Education

Kalyani and its popularity owes greatly to the development of education and educational institutions in the township. There are many educational institutions in Kalyani making it a perfect place to be termed as an ‘Educational Hub’. The development of the town is intricately related to the development of education.

The first and foremost institution that grew up in Kalyani was the school named Pannalal Institution in 1956. This is a government sponsored school that still shows its existence strongly. This was named after the education minister of Bidhan Chandra Roy government named Pannala Basu. The founder and the first principal of the school was Mr. Hemanta Mondal. In the year 1974 it gained the higher secondary status and became the first of its kind in the town.

Following the above foundation, on 1^st November,1960 the Kalyani University was founded. The first vice-chancellor of the university was Dr. Sachindra Nath Dasgupta. Initially the Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya was also merged with it which later became an autonomous unit after 1^st September, 1974. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy wanted to develop the infrastructure of the university based on the Land Grant College/University of America encompassing all the major disciplines of study including agriculture. The university was confined within the judicial areas of Chakdah, Haringhata and Bijpur. The university was made an ‘Affiliating University’ from the year 1999.

In the year 1965, the first girls’ school was opened in Kalyani in the form of Bidhan Chandra Memorial Government Girls Higher Secondary School. It was opened on 1^st January. The main person without whom this would not have been possible was Miss Gayatri Chattopadhyay who was the principal and a well known educationist who was also an award holder of the President’s Award in her teaching profession.

In the year 1965, another government school named Kalyani University Experimental School was established. Initially the medium of instruction was English which was changed to Bengali in 1970 after it got the higher secondary status. In the year 1987, it gained the government sponsorship. The two main persons who can be credited for the foundation of the school were Joygopal Mukhopadhyay and Mahabir Mukhopadhyay.

However in the year 1971, the Kalyani Central Model School came up which was the first C.B.S.E school with all the three streams and higher secondary status in the Nadia district.

In the year 1978, the National Dairy Research Institute and Nursing Training Centre came up highlighting the variety of educational development in the town.

The first school of I.C.S.E curriculum in the form of Julien Day School, Kalyani came up in the year 1995. Initially it had Arts and Commerce stream and later in the 1999-2000 session the Science stream was opened. This school is located in A Block. Along with this in the same year the Kalyani Government Engineering College was founded which is one of the highly esteemed institution of the country.

In the year 2001 another government aided Bengali medium school was opened in the form of Saraswati Trust Institution near Kalyani Ghoshpara and ‘Sati Ma r Bari’.

With the passage of time many other institutions came up such as Government Teachers’ Training College and private institutions like the Springdale High School, Middleton High School, DPS World Foundation, Garden High School and so on. Recently two highly rated institutions are coming up in Kalyani in the form of AIIMS and IIIT.

Thus, we can say that Kalyani has transformed itself over the period of time and is indebted to the growth and development of educational institutions in the town.