Pogose School

Pogose School
Location
Chittaranjan Avenue, Dhaka-1100 Bangladesh
Information
Type	Private
Established	June 12, 1848
Head of school	Syed Zulfiquiar Alam Chowdhury (From August 4, 2010)
Grades	Class 1−10
Campus size	5-acre (20,000 m2)

Pogose School (Bengali: পোগোজ স্কুল) was established in Dhaka in 12 June 1848, as the first private school of the country by JG Nicholas Pogose, who was an ex-student of Dhaka Collegiate School. It is located at Chittaranjan Avenue. The school was managed as a proprietary institution and in 1871, about a year after the death of Pogose, it was taken over by Mohini Mohan Das, a banker and zamindar. After the death of Das in 1896, his estate kept the school up.

History

According to historian Muntasir Mamun Pogose School started in 1848.^[1] It was also found that the school may have started a few years back as 99 student were suspended due to inability to pay extended fees. After that former principal of that time Dr. A T Wise opened a school named Union School mainly for the poor and helpless students. But the school stopped after two years and then Pogose came to take over the school at his own expense. He gave the name Pogose School.

This school was named Pogos Anglo Vernacular School at Dhaka. The school might have started in his own house and later moved to his friend JC Paniati’s home. Paniati was paid 10tk as house rent. Former Head Master of the school Monindrachandra Vattachariya the school moved from Paniati’s house to the inside of Armenisa Church at the "Sudhamay House" or beside the Shabistan Cinema Hall. That house has a big balcony, a garden and a cricket ground.

In 1878 the school was taken over by Mohinimohon Das a famous Zamindar and Banker after Pogose himself left Dhaka for London. After the death of Mohinimohon Das in 1896 the school was looked after by the trustee board of the Zamindari Estate and moved it to Chittaranjan Avenue where at still belongs.Most probably, Mohonomohon's mother gave the responsibility to Headmaster Proshonnokumar and Asst. Headmaster Horihor Dhor in 1907.

N.P.Pogose was not only its founder, but also he was its headmaster of it. He knew both English and Bangla very well. So, he didn’t face any problem. It is found from a report of Dhaka College that the income of the school on 1850 was 50 rupees, and expenditure was 90 rupees. N.P.Pogose paid the all of the expenses from his own pocket. He also managed 0–75 rupees donation from 'Company Government'. Mohini Mohon also donated three thousand taka every year when he was its owner.

Head masters

NP Pogose was the first Head Master of the school. He was expert in different languages. One description shows that back in 1850 Pogose School profited 40 and spent 90 Taka where he donated the extra amount. In the Jubilee report of the school Monindrachandra Vattachariya mentioned Pogose was the head master until 1855 and were used to give Tk. 3000 per month even after his departure. However the first Bengali Head Master of the school was Kali Kishore Chatterjee. In 1855-57 it had only 145 students and ten years later was increased to 562. In that year 27 students passed entrance from the school and 8 of them achieved different kinds of scholarships.

According to the Jubilee report the third Head Master of the school was artist Charles Pott. The portrait that he drew of Pogose is still in the office room of the Head Master. Charles run the school until 1858 and then run a short term by Horokumar Basu and Kalikanto. Then famous Brahma personnel Dinnath Sen run from 1861 to 64. The most famous Head Master was probably Gopimohon Boshak (1865–72). Later social constructor Nobokanto Chatterjee became the Head Master. Prasanna Kumar Sen was the Head Master for 35 years (1906–41). Julfa Mohammed was the Head Master from 1974.

Here below are the Head Masters who worked in this school:

Notable alumni

Many of the students of Pogose School became famous and successful. Among them are Chief Ministers Profullah Chandra Ghosh (of West Bengal) and Ataur Rahman Khan (of East Bengal), as well as first Bengali doctorate Nishikanto Chatterjee and the first Indian Doctor of Science Aghornath Chatterjee, who was the father of Sarojini Naidu. There are a number of alumni who went on to become pioneers in their fields, including Dr. P K Ray, the first Bengali principal of Dhaka College, Sir K G Gupta, the first Indian Privy Councilor and the first ICS officer from East Bengal, and Girish Chandra Sen, first Quran translator in Bengali. Poet Shamsur Rahman, Kaykobad, editor Kaliprasanna Ghosh and comedian Bhanu Banerjee, as well as Zahirul Haque, Director of Banking Control of Karachi, and Babu Mathuramohan Chakraborty, the founder of Ayurvedic medicine house Sakti Ausadhalaya studied here.

A lot of scholars also came to visit the school including Swami Vivekananda, Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Rambai and others.

See also

• Armenian community of Dhaka

References

• Muntasir Mamun, Dhaka: Smriti Bismritir Nogori, vol1, Anyna Publishers 2008, Pogose School, pg159
• Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, Banglapedia,

Coordinates: 23°42′34″N 90°24′37″E / 23.7094°N 90.4102°E / 23.7094; 90.4102