Rising from the ashes: KJP Girls’ School firm on resumption of classes next week

SHILLONG, May 22: The managing committee of the KJP Girls’ Higher Secondary School has decided to resume all classes from next week.
The school’s principal, C. Allya told reporters after the managing committee meeting that the classes would be resumed after a meeting with the parents of the students on Thursday.
She said they would like to accommodate all the students in the buildings that escaped the devastating fire on Sunday.
The school has received offers from the Synod office, nearby schools, and several groups ready to provide rooms for conducting the classes, she said.
“Many have offered to make makeshift classrooms on the premises. But we would like to have all our students in the existing rooms,” Allya said.
The principal said they are yet to take a decision on whether to retain the old design of the school or to go for a new design. Many have suggested a more spacious school building that can accommodate more students safely, she said.
“But we will take a call after a meeting with our designers or architects. It is too premature to say anything now we do not know if we will be able to reconstruct the building at the earliest,” Allya said.
She thanked Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma for assuring to provide Rs 1 crore to the school.
Many public representatives, organisations, individuals, and past pupils want to contribute to the reconstruction of the building, she said.
“It will not be an easy task since we will have to rebuild the legacy of the school from scratch,” she added.
The principal said the total damage to the school’s property has not been estimated yet. She said the school lost many important documents and records, trophies, and mementoes won over the years besides the rooms for classes 6 to 10, the teachers’ common room, the school hall and the offices of both the principal and the vice-principal.
The school also lost a grand piano installed by the Welsh missionaries more than a century ago.
“The grand piano had a special place for everyone since we used it for the assembly every morning, the school music classes, and for every function,” she lamented.
She further said the cause of the fire has not been ascertained.
“We have filed an FIR with the police to investigate the reasons behind this devastating fire. The police suspect that it could be due to a short-circuit,” she said.
A major fire on Sunday destroyed much of the 131-year-old structure of the KJP Girls’ Higher Secondary School at Mission Compound.
No one was hurt in the incident but a young hosteller had to be shifted to the Dr H. Gordon Roberts Hospital as she had an anxiety attack after seeing the fire, police said.
The school was an offshoot of an erstwhile educational institution established by the Welsh missionaries at Nongsawlia village in Sohra (erstwhile Cherrapunjee), where it was converted into a proper school in 1864.
The ill-fated school was started in 1892 in a small house at the present location in Mission Compound with an area of 11,067 square metres. It became an exclusive school for girls that year when a missionary of the Welsh Presbyterian Mission Society took over its administration.
The great earthquake of 1897 razed the school to the ground and a little shed was utilised temporarily until a new school building with government aid of £1,250 was completed in 1899.
The institution was recognised as a high school for girls in 1912.
The new school building was completed in 1926 and inaugurated by Sir John Kerr, the then Governor of Assam Province. It celebrated its centenary in 1992 and its quasquicentennial jubilee in 2017.