A Brief History of Establishment

Raiganj Coronation High School (H.S.) was established on 17th January 1911. A group of enlightened persons headed by Sri Kulada Kanta Ghosh, the founder Secretary of the School played the pivotal role behind the establishment of the school. The school was named such because it was the year of coronation of George the 5th. After independence, efforts had been made to do away with the word "coronation" but it could not be actualized as yet. This is because of the fact that the school, since its foundation has chronologically reached such a coveted height that any alteration of the name is not likely to be approved by the people of Raiganj.

We feel thrilled to mention that in 1911, "Janaganamana" was first sung at the Congress Conference in Calcutta. The nationalistic ideas were spreading first following the clarion call given by the National leaders to unsettle the decision taken by the British Rulers towards the partition of Bengal. Thus the very establishment of the school was associated with great historic events.

However, prior to 17th January 1911, the  school was known as Raiganj Middle English School. In 1908 Sri Kulada Kanta Ghosh of Raiganj attended the "Congress Conference" held at Bombay. Inspired by nationalistic educational philosophy, Sri Ghosh on returning from the conference devoted himself along with likeminded persons towards setting up a school to cater the need of spreading education among the children of Raiganj. As a result, Raiganj Middle East School which was established in 1905, came to known as Raiganj Coronation High English School w.e.f. 17th Jan., 1911. The entire land required for the school building and the playground was donated by Late Maharaja Girija Nath Rai Bahadur of Dinajpur.  

Sri Kulada Kanta Ghosh, the founder Secretary of the school was a staunch supporter of the freedom movement. Among the teaching staff Damodar Pramanik, H.M. and Arun Chandra Ghosh, A.T were indirectly but closely associated with the movement. A group of students namely Sukumar Guha, Rabindranath Bhowmik, Anil Nag, Sucharu Guha, Kamal Bhowmik, Abinash Dutta and other courted arrest for actively participating in the August movement, in 1942.Monoranjan Saha and some other students of the school were arrested for taking active part in the Non-co-operation and Civil Disobedience Movement. The name of Saroj Basu alias Kalketu Basu, a student of the school has been written in Gold. He was the main spring behind the great Hili-Darjelling Mail Robbery case of 1933. Saroj Basu was arrested and was given death entrenchment. Later, following an appeal made befor the Calcutta High Court, he was given ten years imprisonment. Sri Shyma Prasad Barman, a brilliant student of the second Matriculation Batch of the school in 1916 was closely associated with the movement launched by the Congress from time to time and after independence became a minister and continued for 11 years in the Cabinet of Dr. B.C. Roy, our beloved Chief Minister of West Bengal. Dr. Roy took active interest in the activity of the school. He visited the school on 27th September, 1958 and opened the 'New Block' of the school. In 1946, communal violence took the worst shape at Noakhali. A group of students of the school along with cash and kinds, contributed by the people of the locality went to Noakhali and stretched out helping hand to the victims of the communal violence.

Dr. B.C.Roy, the Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal, is inaugurating the new Block of the school on 27th September, 1958

Since its very foundation, the school had been so successful in playing a leading role in undivided Bengal that not only students of Dinajpur but their counterparts from Burdwan, Nadia, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Malda, Rajshahi, Faridpur, Dacca, Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar and many other places flocked together to form a unique, mini world of "Unity in Diversity". The pressure of the outstation students was so great that the school authority had to set up three hostels under the supervision of teachers. The rapid influx of students continued on and on because the management of the school attached utmost importance towards maintaining secular ideas and promoting democratic values in running the school. The school was granted recognition by the University of Calcutta vide memo number 17, dated 01-07-1914. The first batch of the school consisting of 16 boys appeared at the Matriculation Examination in 1915. The academic attainment of the students since the inception of the school has always been outstanding.

Besides securing first division, a good number of students, prior to independence, obtained District Scholarship almost every year. The school also played prominent role in the area of sports, games and physical exercise. Inter District School Sports started in 1963 and continued up to 1945. During the period, the school lifted the Champion Trophy 7 times. Sushil Ghosh, a student of school, took part in All Bengal Wrestling Championship in 1941 and 1942 and came out as Bengal Champion for two consecutive years. Rabi Kumar Bhowmik and Sachin Basu were two other prominent Wrestler of undivided Bengal. Prominent Footballer Suraj Nag, Jatindra Nath Saha, Anu Chowdhury happened to be ex-students of the school. Sri Rabin Majumder was a prominent hero of Bengali feature film. Dr. Redhas Chandra Ghosh obtained D,\.Sc. from Munich University, Germany and became a close associates of renowned Scientists like Dr. Meghnath Saha and Dr. Gyan Chandra Ghosh. Dr. Jaharlal Ghosh, a brilliant ex-student of the school (passed Matriculation in 1924), obtained M.R.C.P. and F.R.C.S. from London. In fact, the good name and fame of the school spread so far and wide that Mr. Stapleton, the Director of Public Instruction proclaimed that "Raiganj Coronation H.E. School may be regarded as a Model School of North Bengal".

During 1946-47 the school had to bear an excessive pressure owing to rapid influx of refuges from East Bengal. As a result, it had some limping period but to the great satisfaction of all, reawakened once again to regain its youthful days of 'Dynamism and Sprightliness'. Sri Sashindra Chandra Dey, the then Headmaster along with his team of sincere colleagues, enthusiastic band of students and management of the school inducted new blood, new spirit and new life to the school. In recognition of this, Sri Dey was awarded as "National Teacher" by the Hon'ble President of India in 1968. In 1957, technical stream was introduced and the school came to be known as Multipurpose School. Since 1980 the progress of the school in both academic sphere and Co-curricular activities is beyond question. During the period, the students appeared in the state wise coveted list of top ten or twenties both at Secondary and Higher Secondary level for several times. The performance of our students in the arena of Badminton has created a record. The school football team came out as Bengal Champion and took part in the final round of Subrata Mukherjee Football Tournament held in New Delhi in 1984. Since 1980, the students of the school have been participating in the State Level Students' Science Seminar almost every year. In 1994, two students of the school attended XXI Jawaharlal Nehru National Science Exhibition For Children organized by N.C.E.R.T.

The Role of the School in Spreading Education

The school has a rich heritage of active engagement with local community. It is the birth-place of Raiganj Girls' School, Raiganj University College was set up in the premises of the school. Raiganj B.Ed. College was established in 1983 in the school campus. The urgent need of setting up the Sub-Divisional Library should not have been possible if the school authority did not come forward with the proposal of donating the land required for the purpose. The school is also the liaison office of the Vidyasagar University to provide Distant Education