The Cotton Hill Girls Higher Secondary School here recently faced a unique problem with its ‘old website’. The present school authorities did not have the password needed to administer the site.
The reason: Those who were at the helm of affairs earlier did not pass on the password to their successors. Following this, the old website became useless for the school as the authorities were unable to upload new information on to the site.
The result: The school spent extra effort and money for developing a new website. The official inauguration of the ‘revised’ website, www.ghsscottonhill.org, was held here on Tuesday.
Additional Headmistress K. Krishnakumari told Expresso that the new website would have posts on all the activities taking place in the school. All important information like functions held at the school, test papers and distribution of textbooks will be uploaded on to the website on the day it takes place itself.
She said that the website would also have space for students to publish their creative works like poems and stories.
“ At present, we feel that there is a shortage of Malayalam works in the website. This problem would be solved soon after ensuring Malayalam fonts. Training has been imparted to selected teachers on maintaining the website,’’ she added.
Cotton Hill is one of the biggest schools in Asia, with over 5,000 girl students. As per the website, it is an embodiment of women empowerment with 160 teaching staff and 12 non-teaching staff, among which only three are males.
The school was started in 1859 by the then Maharaja Uthradam Thirunal. Before moving to the present premises, it functioned as a free school for girls at the present-day Sanskrit College building at Palayam. During the tenure of Sir C.P. Ramaswami Iyer, the diwan of Travancore, it was split into three. The diwan took one portion of the school to Paruthikunnu, near Vazhuthacaud. Later, the school came to be known as Cotton Hill, the English translation of Paruthikunnu.
Till 1935, the school had only UP and LP sections. When the school was upgraded as a high school that year, the LP section got bifurcated.
Though the Government had tried to delink the UP and HS for administrative purposes, the move was later dropped owing to massive public resistance.
The status quo was maintained under the leadership of two Headmistresses. In 1997, the Government decided to delink pre-degree from universities and introduced a two-year HSS course in some selected high schools.
The then Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar inaugurated the state-level higher secondary scheme at the school on November 25, 1997. Last year, the school was adorned with the title, ‘School of excellence.’
sabloothomas@epmltd.com