Coordinates: 27°01′57″N 88°15′48″E / 27.0325065°N 88.2633448°E / 27.0325065; 88.2633448

St. Paul's School, Darjeeling

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St. Paul's School
Location
Darjeeling
,
West Bengal

India
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Information
TypePrivate boarding school
Motto
  • Moniti Meliora Sequamur
  • (Having been advised, let us follow higher things)
Religious affiliationChurch of North India
Established1823; 203 years ago (1823)
FounderArchdeacon Corrie
School boardICSE (year 10)
ISC (year 12)
RectorPeter Lepcha
GenderBoys
Age6 to 18
Enrollment600
Houses12
Colours
  • Maroon & Dark blue
  •    
Publication
  • The Chronicle
  • The Paulite
School feesApprox. 4–5 lakh per annum
AffiliationCISCE
Former pupilsOld Paulites
Websitestpaulsdarjeeling.edu.in

St. Paul's School is a private boarding school for boys in the town of Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. It is known as "Eton of the East" because it is thought to follow similar cultural and traditional values to Eton College.[1] St. Paul's is one of the oldest public schools in Asia. Entrance tests for admission are held every September. The school follows the ICSE curriculum until class 10 and the ISC curriculum for classes 11 and 12.

History

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Darjeeling from above St. Paul's School in 1905

St. Paul's School was founded on 1 May 1823 in Calcutta by Daniel Corrie[2] at the instigation of John William Ricketts, a local Anglo-Indian leader. The first principal of the institution was Dr. George Smith. Originally located at 11 Park Street, between the Archbishop House and the Sans Souci Theatre, in 1830 it moved to Jawaharlal Nehru Road, an area now occupied by the Indian Museum.[3] In 1847, it was renamed to St. Paul's School by Bishop Wilson, who had associated the school with St. Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta. It moved to its present Jalapahar estate in Darjeeling in 1864 with 31 boarders and a few day scholars. The estate was purchased from Brian Hodgson for ₹‎45,000. At that time, at approximately 7,600 feet above sea level, it was the highest school in the world.[4][5]

A number of its students fought in World War I and World War II.[6]

The school's original purpose was "to supply a good education at a moderate cost to the sons of Europeans and East Indians".[5][7] After Indian Independence in 1947, it became a school for wealthy Indians and attracted wealthy students from other Asian countries.[5]: 66 

Bishop Foss Westcott

Bishop Foss Westcott, metropolitan of Bengal, Burma and Ceylon, played an important role in the growth of the school. The Maharajah of Burdwan also made important donations.[4] Over the years a number of estates were purchased and merged with the existing school estate. The Mount Vernon Estate, known as Dawkins, was purchased in the early 1900s, and the Terpsithea Estate in 1955.

L.J. Goddard was the longest-serving and perhaps the most important rector, leading the school between 1934 and 1964, including the transition from British rule to independent India. His successors were David Gibbs (1964–1972) and Hari Dang (1977-1984). Dang was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 for his services in education.[8] Goddard and Gibbs received the OBE for their work at St. Paul's.[9]

School system

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The school is divided into Primary, Junior, and Senior wings. The three wings are run independently, with the Primary Wing having its own campus and a slight difference in uniform. The Senior and Junior Wings share many facilities.[10]

The Rector is the head of the school, assisted by the Senior Master, Head Primary Wing, Head Junior Wing, and House masters.

Houses

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Senior Wing

  • Clive (named for Robert Clive, first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency)
  • Hastings (named for Warren Hastings, first governor of the Presidency of Fort William, and first Governor-General of Bengal)
  • Havelock (named for Henry Havelock, British army general)
  • Lawrence (named for John Lawrence, Viceroy of India)

Junior Wing

Primary Wing

Culture

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The school currently presents itself as a residential school for boys, predominantly Indian, with an "international, multiracial and cross-regional cosmopolitan character",[11] having students from many countries including the US,[12] the UK,[12] France,[13] Thailand,[14] Bhutan,[12] Japan,[15] Bangladesh,[12] Nepal,[12] the United Arab Emirates,[15] and Hong Kong.[15]

Current students are referred to as Paulites and the alumni as Old Paulites. The school lays a great emphasis on uniforms. On off-campus trips, students must dress in prescribed suits and carry umbrellas.

The school motto is derived from a line in the Aeneid, Cedamus Phoebo, et moniti meliora sequamur. Moniti meliora sequamur means "Having been advised, we follow better (higher) things".

The student government is headed by a school captain, assisted by House Captains and Prefects, drawn from the sixth form. The Junior and Primary Wings have their own system of monitors. The sixth form is privileged and enjoys an advantage over the rest. The chapel holds a central place in the life of the school where it meets as a community. There are clubs which develop artistic and technical skills. Each house presents a concert from time to time, apart from the major school production in October.

The extracurricular activities in school include dramatics, elocution, debate, piano, guitar, drums, violin, marching band, and sitar classes. There are various hobby clubs and societies. These are all run by the boys under the supervision of masters. In the Senior Wing, the hobbies are art and crafts, Batik, Indian Western music, model-making, photography, wood and lathe work, cybernetics, textile design, and cooking. The school sends candidates for the music and speech examinations held by the Trinity College London and Royal Academy of Music. The boys are also sent on educational tours to NASA and other historical sites in India and neighbouring countries.

The sport curriculum is dominated by football, cricket, athletics, volleyball, basketball, squash, table tennis, tennis, Eton fives, gymnastics, and rocking climbing.

There has been a long-standing rivalry between St. Paul's and St.Joseph's School, North Point in sports and other activities that the two compete in.

Cotton and Milman Halls as seen from Top Field
Cotton and Milman Halls

Awards and recognition

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St Paul's has been ranked first among boarding schools in West Bengal and fourth in India according to the 2019 Education World rankings.[16] The school was featured in Forbes India magazine in an article titled "The great Indian Schools - 2018".[17] It was named among the top seven boarding schools in India in 2020 by India Today.[18]

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Howard Block

Notable alumni

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Karun Krishna Majumdar
Sharad Kumar, 2014 Para Asian Games

Films shot at St. Paul's School

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The school has been featured in Hindi and Bengali language films including:

  1. Hamraaz (1967) by B. R. Chopra
  2. Mera Naam Joker (1970) by Raj Kapoor
  3. Seemabaddha (1971) by Satyajit Ray
  4. Do Anjaane (1976) by Dulal Guha
  5. Bada Din (2000)
  6. Main Hoon Na (2004) by Farah Khan
  7. Chowrasta Crossroads of Love (2009) by Anjan Dutta
  8. Barfi! (2012)
  9. Jagga Jasoos (2017) by Anurag Basu
  10. Raja the Great (2017) by Anil Ravipudi[57]
  11. Petta (2019) by Karthik Subbaraj[58]
  12. Mithya (2022)[59] by Rohan Sippy

Hollywood actress Vivien Leigh was born on the school campus (present day Dawkins, cottage beside the basketball court) in November 1913.[60]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  2. ^ Eyre Chatterton, A History of the Church of England in India Since the Early Days of the East India Company, London: SPCK / New York: Macmillan, 1924, OCLC 1895674, "Chapter XXVII. The Mother Diocese of Calcutta, 1815".
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ a b Educational Institute, City of Darjeeling, retrieved 24 September 2013.
  5. ^ a b c Gordon Brook-Shepherd, Where the Lion Trod, London: Macmillan / New York: St. Martin's, 1960, OCLC 411159, pp. 65–72. Text online at archive.org.
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