CHENNAI: The first girls’ school in south India celebrated 150 years of its existence, recently at RR Sabha. Founded by Sri Gajapathi Maharaja of Vizianagaram in 1869, Lady Sivaswami Ayyar Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Mylapore, witnessed management and name changes before it finally settled down to its current name in 1946 — in memory of the stellar contribution by PS Sivaswami Ayyar. “We are happy to celebrate the school’s 150th year, and the festivities will continue through the year in unique ways. We will also be hosting several competitions, including essay writing and debates,” said Leela Narendran, secretary.
Addressing the gathering, the chief guest of the event, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Once upon a time at least three out of ten candidates in IAS and IFS were from Tamil Nadu. But, the numbers have come down and our presence in governance and in IITs, IIMs have reduced.”
The Defence Minister not only called for a substantive change in the state’s curriculum but also stressed that more girl students should join the armed forces. “The curriculum should become more dynamic and challenging,” she shared.
Asking the school to prepare girl students to take up a career in the Armed forces, she said, “I am going to give you a challenge. Tell me what you are going to do to get more girls to the Rashtriya Military Academy and Short Service Commission. I would like to see them as fighter pilots, they should be part of the Indian Navy! The girls should be in frontier breaking areas.”
School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan announced that the syllabus for class 12 students from next academic year will have courses that will make students employable, right after schooling. “We would also start distributing laptops and cycles to students from next month,”
he said.
The Defence Minister gave away rolling shields to top ranking students. Three of the school’s distinguished alumni — V Shanta, chairperson of The Cancer Institute, actor Lakshmi and singer Vani Jairam were felicitated. “When I was part of the school I performed in dance and dramas on the very same stage. We were taught conversational English by Srinivasa Sastri, the silver-tongued orator and encouraged to read widely. It was an enjoyable and memorable time here, and to see the school evolve and complete 150 years is wonderful,” said Shanta.