General Cariappa Higher Secondary School, one of the oldest educational institutions in Chennai, gets smart upgrade, renovated campus

Chennai: Smart classrooms, science laboratories, and a 200-seater dining hall were inaugurated on Saturday at Guild of Service General Cariappa Higher Secondary School, one of the oldest educational institutions in the city.

Spread over 45,350sqft at Vadapalani, the renovated campus can accommodate 1,000 students. It has standard-sized courts for basketball, volleyball, throwball, kabaddi, and kho-kho. Air Marshal K C Cariappa (retired), the son of Field Marshal and first general of the Indian Army Cariappa — after whom the school is named — inaugurated the building along with his wife Meena Cariappa.

Addressing the gathering, K C Cariappa, who was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal and the Vayu Sena Medal for outstanding service and gallantry, recalled that his father always valued children as much as he did servicemen. “If you are given a job, do it well without wondering if someone’s looking or not,” he recalled his father as saying. Senior advocate Arvind Datar, who was one of the top donors for the renovation, said it was an honour to contribute to a school named after Cariapppa.

Founded in 1956 and inaugurated by former President of India, Rajendra Prasad, the school offers vocational education to students from economically disadvantaged sections. Managed by the Guild of Service, it initially catered to children from the Seva Samajam Boys Home and later grew into a higher secondary school affiliated with the state board. Retired bureaucrat K S Sripathi lauded the Guild and the school for their service to society and said that the boost in facilities would ensure that students from all backgrounds could access quality school education.

The school now has 400 students, along with about 50 teaching and non-teaching staff.