Mahamaya Balika Inter College
C – 2, Chhalera Bangar, Sector 44, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India
http://www.mbicnoida.ac.in/
Mahamaya Balika Inter College, Lucknow — popularly known simply as “Mahamaya Girls’ Inter College” — is one of the oldest and most distinguished Government-aided K-12 girls’ schools in the Uttar Pradesh capital. Established in 1919 by nationalist philanthropist Rai Bahadur Lala Raghubar Dayal and named after the revered mother of Gautama Buddha, Queen Mahamaya, the institution was created to provide modern education to girls at a time when female literacy in North India was negligible. It was first affiliated to the Banaras Hindu University Board of High School and Intermediate Education and, after 1921, migrated smoothly to the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Uttar Pradesh). Today the school offers classes VI through XII under the UP Board scheme, with co-curricular streams of Science, Commerce and Humanities in the Intermediate section.
The campus occupies a compact but beautifully maintained 5.2-acre quadrangle in Aminabad, the old commercial heart of Lucknow. Red-brick, Indo-Saracenic arches, carved stone jaalis and a 95-year-old neem-lined central courtyard give the school a distinct pre-independence character, while the academic blocks with smart classrooms, well-equipped labs (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, Home Science and Fashion Designing) and an updated language lab provide contemporary resources. A fully automated E-library with RFID-enabled borrowing, two basketball courts and a 400-seat auditorium were added during the 2008 Centenary Modernisation Grant sanctioned by the state Minorities’ Welfare Department.
Mahamaya presently educates nearly 1,750 girls drawn largely from Old City Muslim, Kayasth and lower-middle-class families; 27 percent of seats in the entry year are reserved for minority children and an additional 15 percent for EWS applicants under the Right to Education Act. Admission to classes VI-X is done through an online lottery, while classes XI-XII admit strictly on past academic record, giving rise to fiercely competitive cut-offs (in 2023 the lowest acceptable percentage for PCM was 74). Fees are nominal — ₹275 per month for tuition in middle school and ₹425 in the +2 block — with subsidised midday meals, free textbooks and uniform schemes. All classes XI-XII students receive free digital tablets loaded with NCERT e-pathshala modules and SP-UP Bank accounts for direct DBT scholarships.
Academic results have remained consistently stellar within the UP Board framework: the 2024 intermediate examination saw 98.3 % overall pass, with 211 of 280 girls scoring above 80 %. Extracurricular life is equally vibrant. The school NCC Army Wing (1 Co Girls BN) has won the state directorate’s “Best Annual” trophy five years running; its debating team secured the CBSE Heritage India Quiz (Lucknow regional) in 2022; and the classical Kathak troupe “Nrityanjali” performs routinely at Ganj’s famous Buddha Purnima night vigils. Exchange visits with the Scottish Mission Girls’ School, Edinburgh, and short stints at IIT-Kanpur’s “Nurturing Scientific Temper at Girls’ Schools” programme give students an all-important global perspective.
- Published: August 17, 2025
