St Paul's School, Darjeeling
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St. Paul's School (also known as 'The Eton of India) is one of the country's oldest and most pre-eminent public schools, known for its academic tradition and alumni. It is located in the town of Darjeeling, which is situated in the far northern portion of the state of West Bengal in India. Located at about 7500 feet above sea level, its altitude makes it the highest public school in the world. The school is run by the Church of North India, an Anglican church organization, and is led by a Rector, who functions as a school principal and resides on campus in an impressive Rectory.
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[edit] History
In the year 1823, John William Ricketts, a prominent Anglo-Indian leader from Calcutta conceived the idea of a school to meet the education needs of the growing British and Anglo-Indian community in Calcutta. On May 1, 1823, "The Parental Academic Institution" was established on Park Street in central Calcutta.
In 1846, the school was renamed St. Paul's School by Bishop Wilson, who had associated the school to St.Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta. During 1863, the school was in difficulties and after an investigation, Bishop Cotton decided buildings were not the location of the initial school and were later additions as the school expanded.
In the year 1864, the School was finally moved to Jalapahar "Burnt Mountain" in Darjeeling with 31 borders and a few day scholars. The first building does not exist today.
A number of its students fought for the British in both World War I and World War II, and later on for India in her wars. Many of those who perished are remembered in plaques that can be found in the school chapel.
[edit] Location
The school in situated in Darjeeling and shares Jalapahar estate with an Indian Army Cantonment. It is claimed to be the highest public school in the world, located at 7500 feet above sea level. The famous Kanchenjunga mountain range forms the scenic backdrop to the school. The school is physically separated from Darjeeling by its location on a high hill that is a few kilometres above the main town. Large expanses of wild land and greenery surrounds the campus, affording the campus a feeling of isolation and spectacular views of the town, the high foothills and snowy peaks of the Himalayas. Many believe the school's tennis court is the highest in the world.
[edit] System
The school much with each other in daily activities. Primary Wing is somewhat physically isolated from the rest of the school, located far down the hill from the other two wings, and has its own kitchen and dining hall. The Junior and Senior Wings share the same kitchen and dining hall, but have meals at different times, with Junior Wing having meals earlier than Senior Wing. Typically, students from the same house sit together at meals.
[edit] Culture
Current students are referred to as Paulites; alumni as Old Paulites. The environment the children grow up in is strictly controlled, and interaction with the outside is limited to exeats (permits for town leaves) twice a month. A limited amount of pocket money is allowed. The school lays great emphasis and pride in the uniform worn by its students--on visits outside of the school campus, all students are required to dress in prescribed suits and carry umbrellas.
The student government consists of staff-appointed prefects, headed by a school captain, who is assisted by house captains and prefects, who are typically drawn from Class 12 in Senior Wing. These prefects have considerable discretion in imposing order among the student body. Junior and Primary Wings have their own system of prefects and monitors. Great emphasis is laid on seniority and respect for seniors. Traditionally, the sixth form or Class 12 students enjoy a number of advantages over the rest of the students.
All students must take part in sporting activities organized by the school, which are seasonal. The major sports are football (soccer), cricket, basketball, hockey, marathon, athletics, volleyball, squash and Eton Fives. Besides this, the school has active extracurricular programmes in drama, music, elocution and debating. The school publishes a fortnightly student-run magazine called The Paulite and an annual St. Paul's School Chronicle; besides this, a Kolkata-based Old Paulites Association publishes a magazine for school alumni.
Blackies is the school tuck shop which got its name from the fact that it was run by Indians when the student population was primarily non-Indian. There is no historical certainty about this and the name has been used for very many decades with great affection for the facility.
[edit] Alumni
The Old Paulites Association is a large community spread out all across the world, holding regular meetings in India, the United Kingdom and North America. It has an active Internet presence at website for Old Paulites. The Old Paulite Asscoiation (Europe) publishes and circulates a twice yearly Newsletter. There have been many famous Paulites over the years, and naming a few would not do the others justice. But among others, AR Shamsud Doha was Bangladesh's foreign minister in the 1980s, MK Chanrai founded Olam International (the world's largest supplier of cocoa, robusta coffee and several other farm products that is famous in Asia and Africa for its pioneering techniques of supply-chain management), Ammar Siamwalla heads the Thailand Development Research Institute (and is a former minister in Thailand), Rehman Sobhan played a key role in the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 (becoming a member of its first Planning Commission) and now chairs the Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, Gen DK Palit has been one of India's leading strategic thinkers, Vivek Arora is the IMF's representative in China, Indermit Gill and Ajay Chhibber are senior executives at the World Bank, Prasenjit Basu is Chief Economist at Khazanah Nasional (the Malaysian government's investment holding company), Abhijit Raha headed CLSA (then the #1-ranked equity-research and sales house in Asia) in Mumbai and Singapore, Peter Hildreth was the UK's national track and field coach, Debasish Sanyal was CEO of AirBP (the aviation-oil wing of British Petroleum) and Zarir Cama is CEO of HSBC-Malaysia (having previously been head of HSBC India). Dr. Rustum Roy is a founder of the inter-disciplinary field of Materials Science (the Materials Science lab that he headed at Pennsylvania State University for three decades was named the world's #1 Materials Science lab by ISI); Dr. Roy also served on the Pope's Nova Spes committee on Science and Religion, and his scientic achievements led to him being conferred the Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays by the Emperor of Japan.
[edit] In Popular Culture
The school has been featured in a number of Bollywood and Bengali language films. Mera Naam Joker by Raj Kapoor, and the recent hit Main Hoon Na, featuring Shah Rukh Khan, are among them. One also gets to see the school in Do Anjaane starring Amitabh Bacchan and Rekha... Not to forget Bada Din starring Tara Deshpande and Marc Robinson.
The lovely Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind) is said to have been born in the school campus — at a place now known as Pelly's. Today, Pelly's houses staff members teaching at the school.
