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Rangpur Zilla School earliest educational institution of greater Rangpur, came into being in 1832 as Rangpur Zamindar School. Some leading zamindar families and Nathial Smith, the District Collector of Rangpur played an important role in the establishment of the school. It was inaugurated by Governor General lord william bentinck. It was housed in a large two-storied building donated by the Maharaja of Cooch Bihar. Zamindar Rajmohan Roychowdhury (1787-1847) of Kundi was its founder secretary and Krishna Nath Ray its first headmaster. It was taken over by the government in 1857 as an aided institution and affiliated with the
Calcutta University. As part of the government scheme to establish a zilla school in every district, the school was taken over by the government in 1862 and renamed as Rangpur Zilla School. The government then sanctioned an annual grant of Rs 2,616 to the school. During 1870-1874, new land was acquired to extend the school campus and funds were mobilised to construct a new building for it. In 1899, the school had 367 students. By 1914, it was able to build 3 hostels - one each for the Brahmans, scheduled caste Hindus and Muslims. In 1874, the zamindars of the district introduced one silver medal (Dayal Singh Silver Medal) and two scholarships of values Rs 8 and Rs 10 per month
for meritorious students.
Since 1990, the classes of the school have been running
in two shifts - morning and evening with 53 teachers (35 male and 18 female)
for the two shifts. At present, the school stands on 14 acres of land
with a big administrative building opened by Sir Ashley Eden, the then
Lt. Governor of Bengal (1877-82). Classes in the arts, science and commerce
sections are held in three two-storied buildings. The school has a library
with a collection of 10,000 books. [Muhammad Maniruzzaman]
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