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Academic year 2007-08:
150 year celebration special:
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History

History of Hindu High School

Salaries of teachers:
Another interesting feature of those days was the scale of salaries paid to teachers. The Headmaster, one Mr. Velliambala Upadyayar, received a salary of Rs.10 a month. The English assistant Mr.T.ponuswami as paid Rs.:1-8-0 a month. The other two assistants got Rs. 3 a month. As the boys, School grew in strength and popularity, year by year, Mr. Newton, an Anglo Indian, was appointed Headmaster in 1868; he was paid a monthly salary of Rs. 40 but he was succeeded two months later by mr.Babu Mudaliar on a salary of Rs.25. The pay of the staff in those days appears to us to have been incredibly low, but a perusal of the Grant-in-Aid Code then in force shows that it was in accordance with rates fixed by the Government. Evidently the purchasing power of the rupee in those days was much more than it is now.

M.A.Singarachariar takes up the reins:
Towards the end of 1868 all was not well with the schools--- the Boys' School and Girls School. The strength of the Boys' School fell to 48 and the schools were on the decline. It was then that the Committee not only co-opted Mr. M.A.Singarachariar but requested him to take the Secretaryship and Treasurership of Both the schools. A new Committee with Sri M.A.Singarachariar, Sri S.Kesavalu Naidu, Sri Parthasarathy Iyengar and Sri W.Seshachala Naidu was constituted. The Boys' School then came to be called "Triplicane Balura Patasala". The late hon'ble V.Rama Iyengar was elected Patron of the schools. Besides the fall in strength in the Boys' School, its finance showed a deficit of Rs.80, The pay of the teachers fell into arrears and Mr.Singarachariar discharged all the liabilities of the school out of his own pocket and reimbursed himself subsequently as funds permitted and kept the school going. The report of 1898 published elsewhere gives in full stability of the school and its conditions a first class High School are in no small measure due to the unwearied efforts of Mr.Singarachariar as Secretary, Member and President of the Committee of Management for over 38 years.

Opening of Matriculation classes:
The first efforts of Mr.Singarachariar were directed towards improving instruction in English. This was in keeping with the requirements of the time. Classes were opened up to the Matriculation standard and in 1870 the first batch of students was sent up for the public examination. This important event happened in the second year of his secretaryship.

Change in the name of the school:
In 1873, since English held a prominent place in the curriculum, at the suggestion of the then Director of Public Instruction the name of the schools was changed to "Triplicane Anglo-Vernacular High School". Gentleman who were born in the last three decades of the nineteenth century and those who had the privilege of studying in the school then, know it by that name only. Even today they fondly refer to the school as the "Triplicane Anglo-Vernacular High School".

Location:
From the beginning the Tamil School was located in the Big Street in a rented building. Even after amalgamation the school continued to be there. From the time the school began to grow in strength, it had to struggle for accommodation. That problem still persists, while many other problems have been solved.

In 1876 there was not sufficient accommodation for the boys and in consequence the Primary Department was removed to another building.
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