 In
the pre-independence era the education provided by the elite
schools of Kolkata was based on Western mores, which completely
ignored India’s rich cultural heritage. Parents who wanted
their wards to receive an education based on traditional Indian
values were thus faced with a moral dilemma. It took one eminent
thinker, our founder, the late Sri.L.N.Birla to translate vision
into reality.
His prime concern was the state of contemporary Indian education.
He watched with growing alarm the rapid rise of materialism
in India and its impact on Indian youth, already toiling under
colonial rule. He wanted a school based on Indian values and
culture which, by very definition, would open its windows to
thoughts and ideas from all four corners of the globe. To fulfil
this mission, Hindi High School was established in 1940. A unique
educational institution, its aim was to impart learning that
blended the traditional with the modern, the aesthetic with
the scientific. This vision of ushering in a new order in the
sphere of education found emblematic representation in the school
motto, “Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamay”
- from darkness unto light.
Hindi High School was re-christened “Birla High School”
in 1997. With a change in name came a search for a fresh identity
worthy of the student who stood poised on the brink of a new
millennium, which was the compendium of the past, the present
and the future. Today a resurgent spirit marks the activities
of the school whose management and the teachers ensure that
the students are able to keep abreast of recent technological
advancement and global trends without losing touch with their
roots. |
