MUNNAR GOVERNMENT HIGH SCHOOL

 

MUNNAR GOVERNMENT HIGH SCHOOL

Munnar was built by the British. Enamoured by the landscape and the salubrious climate that was the equivalent of their own England, they chose to build their enclave in Munnar and the surrounding hills. The land had belonged to the Poonjar Royal family. It was mostly forests. The British managed to obtain the assignment of the land in their favour without much difficulty from the Royals of Poonjar.

The enterprising Britishers had finally zeroed in on Tea plantations after trying several options of agriculture. The forests were cleared and Tea was planted in more than twenty estates with the help of Tamil labourers sourced from the Madras Presidency and Nagercoil and Tirunelveli areas of Travancore. Efficient in management, the British had a three tier arrangement. While the labourers, who had no education slogged in the fields and the factories, were at the bottom of the pyramid, Malayali and Tamilian staff with formal education were recruited to manage them constituting the middle of the pyramid. The British, the owners of the plantation, were at the top of the pyramid. It was a closed society where the writ of the British ran large. They established the KDHP Co Ltd that owned the whole of Munnar and the surrounding areas.

As the community expanded, the British needed more workers. They felt if there was a school in the area they wouldnot have to go elswhere to chase workers.

Thus the KDHP owned private High School was established in Old Munnar  in a three storeyed building that had earlier functioned as a Tea Factory. The 1924 floods had forced the Britich to close down the factory and build a new factory a mile away. They had felt the old factory building was sufficient to house the school. They recruited teachers for the school who were extended all the benefits of the staff of the company. Everything went well. There was quality teaching.

However there was a Head Master at the school who had some grouse agains the management of the school. He encouraged the students to rise in revolt over some frivolous issues and fight the Europeans who had managed the School. One day the students squatted in front of the Head Quarters of the company and prevented the General manager of the company from entering the office. The General Manager, once he managed to evade the protestors and enter his office, thought enough was enough. He sold the School and its assets for one rupee to the State Government.

The Munnar Government High School was thus born. However the standard of the School went progressively down as the years went by. The teachers who became Government School teachers managed to return to the schools in their native places.

The outcome was, the School did not have sufficient number of teachers. When new recruits were posted at the School they never knew how to teach for one, and two, they used to avail leave and stay away for long periods. Naturally the students suffered. They did not know much. Results were always bad. First Classes were minimal.

It suited the Company well. All they needed were labourers without much education and SSLC passed with Typewriting and Stenography qualifications.

It was this School where all the children of the area could get into for their education because the alternatives were fifty or sixty miles away.

The school had a few good teachers who wanted their students to do well.

They were PT John Sir and KC John Sir for Malayalam, CCChandy Sir for English, Bhaskaran Nair Sir for Hindi, Nandakumaran Sir for Maths, Alykutty Teacher and KJ Thomas Sir for Biology.

It was a Co-ed Mixed School. The School had Malayalam and Tamil Medium segments. The Tamil students comprised the majority. When the SSLC results were declared year after year the pass percentage of the Tamil students was abysmally low. It was a little better in the Malayam segment. First Classses were rare in both Malayalam and Tamil segments.

Situated far off from the main centres of the state the students passing out of the school were a pitiful match for their classmates in the colleges that were far away from Munnar. They did not know much as they were oriented inadequately. Naturally not many rose up in life.

This brief note has been compiled referring to the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

The Old Tea Factory had been declared unsafe in the 1960s. It was later pulled down. Like all the buildings the Britishers had built that were demolished subsequently, the talk of the town had been that the demolishing contractor had netted a tidy sum selling the broken down pieces of the building.

There had been acute space constraint in holding classes at that time.

The British were quite smart. They had never sent their children to the School they had established. Their children were sent to premier boarding Schools at Ooty, Kodaikanal or elsewhere at the expenses of the Company. When Indians gradually  replaced the British at the top, their children too were extended all the facilities the British enjoyed enabling them to have an edge over their compatriots.