140-year Bengaluru school revived with new infra, curriculum

Once neglected and nearly defunct, a 140-year-old government school on Thimmaiah Road in Shivajinagar has been revived through a public-private partnership.

A newly constructed building with eight classrooms was inaugurated on Wednesday. It houses separate classrooms for English-medium lessons. The curriculum and teachers are being provided by a private school. The government will continue to run the original Tamil-medium section. 

The school is now called the Government English and Tamil Medium Higher Primary School. Admissions remain free.

The main building had fallen into disrepair after heavy rains in 2020. The school was functioning with just two teachers and a handful of students. Its campus was strewn with liquor bottles, cigarette butts and plastic waste.

Classes for Standards 1 and 2 have commenced in the new block. It has also seen enrolments from 30 new students, mostly children of construction workers and domestic workers.

The oldest available record in the school’s office talks of its heyday. It is a 1933 letter from G H Cooke, then inspector of schools for Coorg and Bangalore, praising an ‘educational exhibition’ hosted by the school.

The new infrastructure was funded through MLA Rizwan Arshad’s constituency development funds. Inventure Academy has adopted the institution. With its funds and CSR backing from the Prestige Group, it will provide teachers and curriculum support for the English section, and co-curricular activities for all students.

The Academy hopes to replicate the transformation it achieved at the Government Higher Primary School in Ramagondanahalli, where enrolment has increased from 170 to 1,100 since 2019.

Nooraine Fazal, co-founder and managing trustee of the Academy, said they were shown five schools in the area, but chose this one majorly for its spacious playground as sport is a major focus area for student development.