Puducherry: The city by the sea is on many lists of must-see global tourist destinations. One prominent feature of Puducherry that will remain in the minds of most visitors is the huge number of heritage buildings in the town.
Take a walk through this former French colony and you can see heritage buildings with French and Tamil architecture styles and a blend of the two, too. Many of these buildings were successfully restored by the government and various government offices are functioning in these buildings now.
At the same time, three schools in Puducherry which were functioning out of once beautiful heritage buildings are now in shambles and have become eyesores as they are in a state of total neglect. These are the V.O. Chidambaram Government Higher Secondary School and two schools where education is imparted in French: Calve College Government HSS (College Calve Enseignement Secondaire) and the Pensionnat De Jeunes Filles (Government Girls French HS).
Citing that the buildings are unsafe, students were shifted out to other schools in the aftermath of the collapse of 144-year-old Mairie (Town Hall) building on the Beach promenade in November 2014. Though experts from the ASI and IIT Madras examined the structures and suggested that the buildings can be restored, no action has been taken so far.
Calve College was built in 1875 and named after Calvé Souprayachettiar (Kalavai Subburaya Chettiyar), who belonged to a renowned merchant family.
The architectural design features a mix of Indian and colonial styles and the school continues to impart education in French, apart from the state syllabus. Political leaders including V. Subbiah and M.O.H. Farook were products of this school.
The ‘Thane’ cyclone caused severe damage to the school and the classes from 6 to 10 standard students were shifted to a middle school in Kuruchikuppam. Later, after the collapse of Town Hall building, the remaining plus-1 and plus-2 classes were also shifted.
The VVOC School, previously known as Ecole Primaire and renamed after freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, was built in 1886 and the school followed the French system of education until 1960 when the medium of instruction changed to Tamil. “These schools are the face of Puducherry’s great heritage. VVOC School has got a glorious history as poet Bharatidasan and Vanidasan served as Tamil teachers in this school,” says legislator R. Siva who is the former student of the school. Apart from Students of classes 11 and 12 are housed in an inner building, all other classes of the schools were shifted out.
Pensionnat De Jeunes Filles is India’s only French girls’ high school run by the government also suffered the same fate. The campus, where several films including the acclaimed Life of Pi, were shot is now a pale shadow of its past glory with no classes functioning in the building.
Though the ASI, in a report in 2012, had mentioned the poor state of the three schools and had noted that immediate action must be taken to restore them, no action was taken. The collapse of historic Mairie building helped wake up the government to the real threat from aging and neglected heritage buildings in the union territory and it decided to restore the three schools with immediate effect. INTACH submitted a report to the government to restore the buildings with an estimated plan of about '16 crore, but the decision remained in paper only.
“I have personally met the Chief Minister to bring his attention to this issue and will meet the education minister also,” Mr Siva told Deccan Chronicle.
The Calve College alumni association functionaries said they would submit a memorandum to Lt Governor Kiran Bedi to take immediate action to renovate the historic building. “Again we have submitted a detailed plan to the PWD last month taking the help of experienced architects on how to restore the Calve College building. They are keen on restoring the building and work would be started once the ongoing restoration works of old court building is finished. After that, hopefully, the other two schools would be renovated and restored to its original form” said A.Arul, senior architect of INTACH.
“As it is a heritage building it will take time to start the work. The plan has to be approved by PWD first. The schools will be back to function in the buildings once it’s restored” Director of school education L. Kumar told Deccan Chronicle.
Admitting that negligence has happened in restoring the heritage building structure, a senior official from the education department said that the students are worst sufferers from this.
