Hindu School is a school in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. It is located on College Street, in the vicinity of Hare School, College Square, Presidency College and Calcutta University.
Hindu College, the school's predecessor, was established in 1817 by Raja Rammohan Roy, David Hare, Radhakanta Deb and other educationists. In 1855, the pathsala part of Hindu College became Hindu School and the other part (mahapathshala) became Presidency College. The date of establishment of the Hindu College, 1817, is considered the establishment date of both Hindu school and Presidency College. The school is one of the oldest existing schools in Calcutta and India.
The school has grades 1 to 12 and the language of instruction is Bengali. Students appear for 10+(Madhyamik) examination under West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and 12+(Higher Secondary Examination) examination under West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. Grade 11 and 12 have three streams- science, arts and commerce. It is a boys-only school with a strength of 1100 students.
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Prior to the advent of the British in India, the primary schools of Bengal taught very little beyond Bangla, simple Arithmetic and Sanskrit. The tols (local small schools run by individuals) gave lessons in advanced Sanskrit, grammar and literature, theology, logic and metaphysics. This was not enough to satisfy the aspiration of Indians like Raja Rammohun Roy, who felt that the process would only 'load the minds of youths with grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions' without having any practical use. The necessity of learning English was also keenly felt by people who had to carry on a constant interaction with the British businessmen. A few schools were set up with the purpose of providing rudimentary education in the English language to native Indians. Hindu School was one of them.
Dewan Baidya Nath Mukherjee was deputed to collect the subscriptions for the new school. Sir Edward Hyde East, Chief Justice of the Calcutta Supreme Court was invited to chair the committee and Joseph Baretto became the Treasurer. The principal donors being the Maharajah of Burdwan (Tejchand Bahadur) and Gopee Mohun Thakur, each contributing Rupees 10,000.
On the opening day there were 20 pupils on the rolls but within the next three months the number swelled to 69. At a later date the pathshala was separated as Hindu School.