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Kuruvila Jacob spent two years
in Leeds, taking first a diploma and then his
Master's degree in education. Not only did he
get a good grounding in his specific interest,
he was also exposed to a lot of new thinking in
the field of education. Even before he completed
his course, Kuruvila got two offers of jobs back
home in India.
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The first was the headmastership
of his old school, CMS, at Kottayam.For the first
time in its almost century-old history, going
against the tradition of making professors at
the Madras Christian College its heads, the principalship
of the Madras Christian College School was being
offered to an Indian, the young educator from
Kerala.
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In 1931, Kuruvila Jacob took
charge as headmaster and was at the helm for 31
years of unparalleled activity that made Madras
Christian College School an institution that rivalled
the best European-run English medium schools of
the time, yet one that was uniquely Indian in
character.
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The school and the college shared
the same premises in crowded George Town area
of Madras for many years. This was not the best
of situations, but Kuruvila ran the school efficiently.
He soon won the affection and
respect of the students as well as of his staff.
Academic records improved considerably, and, knowing
Kuruvila's interest in sports, it was not surprising
the students excelled in games.
Right from the beginning, he
fostered a personal relationship with the students,
discovering and encouraging individual talents,
and making away with the image of the headmaster
as a bogeyman.
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In 1947, when Madras Christian
College moved to Tambaram, Kuruvila Jacob's heart
was set on moving the school too to more spacious
and healthier surroundings. He persuaded the board
to sell the George Town property and buy a large
garden house in Chetpet, set in 28 acres of land,
the ideal location for a boys' school.
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He worked closely with the architects,
giving them his ideas right to the last detail.
Costs were contained by using whatever furniture
and fittings could be moved from the old school,
and a lot of construction material was bought
from military sources at post-war low price.
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The facilities he built in this
new campus made MCC School one of the best schools
in the country. He was aware that an institution
was only as good as the individuals who peopled
it and therefore made sure that it had a dedicated
set of teachers who would impart his values in
their teaching.
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A good team of physical instructors
and coaches put to good use the vast grounds and
the school was home to all major sports trophies
for several decades.Regular school camps, the
NCC and Boy Scouts were compulsory activities
and served to develop interpersonal skills.
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Honesty and self-assessment were
inculcated through small exercises such as the
unsupervised sale of peanuts and a public assessment
of the amount so collected at the end of each
day.Kuruvila Jacob knew the value of an open mind
and the need to expose it to current affairs and
new ideas.
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Newspapers were placed in the
school lobbies and news of important and prestigious
events were read out at the daily assembly. Visual
education was a regular component of the school
curriculum, with films of the latest advances
in science, the best coaching films on cricket
and the latest news from abroad being shown. Not
only were there exchange students from other countries,
MCC School also played host to famous personalities.
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Kuruvila Jacob's outstanding
work at MCC School did not go unrecognised. He
was asked to be a member of many government-sponsored
and other committees on education. He travelled
extensively in Europe, the United Kingdom, the
United States of America, and the Soviet Union,
visiting and evaluating schools. And every time
on his return home, he tried to incorporate some
of the interesting things he had noticed into
his own school.
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In 1962, after 31 years of dedicated
work, Kuruvila Jacob retired as headmaster of
MCC School. He had seen two generations of boys
through to adulthood and was justifiably satisfied
with his achievements. He had realised to a large
extent the dreams he had set out with all those
years ago.
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