The arrival of the missionaries to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills in the 1800s contributed immensely to the establishment of educational institutions across Shillong in the later part of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century, and the Phudmuri Presbyterian School was one of them.
In this episode of Shillong Iconic Structures, we are featuring the 123-yr-old Phudmuri Presbyterian School, one of the oldest educational institutions in Khasi and Jaintia Hills, located at Mawlai Phudmuri. It was established in the year 1899.
It was learnt that the Phudmuri Presbyterian Primary School was started in a thatched house with four teachers and a handful of students. The teachers were Babu Joseph, Babu Jrin, Babu Irai and Kong Bitmon. There are scant records to corroborate how the school came about and the people rallying behind it but one thing that is historically certain is that – the school preceded the Presbyterian Church in Phudmuri.
Tymmen Basan HM Soanes wrote in the souvenir of the platinum jubilee celebration of the Phudmuri Presbyterian Church in 2004 that the establishment of a church in any part of the state always starts with a school. Back in the day, when education was alien to the people of Mawlai, the setting up of a Presbyterian school fostered the Christian faith, leading to the establishment of a Presbyterian Church in the area.
It was informed that in the Lower Primary Examination, held in 1904, out of the 99 students from across the Khasi and Jaintia Hills who cleared the exams, five were from this school. In the following years, many students of this school received the Primary Scholarship at the rate of Rs 3 per month, as of 1921.
Early records stated that the school was located on the same premises where the old Phudmuri Church stands at present until 1968 when it was moved to a bigger campus.
Up until 1957, the church was functioning from a thatched house, much like the school. In the same year, the foundation was laid for the construction of a new church building, wooden in structure, with pitch-roofing; it was completed and blessed in 1963. Around the same time, the school building, next to the church, was also renovated. However, as the number of students grew, the need was felt to move the school to a bigger site.
The church purchased land at Madan Heh near a football field at a price of over Rs 15,000; this is where a new school building was constructed and the primary school was moved to the new campus in 1968.
Over the years, the church realised that the new plot of land near the football field was not feasible for a school and the search for a new location began. A 19,582 sq ft plot of land at Phudmuri Nongmadan was identified and purchased at a price of Rs 90,000 on Feb 24, 1979, and a school building was constructed in December 1979.
The school building was later dismantled to make space for the construction of a new church building in 1994. As the number of members of the church grew, the old church was too small to accommodate each person. In 1989, it was decided to construct a new church building on the land where the school was located, at Nongmadan. In 2000, the new two-story building was completed; while services were held on the first floor, the ground floor was reserved for the school.
As the number of students increased, the church felt it was time to allocate a separate space for the school to function and subsequently, a 33,952 sq ft plot of land was acquired in the same locality in October 1999. The new school building was inaugurated in April 2011 by the then Urban Affairs Minister Late Founder Strong Cajee.
In 2017, the school was upgraded from Secondary to Higher Secondary to absorb students who were facing problems getting admission to Class XI in other accomplished colleges.
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