Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School

Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School, (earlier called Government Model High School) is a school in Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram, India. The school is affiliated to the Kerala State Board of Education and is one of the oldest schools in Kerala.^[1]

History

Thiruvananthapuram Model School, one of the oldest schools in the city

In 1885, a normal school was started in Trivandrum by the government of Travancore for training male teachers. It was situated in the compound where St.Joseph's Higher Secondary school is at present. In 1903 it was shifted to Thycaud. The magnificent main building of the school, an example of European architecture, was built in 1910^[2] during the reign of Maharaja Sree Moolam Thirunal Ramavarma.^[3]

The institution flourished under the leadership of the first headmaster Dr. C F Clarke. He served in office for three years. He lived on the school campus; the house where he stayed remains as Clarke's Bungalow. One of the earliest headmasters of the training college was Shri. P.G. Sadasiva Iyer, who was an M.A. in Chemistry from the Madras Presidency college. The school was the city's first English, Malayalam, Tamil medium school.

The school today

The school has few students these days in the primary and secondary section, may be because of the proliferation of private schools with better teaching facilities. Model School has been neglected by the government with the result the infrastructure has become run down and competence of some teaching staff questionable. In fact the Government should have built on the already existing beautiful premises to make this a truly Model School in Kerala which it was years ago. Very recently some batches of the old students have taken the initiative to improve the infrastructure in the school like providing computers, cupboards etc. The 1964 SSLC batch recently renovated the Manual training building (the only one of its kind in Kerala) at a cost of ₹ 8 lakhs. Perhaps other batches too will pitch in to regain the lost glory of this wonderful school.

Higher secondary school

When the Kerala State Board of Education decided to move the two-year intermediate course (the course between high school and university) from colleges to schools in 1998, Model School was part of the program. As part of this change, the name of the school was changed to Government Model Higher Secondary School.

Notable alumni

• Preejith JP, Software Engineer, Famous International Gambler.
• Mohanlal, movie actor, producer, playback singer, Lieutenant Colonel
• Jiji Thomson, IAS
• Kris Gopalakrishnan, ex CEO, Infosys
• Nalini Netto, IAS
• M. Nandakumar IAS
• E. K. Bharat Bhushan, IAS
• Prof. Hariharan N., IIT Madras, Bombay alumnus
• Achuthsankar S. Nair, teacher, researcher, popular science writer
• A. Anandakrishnan, IPS, ADGP, Kerala
• Sivasankar, IAS, government secretary
• Soorya Krishnamoorthy
• Venu Nagavally(actor, film director)
• K. B. Ganesh Kumar, actor and political leader
• Maniyanpilla Raju, actor and producer
• M. G. Sreekumar, playback singer, composer
• Priyadarshan, film director
• Balabhaskar, musician

• Chethan Krishnan (1993), scientist, Center for Relativity and The Weinberg Theory Group, Department of Physics, University of Texas, Austin

. Raghu Kumar Managing Director Allergan India

• U. Vimal Kumar, Former National Badminton Player and Coach, Coach of Banga Beats Franchise of IBL

References

External links

• Official website
• Department of higher secondary education,Kerala
• Facebook Group of Government Model Boys' Higher Secondary School, Trivandrum

Coordinates: 8°29′34″N 76°57′19″E / 8.492813°N 76.955355°E / 8.492813; 76.955355