The year-long centenary celebrations of a school at Mahe that carries the legacy of the French colonial rule of the erstwhile French enclave will be an occasion for showcasing the cultural and literary heritage of the place.
Among the prominent personalities who had studied at the Jawaharlal Nehru Government Higher Secondary School at Mahe is writer M. Mukundan whose Mayyazhipuzhayude Theerangalil gives the history of Mahe as its backdrop. The late artist and Padma award recipient K.G. Subramanyan had also studied in the school.
Lit, art festivals
Among the programmes to celebrate the school’s centenary are a literary festival and an art festival in association with the Kerala Sahithya Akademi and Lalithakala Akademi respectively.
Mr. Mukundan, chairman of the centenary celebration committee, told a press conference here on Tuesday that the school, which had evolved from a local ‘pallikkoodam’ into a landmark educational institution at Mahe, inherited its legacy during the period of the French rule and after the liberation to be part of the Union.
The formal inauguration of the centenary celebrations being organised under the aegis of the school’s alumni, parent-teacher association, and the public would be inaugurated by Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi at Mahe at 3 p.m. on November 11, he said.
The journey
The ‘pallikkoodam’ had been bought by a German missionary and in 1916 it was developed into a middle school. During World War 1, the French rulers had taken over the school and named it Ecole Angalaise (English school). Later the institution had functioned as part of a college in Puducherry and had been raised into a high school in 1929.
In the course of time, the school was rechristened Mahe de la Bourdonnais college.
After the liberation of Mahe from the French rule, the school had been renamed Jawaharlal Nehru High School, and later Jawaharlal Nehru Government Higher Secondary School under the Puducherry Education Department. Examinations here are held under the Kerala SSLC and Kerala Higher Secondary Board.
School Principal T. Suresh Babu, P.C.H. Sasidharan of the alumni association, Jose Basil D’Cruze of the PTA, and publicity convener Surjith Kumar were present at the press meet.
