PANAJI: Seventy five years ago, in the Latin quarter of Panaji, Manguesh Surlacar decided to give his son Jagdish a special gift on his birthday. He gifted him People’s High School-a humble abode with two rooms, two teachers and 11 students.
Today, the school is a force to be reckoned with in this modern, hi-tech age and stands firm at the platinum threshold of its lasting determination, with over 2,000 students and an accomplished alumni to match.
The grandeur of the school today, palpable in the enthusiasm and reflections of current students and alumni alike, is a testimony to the endurance and resilient foundations of its founder, Surlacar. After finishing his studies at Bombay’s St Xavier’s College, Surlacar snubbed offerings of a lucrative career elsewhere and returned to his native Goa to establish the school in Mala, Panaji.
The time back then, was not altogether conducive to the launch of such a school, with conventional policies being a deterrent. Establishing an English-medium school during the times of colonial Goa, weighed-in at many different levels-not the least of which was a lack of trained staff. However, riding the crest of an education revival wave, endorsed by the likes of Narsinha P Sukerkar, Vitthal Sukathankar and Balkrishna Savardekar, Surlacar too emerged as the leading education reformer of a repressed era. The launch of his school on December 9, 1936, was also the launch of the first English-medium school in Panaji.
Over the years, People’s High School evolved with a fair share of accolades and challenges. The School for Appropriate Learning (SFAL), a first-of-its-kind for students with special needs, came into being in 1986. Further, the higher secondary section was also started in 1988, providing, amongst other streams, programs on vocational studies to help students gain basic skills in order to be a part of the general workforce.
Seventy five years on, the dedication and enthusiasm of the current and former students reveal themselves to be as sweeping as that of its founder’s. To celebrate the platinum jubilee of the school the alumni has come together to mark a memorable moment in the history of its alma mater.
The curtain-raiser event scheduled for December 7 at Kala Academy will feature a keynote address by India’s leading economist Naseer Munjee, an alumnus of the prestigious London School of Economics, titled Education and Beyond. The keynote will be followed by an entertainment programme presented by the present and past students of the school.
Another striking feature of the event is a three-day ‘Back to school’ programme where alumni from the world over will wear the school uniform, stand in the assembly, sing the school prayer and go to class and be taught a lesson or two from their former teachers.
The core committee organizing the event, under the leadership of Victor Albuquerque of Alcon Victor Group, has further resolved to consolidate the ongoing infrastructural upgradation by providing the students with a much-needed school auditorium and a sports room. These refurbishments are being carried out under the watchful guidance of architect Rahul Deshpande, who is the grandson of Surlacar.
In an era where the leading educationists have made the medium of instruction a dominating focal point of the education debate in the state, People’s High School carries on as an institution that has dedicated itself to the seminal philosophy it has been teaching its younger ones since the past 75 years-“The school and we are one. What we are, the race shall be.”