Hare School

Main building in 2006

Hare School is one of the oldest schools in Kolkata, India, teaching grades 1 to 12 under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. The boys-only school was established by the Scottish watch-maker David Hare with the help of social reformer Ram Mohan Roy. The establishment date is not agreed upon, but the official year is 1818.

It is situated opposite the Presidency College, Kolkata, College Square and Hindu School, Kolkata and next to the University of Calcutta.

History

After establishing the Calcutta School David Hare Book Society and the Hindu College, Kolkata (now Presidency College) in 1817 and the Calcutta School Society in 1818, David Hare established the school, opposite Hindu College, in the heart of College Street (Kolkata). After its beginnings as Arpuli Pathshala and later as Colootala Branch School, it was renamed Hare School in 1867.

Campus

Main playground

The combined campus of the Hare School and Presidency College is one of the largest in Kolkata. The ownership of the campus is a contentious issue, leading to conflicts about which parts of the ground the students can access, whether they can play in the College's field and whether they can use the gates of the college. This situation was escalated some time ago after a widely-publicised incident of eve-teasing in the college campus, though restrictions have again been brought down to a normal level.

The white school building is of Victorian architecture, having rooms with high ceilings, tall doors and no windows. A third floor was constructed on top of the original two story building that maintains the architectural style. Another adjacent, smaller building has been constructed in a modern architectural style. The school had two very large playgrounds, but later the larger of these was given to Presidency College, though it continues to be used casually by students of the school.

Students

As of March 2006, a total of around 1000 students study in the school. Each of the classes from 1 to 10 are divided into two sections A and B, each of which contain around 40 students. Class 11 and 12 are divided into three 'streams' known as Science, Arts (Humanities) and Commerce.

Extracurricular activities

2006 Saraswati Puja at Hare School

A football tournament is held during the summer. Intra-section competitions as well as inter-section and inter-class ones ensure that almost every student gets a chance to play at the official tournament. During the winter, a cricket tournament of smaller scope is held.

The annual sports competition is held in two stages, a heat followed by the finals. The events include running and the one-legged Race. The students engage in sports (mostly football with cricket) during the recess (commonly called the tiffin period) which lasts for 20 minutes from Monday to Thursday and for an hour on Fridays. There is no recess on Saturday (it is a half-day), while on Sunday the school is closed.

The annual social ceremony sees plays enacted by the students as well as other cultural programs held at the School Auditorium. During the year other smaller cultural programs take place in the school, like: Bhasha dibash, Rabindra-jayanti, Rabindra-mrittyubarshiki, Teachers' Day, School Foundation Day, Science Day, Indipendence Day & Republic Day etc.

The school participates in quiz contests. It has won the Seventh Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Calcutta Foundation Better Calcutta Contest 2005 Science Quiz and Acharya Satyendranath Basu Smarak Biggyan O Prajukti Mela 2004.

The largest festival is the Saraswati Puja, which is organised by the students of the school. A science exhibition usually accompanies the two-day festival.

There is a controversy over whether the school should celebrate a religious festival like Saraswati Puja as it is under a constitutionally secular government, however students have tended to support holding the puja. As with most major religious festivals of Bengal, the puja can be said to transcend religious boundaries and become an almost secular signature of Bengali culture as a whole.

On November'11 ; HARE SCHOOL published their "SCHOOL POTRIKA" successfully after 6 years.

Notable alumni

A statue of David Hare at the school

• Ramtanu Lahiri - researcher on Bengali language, member of the Young Bengal group.
• Krishna Mohan Banerjee - educationist, linguist and Christian Missionary, member of Young Bengal group.
• Dinabandhu Mitra - Bengali writer of British India, works include Neel Durpan
• Jagdish Chandra Bose - polymath, physicist, plant physiologist, inventor of Radio and discoverer of life of plants - studied in Hare School for 3 months before joining St. Xavier's School and College at Kolkata.
• Akshay Kumar Baral - poet
• Rajnarayan Basu - writer, intellectual, and Brahmo
• Brajendranath De - civil servant, linguist and historian
• Basanta Kumar De - railway officer and major in the armed forces.
• Romesh Dutt - civil servant, economist, historian, poet, translator of Vedas
• Prafulla Chandra Roy - pioneer chemist, founder of Bengal Chemicals
• Jatindramohan Sengupta - politician, freedom fighter
• Pramathesh Barua - actor
• Peary Charan Sarkar- writer
• Radhanath Sikdar - mathematician, first person to calculate the height of Mount Everest, member of Young Bengal group.
• Charuchandra Chakrabarti - writer
• Ziaur Rahman - freedom fighter, and President of Bangladesh 1977-1981
• Dibyendu Barua- chess grandmaster
• Meghnad Saha - theory of thermal ionization - one of the top ten discovery in astrophysics
• Nagendra Prasad Sarbadikari - first Indian footballer
• Anirban Chakraborty - Senior DPS Teacher

Uniform

The uniform is a white shirt with black shorts or trousers, white socks and black shoes. Physical education days require a white trouser and white cades instead and in winter black sweaters are allowed. The school badge is pinned to the shirt.