La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata

Promoted in 1836 with a sum of Rs.300,000 bequeathed by Major General Claude Martin, a French merchant-adventurer, LMB has gone from strength to strength and risen high in public esteem

In the eastern region and West Bengal, where leftist coalition governments dominated by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) have been ruling the political roost for over 30 years, two education institutes that have successfully resisted the leveling-down efforts of the comrade commissars of the CPM are Kolkata’s show-piece La Martiniere schools (separate institutions for boys and girls). During the 173 years that have passed since La Martiniere Boys (LMB) admitted its first batch of 50 children in 1836, both schools have gone from strength to strength and risen high in public esteem.

The excellent reputation that La Martiniere schools enjoy countrywide was confirmed by the EducationWorld-C fore survey 2008, which ranked India’s top day, residential and international schools. In the survey, LMB was ranked India’s second most-respected day school (and La Martiniere Girls fourth) and the numero uno duo in the eastern zone. LMB was rated among the top day schools in India on the parameters of individual attention to students, co-curricular education, competence of faculty, infrastructure, leadership, parental involvement and quality of alumni.

“The probable cause of La Martiniere Boys being so highly-rated and ranked in the EW-C fore survey is the happy balance we have been able to strike between academics, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. I doubt if there is any day school countrywide which offers this quality holistic education,” says Sunirmal Chakravarthi, an English and sociology alumnus of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and JNU, Delhi who taught in the blue-chip St. Paul’s School, Darjeeling for almost two decades (1987-2006) prior to being appointed principal of LMB three years ago.

LMB’s golden reputation across the country is greatly attributable to its vintage history. Despite the school looming large on the Kolkata landscape, there are many who are ignorant of the origin of the school’s unconventional name, which is derived from its founder Major General Claude Martin (1735-1800), a French merchant-adventurer who made his fortune in India under the powerful patronage of the East India Company.

Many of his wealthy peers have been forgotten by history, but Martin was a philanthropist and man of vision, leaving behind a far-sighted will that funneled his entire fortune (estimated at over Rs.3.6 lakh in 1800) towards starting primary-secondary schools in Lucknow, Kolkata and Lyon (France).

Martin bequeathed a sum of Rs.300,000 “to the town of Calcutta to be used to devise an institute most necessary for the public good of the town” and stipulated “this institution is to bear the title of La Martiniere”. After 30 years of squabbling and litigation over his estate, and as the result of a Supreme Court decision, the school admitted its first batch in 1836. By then, owing to accumulated interest, Martin’s endowment had ballooned to the princely sum, in those times, of Rs.962,875,5 annas and 5 pie.

To this day, La Martiniere boys is administered strictly as per Martin’s will. To ensure that “the public good” was served, its governing body included top officials of the East India Company, the then Kolkata-based Supreme Court and the Anglican Church. Today, with the extinction of the East India Company and other British institutions, Martin’s legacy is administered under the supervision of the Bishop of Kolkata, who serves as the ex-officio president of the school’s board of governors.

The distinguishing characteristic of LMB is indeed the balanced, holistic K-12 education which the school (affiliated with the Delhi-based CISCE exam-inations board) provides its 2,850 male students instructed by a faculty of 104 handpicked and selected teachers. In the grand old tradition of Anglo-Indian school education modelled after vintage British public schools, prime importance is accorded to sports and co-curricular education. Facilities for all field games — hockey, cricket and football — as also for swimming and track and field events are available on the school’s 11 acre campus. Moreover, LMB is one of the few schools countrywide in which the very British sports of rugby and boxing are vigorously practiced.

High quality co-curricular education is also a proud tradition. Students have a wide choice to participate in several English language dramatics and debating clubs — “LMB’s forte” — as also to learn western classical music, train for the school orchestra and enrol in trekking and nature clubs and the International Award for Young Persons (formerly the Duke of Edinburgh Awards) programme.

Far from adversely affecting the academic record of the school, the LMB management’s emphasis on co-curricular and sports education has improved learning outcomes in the school — a clear vindication of LMB’s tradition of delivering balanced, holistic education, says Chakravarthi. “In the CISCE board exams held in 2008, of the 161 boys who wrote the class X exam, 159 passed in first division with 51 averaging more than 90 percent. And of the 178 who wrote the class XII school-leaving exam, 175 passed in the first division with 55 averaging 90 percent plus,” he says with discernible satisfaction.

Against this backdrop of all-round development within LMB, the school’s board of governors and management have initiated a studied contempori-sation drive which will marry this vintage institution’s legacy traditions with 21st century pedagogies. On the agenda is a somewhat belated drive to wire up the school’s hallowed chalk-n-talk classrooms with smart-boards and curriculum enrichment technologies, and initiatives to expand LMB’s outreach programmes. “We are aware of the dangers of LMB transforming into an ivory tower institution. Therefore we have started several values-based social awareness programmes for our students. One of them is to build a student-driven scholarship corpus to help needy children avail primary and secondary education. This scholarship fund is being built with student donations of Rs.10 per month. We believe that our relatively privileged students should become aware of the pains and tribulations of less-privileged children and do something to alleviate their condition,” says Chakravarthi.

Quite clearly neither the management, nor students of this vintage school which has built itself a nationwide reputation for values-based holistic education, are content to rest on their  laurels. Its search for excellence continues. Major General Martin would approve.

Bhavana Pingali Datta (Kolkata)