Tharakan’s School, Aranattukara

Tharakan’s School stands just north of St. Thomas Church. Its story is the story of how Aranattukara learned to read and write.

From writing school to St. John’s

The first classes were small ezhuthu pallikkoodams (writing schools) in Valiyangadi and Padinjare Angadi, where teachers taught letters, sums and prayers. In 1886 an English primary class began in the Valiyangadi school, paid for by leading families, and from 1890 it received a small government grant. A smallpox epidemic closed it in 1892. Revived in 1900, it moved into a new building in 1907, built through Antony Tharakan’s efforts, and was named St. John’s School.

Tharakan’s English School

In May 1922 a new English school opened, first in the Padinjare Angadi community’s building and then beside the church. Boys and girls were admitted, and fees were waived. In 1930 Inasu Tharakan handed the school to the parish, which named it Tharakan’s Secondary English School. It became a high school in 1947–48, and after independence St. John’s merged into it.

In the years when the parish was split, children of both churches studied side by side here, and the book credits the school with helping to heal the rift. Under headmaster K.I. Iranimose, from 1961, it had what the book calls its golden age.

Today

A renovation began in 2012, and the high school has since moved into a new building. The Angel Valley Pre-School, which teaches Spanish, opened in the compound in 2018.

A 1943 Cochin Legislative Council record mentions “Tharakan’s Lower Secondary School”.