Recognised in 1949, the Metropolitan Institution (Main) for Girls at Sankar Ghosh Lane will open its English-medium section in the 2024 academic session for classes V to X.
The heritage school, Metropolitan Institution Main was set up by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in 1864. Eventually, the Metropolitan Institution Main For Girls was founded almost a century back although the school was recognised in 1949.
“We had conducted a survey and came to the conclusion that the residents want to send their wards to English-medium schools,” Headmistress of the school Bipasha Banerjee said while adding that the number of students enrolling for their Bengali medium has dwindled in the past few years.
While investigating the reason for the fall, Banerjee realised that since many non-Bengali families were residing in the area, they would either prefer Hindi or English.
After the survey, adding English-medium to the school seemed a good solution to her. However, the school will retain its status as a Bengali medium as well.
“The Bengali medium will remain intact as long as we have students enrolling,” she said. On whether starting the English medium will result in a crisis due to limited teachers available in the school, Banerjee said: “Our teachers are equipped to teach in both languages as they come from an English-medium background. Furthermore, considering the heritage status of the school, many retired teachers also want to teach extra classes here.”