Kuruvila Jacob
‘God from afar looks graciously upon a gentle master’. A schoolboy inscribes these lines on the flyleaf of Robert Browning’s translation of Aeschylus’s Agamemnon for his old schoolmaster in Terence Rattigan’s 1948 play ‘The Browning Version.’ In the play, the tribute is at least partly insincere, but if the thousands of students who passed through the Madras Christian College School during the 31 years Kuruvila Jacob was principal there were to read those lines, they would to a man agree that those words exactly described his relationship with God.
Kunnenkeril Kuruvila Jacob, for 31 years the Head Master of Madras Christian College (MCC) High School, was an adored and respected teacher who made a great impact on thousands of students. At MCC, and later at Hyderabad Public School as well as Bombay Cathedral and John Connon School, he rang changes that enhanced the reputation of those schools.
Kuruvila Jacob was born on 3 August 1904, the fourth of eight children born to Kunnenkeril Jacob, a district munsif and his wife Rebeka, at Shertalay, Kerala. He had an idyllic childhood, growing up in the beautiful village of Aymanam on the banks of the river Meenachil, which flowed past the tile-roofed old houses of many of his extended family.
Kunnenkeril Jacob was frequently transferred and Kuruvila, like his siblings went to many schools.at Kottayam, Trivandrum, Nagercoil, and Parur. Besides being a good student, Kuruvila was an excellent sportsman, taking naturally to aquatic sports, growing up so close to the waterways of Kerala.
When Kuruvila was ten years old, he lost his mother, but he and his siblings were brought up with loving care once his father married again a few years later. Mrs Anna Jacob was a sweet, affectionate mother to all of them.
After his Intermediate course at CMS College, Kottayam, Kuruvila Jacob went on to Madras Christian College (MCC) in Madras, where he graduated in physics and chemistry. An active sportsman, he stayed on at MCC as a demonstrator and worked as part-time secretary at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).
Kuruvila had always admired the best of his teachers and wanted to emulate them in life. He learnt that Leeds University in England offered one of the best teacher training programmes in the world. The course would cost Rs. 7,000 and Kuruvila was initially hesitant to impose such a financial burden on his parents. Once he realised that Kuruvila was genuinely interested in teaching as a career, his father agreed to meet the cost of his education abroad, but insisted on his getting married before he left for England. Kuruvila and Grace Mathai were married in August 1929, just before he left for England. Grace was still going to college then and stayed behind to complete her education.
Kuruvila spent two years in Leeds, taking first a diploma and then his master’s degree in education. While there, he was exposed to new thinking in the field of education. Of the two offers of jobs back home in India, Kuruvila chose one from MCC School, Madras preferring it to the headmastership of his old school, CMS, at Kottayam. He was the first Indian to be made head master of MCC School,
breaking a century-old tradition of appointing professors at the Madras Christian College as the school’s headmasters.
Kuruvila Jacob took charge as headmaster in 1931 and remained at the helm for the next 31 years, making Madras Christian College School “an institution that rivalled the best European-run English medium schools of the time, yet one that was uniquely Indian in character.”
When Kuruvila joined the school, it shared premises with the Madras Christian College in the crowded George Town area of Madras. The arrangement continued for many years.
When the college moved to Tambaram in 1947, Kuruvila persuaded the board to sell the George Town property and buy a large garden house on Harrington Road in Chetpet, set in 28 acres of land and construct a new school building there.
He worked closely with the architects, cutting costs by using furniture and fittings from the old school, and buying construction material from military sources at post-war low prices. The result was an excellent new facility that met the school’s requirements without proving too expensive to build.
The facilities in the new campus made MCC School one of the best schools in the country. Kuruvila recruited a dedicated band of teachers who collaborated with him in imparting the highest moral and ethical values in their teaching.
Sport was a major priority and the school’s physical instructors and coaches put the vast grounds to good use. The school was home to all major sports trophies for several decades. Regular school camps, the NCC and Boy Scouts were compulsory activities.
Newspapers were placed in the school lobbies and news of important and prestigious events were read out at the daily assembly. Audiovisual education was a regular feature of the school curriculum, with films of the latest advances in science, the best coaching films on cricket and the latest news from abroad being shown. Exchange students from other countries came to MCC School as did many famous personalities as visitors.
Kuruvila won the affection and respect of the students, teachers and parents. Academic records improved considerably, and the school built an enviable reputation in sport.
Kuruvila was to repeat such success in the two other schools he went to after leaving MCC School—the Hyderabad Public Schoolwhich was in a sad state of indiscipline and disorder when he became its first Indian headmaster—and Bombay Cathedral and John Connon School. (In 1962, after 31 years of dedicated work, Kuruvila Jacob retired as headmaster of MCC School. He had seen two generations of boys through to adulthood and was justifiably satisfied with his achievements. He had realised to a large extent the dreams he had set out with all those years ago).
Right from the beginning, he fostered a personal relationship with the students, discovering and encouraging individual talent, and doing away with the image of the stern, distant headmaster.
The government recognised Kuruvila Jacob’s outstanding work at MCC School. He was asked to be
a member of many committees on education. He travelled extensively in Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the Soviet Union, visiting and evaluating schools. And every time on his return home, he tried to incorporate some of the interesting things he had noticed into his own school. While he was the principal of Cathedral School, he was awarded the Padma Shri. He retired at the age of 75 to join his daughter Sulochana who was working at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. He died at the age of 87, after celebrating the diamond jubilee of his marriage to his devoted wife, Grace.
Milestones
· 3.08.1904 Born at Shertalay, Kerala
· 19.08.1929 Married to Grace Elizabeth, Kerala
· 1929 - 1931 Post graduation at Leeds University, U.K.
· 1931 Appointment as the first Indian headmaster of M.C.C. High School, Madras
· 1939 Visit to London University and Europe
· 1948 Commenced building of MCC HS at Chetput, Madras
· 1950 MCC School commences functioning at Chetput
· 1953 Member of international team of educationists that visited Europe and the U.S.
· 1952 -1962 Visit to the U.N. as Senior Fellow of the United Nations, president of the Madras Headmasters’ Association, president of the Christian Education Council of South India, Education Advisor to Kerala State
· 1962 Member of Government of India Study Commission
· 1962 Retired from MCC HS · 1962 - 1968 Joined Hyderabad Public School as the first Indian principal
· 1968 Joined the Bombay Cathedral and John Connon School as the first Indian principal
· 1970 Awarded the Padma Shree
· 1979 Retired at the age of 75
· 25.08.1991 Passed away at Vellore, Tamil Nadu