'THE MADRAS COLLEGE'...a name that sweetly sounds far away from home...Wondering if that was a typing error? Not at all! A college by that name thrives and survives the vagaries of time on a time-tested concept...but not in Chennai...

This college in Scotland, inherits its name from a system of education conceived by its Founder the Rev. Dr. Andrew Bell, a noble clergy man of the Church of England, who besides being the chaplain to the regiments of the East India Company in Madras, was also entrusted the duty of educating the soldiers' children. Running short of qualified teachers, he skillfully made use of the older boys, who had been taught the lesson by the master, to instruct the younger pupils. 'Monitors', as they were called, they effectively assisted the teachers.

This concept was appreciated and adopted widely all over the globe."The very common idea of older children 'monitoring' the activities of the younger ones has its roots in the concept given by Dr.Bell, but there aren't many who know the history behind its evolution to its current form", says Mrs. Latha Duraiswamy, a teacher in a private school in Chennai.

Dr. Bell, on his return home from India, propagated this concept through his travel across the length and breadth of the country and succeeded in the making more than 10,000 schools adopt the "Madras System"

To ensure that posterity continued to inherit and adopt his system, he founded a School in his native St. Andrews, funded through the wealth he earned through the success of his System. He also funded another School in his neighbouring town of Cupar, through the disposal some lands owned by him, which is the present Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, which was originally called Madras Academy. Madras College in St. Andrews is the other one.

Madras College we see today is the product of a commiserate between two St. Andrews schools, the first of which happened in the year of 1833 when the existing Grammar School was joined with the "English" school to form the original Madras College. Until 1889, the school building in South Street served as a secondary school for the town of St Andrews and beyond, which was when the Burgh School in Abbey Walk was built by the School's Board. Since then, the two schools have existed side by side in the town with The Burgh School being the junior secondary and Madras College being the senior secondary until 1963, after which both the schools were joined to form the present Madras College.

When asked if they had heard of the 'Madras College' in Scotland, the reactions from the public were mixed! While most of them reacted with surprise which later transformed into pride once they heard the college's history, there were a few who thought it was some practical joke being played on them! Well, for all those who still have doubts you can go check out the college's official website at: Madras College History.

By
Aruna.V.Iyer