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History
of Hindu High School |
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Salaries of teachers:
Another interesting feature of those days was the scale of salaries
paid to teachers. The Headmaster, one Mr. Velliambala Upadyayar,
received a salary of Rs.10 a month. The English assistant Mr.T.ponuswami
as paid Rs.:1-8-0 a month. The other two assistants got Rs.
3 a month. As the boys, School grew in strength and popularity,
year by year, Mr. Newton, an Anglo Indian, was appointed Headmaster
in 1868; he was paid a monthly salary of Rs. 40 but he was succeeded
two months later by mr.Babu Mudaliar on a salary of Rs.25. The
pay of the staff in those days appears to us to have been incredibly
low, but a perusal of the Grant-in-Aid Code then in force shows
that it was in accordance with rates fixed by the Government.
Evidently the purchasing power of the rupee in those days was
much more than it is now.
M.A.Singarachariar
takes up the reins:
Towards the end of 1868 all was not well with the schools---
the Boys' School and Girls School. The strength of the Boys'
School fell to 48 and the schools were on the decline. It was
then that the Committee not only co-opted Mr. M.A.Singarachariar
but requested him to take the Secretaryship and Treasurership
of Both the schools. A new Committee with Sri M.A.Singarachariar,
Sri S.Kesavalu Naidu, Sri Parthasarathy Iyengar and Sri W.Seshachala
Naidu was constituted. The Boys' School then came to be called
"Triplicane Balura Patasala". The late hon'ble V.Rama Iyengar
was elected Patron of the schools. Besides the fall in strength
in the Boys' School, its finance showed a deficit of Rs.80,
The pay of the teachers fell into arrears and Mr.Singarachariar
discharged all the liabilities of the school out of his own
pocket and reimbursed himself subsequently as funds permitted
and kept the school going. The report of 1898 published elsewhere
gives in full stability of the school and its conditions a first
class High School are in no small measure due to the unwearied
efforts of Mr.Singarachariar as Secretary, Member and President
of the Committee of Management for over 38 years.
Opening of Matriculation classes:
The first efforts of Mr.Singarachariar were directed towards
improving instruction in English. This was in keeping with the
requirements of the time. Classes were opened up to the Matriculation
standard and in 1870 the first batch of students was sent up
for the public examination. This important event happened in
the second year of his secretaryship.
Change
in the name of the school:
In 1873, since English held a prominent place in the curriculum,
at the suggestion of the then Director of Public Instruction
the name of the schools was changed to "Triplicane Anglo-Vernacular
High School". Gentleman who were born in the last three decades
of the nineteenth century and those who had the privilege of
studying in the school then, know it by that name only. Even
today they fondly refer to the school as the "Triplicane Anglo-Vernacular
High School".
Location:
From the beginning the Tamil School was located in the Big Street
in a rented building. Even after amalgamation the school continued
to be there. From the time the school began to grow in strength,
it had to struggle for accommodation. That problem still persists,
while many other problems have been solved.
In 1876 there was not sufficient accommodation for the boys
and in consequence the Primary Department was removed to another
building.
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