Adamjee Cantonment Public School & College

Coordinates: 23°28′20″N 90°14′01″E / 23.472314°N 90.233575°E / 23.472314; 90.233575

Adamjee Cantonment Public School & College (Bengali: আদমজী ক্যান্টনমেন্ট পাবলিক স্কুল ও কলেজ) is a Bangladeshi all-boys public school located in Dhaka Cantonment, Bangladesh, primarily for the primary, lower-secondary, secondary and higher secondary level education for the children of Army personnel stationed in Dhaka Cantonment.It was ranked 7 in all primary school of Bangladesh. Some pupils come from the civilian sector. The institution is under the supervision of the Director of Bangladesh Army Education Corps.

The school section (Elementary to Junior High) enrols boys only. There is another institution named Shaheed Bir Uttam Lt. Anwar Girls School & College for girls. Adamjee College (Senior High 11-12 grade and higher) enrols both boys and girls. The institution also offers some post higher-secondary level degrees.In 2014 HSC Exam Adamjee cantonment college became third all over Bangladesh.

Campus location

The campus is located in the heart of Dhaka Cantonment, adjacent to the office of Dhaka Cantonment Board. In addition to that, the residence of Chief of Air Force is across the street from the campus main gate.

History

Alhaj Gul Muhammad Adamjee, Managing Director of Mehern Jute Mills Limited at Karachi, Pakistan established Adamjee Cantonment School in early 1960. Begum Gul Muhammad Adamjee laid down the foundation stone in January 1958. The main building was completed in January 1960.

The then President of Pakistan Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan wanted to establish an institution which led to the birth of Adamjee Cantonment School. The institution was later renamed as Adamjee Cantonment College. At present it is named as Adamjee Cantonment Public School. The school and the college were in the same building until 1985. Now the school and college are separate entities and are situated within the same campus but in different buildings.The school was one of the most modern school in that time.

The principal is the head of the school administrative body. Historically, the principals were Lt. Colonel level military officers from the Army Education Corp. However, many civilians have served as principals as well. Among the first Principals were G.A. Dolman, J.E.M. Thornhill, Maj. Mahbub Ali and S.A. Alavi.

The original building of the school is now where the 'Adamjee Cantonment College' stands. The school was separated in 1995 and was made totally an independent institution.The school has two buildings.One for the Bengali version,one for the English version.The school provides good quality and well education.The teachers are very well trained. They help the students cheerfully to read and write.They make them ready to face the world and creates a pillar of success that will help them for the rest of their lives.

A few interesting tidbits from the history of ACPS:

The initial set up of classes was based on the British Public School system and named Form-I though Form-V (corresponding to Class-6 through Class-10) and there was also the college section with Intermediate 1st and 2nd years. After the first few years, the reference to “Form” was dropped and the classes were renamed as Class-6 to 10. Although some of the newer English medium schools referred to their classes as “Standard” to differentiate them from the Bengali medium schools, ACPS called its classes as “Class” at that time. Then Class-5 was added to accommodate the direct entry of boys who came in from the sister-school next door - Cantonment Modern School.

Public transport to the Cantonment area was sparse so the school had three buses (A, B, C) that picked up students from all parts of the city.

During 1964, due to space constraints, Class-6 and 7 were conducted in a rented space near to the Broadway shopping complex. After morning assembly, these students were shuttled to this off-site campus and then back and forth for lunch and at the end of the day. Sometimes the boys would walk back to the main campus after classes – but this practice was discouraged.

Mr. J.E.M. Thornhill started remedial evening sessions (around 4-6 PM) for English grammar, Math, sports, etc. on a couple of days per week for which the buses would have an additional run to pick and drop back students.

Although the students were geared towards the SSC system under the East Pakistan Board of Secondary and Intermediate Education and not the British GCE O-Levels, the textbooks included a hefty infusion of British texts (Science, English and Geography) and Indian texts (Arithmetic and Algebra) since English versions of all SSC books were not available.

In the late 60’s, ACPS was selected by the British Council to be augmented with British teachers who came to serve under an arrangement with the Commonwealth overseas program. Two teachers Mr. S.M. Jessel (Science) and Mr. J.A.K. Wilson (English) taught for some time.

Extra-curricular Activities

Students of the school take part in various activities. Such as debate, sports, quizzes, religious activities, annual cultural programmes etc.

External links

• Ex-Students Association of Adamjee Cantonment School and College

References