Rangpur Zilla School 5.36

Rangpur Zilla School is a school located in Rangpur District, Bangladesh. It is one of the earliest schools established in Bengal.HistoryThe school was established in 1832 as Rangpur Zamindar School, by the local Zaminders or landlords. Nathial Smith, the district collector working for the British East India Company led government, also had a central role. The school was inaugurated by Lord William Bentinck, the erstwhile Governor General of Bengal. The Maharaja or Cooch Bihar donated funds for construction of the school building. Krishna Nath Ray joined as the first headmaster of the school.The school was taken under the management of the Government of British India in 1857. It was affiliated with the Calcutta University. In 1862, it was renamed to Rangpur Zilla School.The school building and other facilities were expanded between 1870 and 1874.But it is a matter of great sorrow that the house burnt down in 1878 and the school had a very precarious existence for the next few years. Then it was first removed to Keranipara where the classes were held in different private houses for about a year. It was then shifted to the coochbehar building whose ruins are hardly to be seen near the main entrance of the present school compound the building being very old and in a dilapidated condition the school was again shifted to the silk-godown of Mr. Rainy in the north-west of the present district board building where it continued for one year. It was removed to a big house (Atchala) where the present demonstration farm stands. It continued there for five years. It was during this period that the school was raised to the status of a second grade college. Babu Chandra Nath Bhattacharjee, Head teacher, became the principal and the renowned Pandit Jadabeswar Tarkartna, the professor of Sanskrit. The college lasted for only four years and had to be reduced to its former Status for paucity of students.