-gymnastics), inter-individual (combative games) and collective activities (softball, basketball, volleyball, cricket and football).

Graduates from the school over the years are now playing a very significant role in many of the Auroville Working Groups and Units/Services as vital members of our community. NESS has always been committed to providing education to families in the region who are less fortunate financially and therefore makes a significant contribution in terms of local development.