Mysore - Education

Education

Before the advent of the European system of education in Mysore, agraharas (Brahmin quarters) provided Vedic education to Hindus, and madrassas provided schooling for Muslims. Modern education began in Mysore when a free English school was established in 1833. In 1854 the East India Company promulgated the Halifax Dispatch, which suggested organising education based on the western model in the princely state of Mysore. The first college to be set up for higher education was the Maharajas College, founded in 1864. In 1868 the Mysore state decided to establish hobli schools to extend education to the masses. Under this scheme, a school providing free education was established in each hobli (a locality within the city). This led to the establishment of a normal school in Mysore which trained teachers to teach in the hobli schools. A high school exclusively for girls was established in 1881 and later converted into the Maharanis Women's College. The Industrial School, the first institute for technical education in the city, was established in 1892; this was followed by the Chamarajendra Technical Institute in 1913. While the modern system of education was making inroads, colleges such as the Mysore Sanskrit college, established in 1876, continued to provide Vedic education.

The education system was enhanced by the establishment of the University of Mysore in 1916. This was the sixth university to be established in India and the first in Karnataka. It was named Manasagangotri ("fountainhead of the Ganges of the mind") by the poet Kuvempu. The university caters to the districts of Mysore, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar in Karnataka. About 127 colleges, with a total of 53,000 students, are affiliated with the university. Its alumni include Kuvempu, Gopalakrishna Adiga, S. L. Bhyrappa, U. R. Ananthamurthy and N.R. Narayana Murthy. Engineering education began in Mysore with the establishment in 1946 of the National Institute of Engineering, the second oldest engineering college in the state. The Mysore Medical College, founded in 1924, was the first medical college to be started in Karnataka and the seventh in India. Institutes of national importance in the city include te Central Food Technological Research Institute, the Central Institute of Indian Languages, the Defence Food Research Laboratory, and the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing.