Fort High School Trivandrum

One of the century-old schools in the city that co-
exists seamlessly with a heritage building is the
Fort High School. A former student and former
teacher of the school, poet Ulloor S.
Parameswara Iyer, describes the Valiyakoyikkal
Kottaram on the school compound in his Essays
on Travancore .
According to him, the palace came into existence
around 1770, during the time of Umayamma
Rani. Puthencotta Palace on the banks of Killi river
(in the Attakulangara area) was dismantled and
the material was used to build Valiyakoyikkal.
Kerala Varma of Kottayam, adopted by
Umayamma Rani, stayed in Valiyakoyikkal, which
can now be found right behind the school
building. The palace also houses the
Vettakkorumakan temple (Vettakkaruman is the
correct word, according to Ulloor).
Around 1786, Kerala Varma was murdered in
front of the palace and the palace has been
considered haunted ever since. The thenga erichil
vazhipadu at the Vettakkorumakan temple is
related to this belief. In 1858, the palace and
temple seem to have been engulfed by fire.
Today, we find that the remains of the palace still
sport the name board ‘Koyikkal Kottaram’.
In 1875, V. Vaidyanatha Iyer started a primary
school in a thatched shed where the
Sreekanteswaram Park stands now. The school
soon grew into an aided high school at the
present site. When the permission was given, the
Government placed a condition that the school
would serve as a lodge for the Nampoothiri
priests who used to arrive for the grand
Murajapam festival at the Sree
Padmanabhaswamy temple. Thus the school
used to have holidays during the festival.
These arrangements naturally vanished soon
after Independence. It also seems that the
Travancore army that came to the Fort to
accompany the Arattu procession also used to
occupy the school for two days. Presently, the
school is a test centre of the Public Services
Commission and other agencies on almost all
holidays.
The front part of the school building is unusually
designed. Class rooms on the ground floor have
one door opening into the ground and two doors
opening into the verandah. The classrooms are
very airy.
The upper floor has imposing structural work in
wood. The building seems to have had a rear
extension that was constructed around 1937. The
foundation stone laid by C. V. Chandrasekharan,
Director of Public Instruction (later Pro Vice-
Chancellor of Travancore University), is still intact
in a corner of the building. So is a photograph
from those days.
The school compound was noted for the absence
of any compound wall. Of late, a chain
demarcates the compound, which is shared by
the school and the temple. In the area behind the
school, closer to the Fort wall, is the Government
Fort LP School.
The founder of Fort High School, Vaidyanatha
Iyer was the first headmaster too. He was
succeeded by his son V. Varadaraja Iyer. Most
headmasters had long tenures, examples being
V. N. Narayanan Nair (27 years) and V. A. Krishna
Iyer (10 years).
After short spells by N. Ananthanarayana Iyer
and P. Viswanatha Iyer, the management of the
school was in dispute forcing the government to
take over the school. The District Collector
became the manager in 1963 and continued for 12
years till the dispute was amicably settled.
In 1966, S. Mahadeva Sharma became
headmaster and served for 18 long years. He still
lives in the vicinity of the school and can reel out
fact after fact about the school. Janardanan Nair,
M. R. Malathi Amma, V. Ramachandran Nair and
P. Raveendran Nair were other headmasters.
Presently, the headmistress is Sasikala Devi and
the school is run by Lakshmi Ammal Trust,
which has as its members the descendents of the
founder’s family.
In 1975, the school celebrated its centenary, with
the then Governor N.N. Wanchoo and Chief
Minister C. Achutha Menon partaking in the five-
day celebrations. In addition to poet Ulloor, the
school has on its alumni list Pattom A.
Thanupillai, Panchapakesa Iyer ICS, Justice
Subramanyan Potti, Justice K.S. Paripoornan,
Narayana Moorthy of Indian Space Research
Organisation, Dr. M. Sambasivan, neurosurgeon,
Dr. M. K. Ramachandran Nair, former Vice-
Chancellor and Krishna Murari, former Mayor of
the city.
Papanasam Sivan, famous Carnatic composer
and Tamil film music director and lyricist of
yesteryear, mentions in his autobiography that he
studied in the Fort School in Trivandrum during
1900s. It is yet to be verified if it is this very
school or any other school inside the Fort (the
Sanskrit school inside the Fort, founded in 1889,
for instance).
The school, which had over 1,000 students in its
heyday, now has only 300. It still has students
from Beemappally and Poonthura. Its library,
which has very old books, is relatively well
preserved. As with many of the city’s century-old
schools, the Fort School rests on its proud
history, the heritage of the compound itself and a
non-commensurate present.