Mount Bethany EHSS

Mount Bethany English Medium Higher Secondary School
Location
Mylapra Pathanamthitta, Kerala, India
Information
Type	Private School
Motto	Veritas Vos Liberant
Established	1975
Principal	Rev. Fr. Dr. Jose Kuruvila O.I.C.; M.T. Thomas
Faculty	>150
Enrollment	Annually during May
Number of students	>2500
Color(s)	Yellow, Red
Mascot	Bethanian
Publication	Mount Bethany Yearly Magazine
Website	http://www.mountbethany.in/ (website for the Mount Bethany Public School, which runs under the same management as MBEHSS)

Mount Bethany English Medium Higher Secondary School or known as Mount Bethany EHSS, Mount Bethany English Medium School or MBEHSS is an Indian co-educational Higher Secondary School located in Pathanamthitta, Kerala, India. The school began providing education to Lower Primary level classes in the late 1970s. Later the school added further classes and now serves a fleet of classes from Kindergarten to 10+2 in accordance with the Kerala Syllabus.

Student body

The school is one of the predominant leaders of education in the district of Pathanamthitta, serving education to thousands of students. The student population truly represents the suburban areas of Pathanamthitta, having students daily from as far as the neighboring districts. Due to its enormous number of commuting students, the school offers daily School Bus service with a fleet of 12 buses, reaching about 75% of the district. The School offers quality boarding services to students from other areas of the district and state.

Academics

The school operates under the Catholic management and employs over a hundred of teaching faculty and other custodial faculty. The school is one of the most reputed schools in Pathanamthitta and Kerala. Since its start, the school offered decades of 100% passing rate in the Kerala State SSLC examination. The school instructs students by the Kerala Syllabus and the medium used is English, even though Malayalam classes are part of the curriculum. Unlike its counterparts, the school provides students with other varieties of classes such as Hindi, Syriac and Spoken English, which can only be compared to international school standards.

Location

The school is located in a village in Pathanamthitta district called Mylapra. As of 2001 India census, Mylapra had a population of 10241 with 4836 males and 5405 females. Mylapra is also famous for having the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which indeed patrons the school. The village is the primary route to the Hindu pilgrim center of Sabarimala. The school is located in an interlocked mountainous terrain by residential communities, providing the school with its calm and quiet atmosphere. Geographically the school is located at 9 16'47.64 N, 76 47' 59. 91 E with an elevation of 135 ft.

Alumni

Unlike any other school in Kerala, Mount Bethany is truly a global school in terms of its alumni population. Even though majority of the students stay in Kerala or India, a vast majority are seen in other countries. Unlike other schools, thousands of Bethanian graduates work and study in overwhelming numbers in places such as the United States, Middle East, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, and Australia. Bethanian graduates work both in India and abroad in all professional fields including Healthcare,Finance,Law, IT and Aeronautics.

Social Networking

Due to the recent increase in social networking sites such as Orkut and Facebook, various communities have been set up in attempt to bring together all alumnus and students under one umbrella. The success of this is seen as various Mount Bethany oriented communities being over flooded by thousands of members, representing over 16 countries and 6 continents.

Renovation

The school did a technology renovation in December 2000. The project equipped all roof tiled classrooms with skylights, increasing the light availability in these classrooms and at the same time reducing the electricity usage to power the traditional lighting in these classrooms. The project also unveiled fans in all classrooms, including the kindergarten classes.

The third renovation was the introduction of intercom system, enabling live conversations between the officials and students from each classroom. All classrooms were equipped with AHUJA WS-661T/WS-664T intercom system, making the first higher secondary school in Kerala to have such system. The wall mounted white box brought suspicion and awe to the students and teachers in its initial days, but became part of the academia within months. Despite the capability of the intercom system to receive voice from the classrooms to the office, the system currently only provides voice from the office to the classrooms. This was due to high need of audio wires and receivers that are required to send voice from the classrooms to the office, especially in such a multi storied school with over hundred classrooms. The system is also used as an emergency alarm, as seen through its usage during the building collapse in 2005.

Incident

On August 31, 2005 at 12:13 PM IST, the roof tiles of the secondary wing collapsed, injuring more than 20 students and 1 teacher. The incident occurred during lunch time. The three storied building was built in the 1970s, under the first construction plan of the school. The injured were suddenly taken to Muthoot Medical Centre by the school emergency officials, providing them with preliminary care. According to the police, the students suffered from minor head and back injuries and the teacher had only few bruises. The school was only shut down for two days and resumed normal classes the following Thursday. The site was visited by MLAs Thomas Isaac, Raju Abraham and the district collector. The collapsed roof was reinstalled with modern construction materials, making the third floor of the building to have the most modern utilities available in the school.^[1]

Rivalry

The school competes in district and state levels in fields such as arts and sports. The school is reputed for winning many medals and Kalathilakams. Mount Bethany has a very strong sports division, training students from running to basketball. The school facilitates a tournament sized Basketball court, which is used for practice and occasional tournaments that are held in campus. The school has a long standing friendly rivalry with its Catholic counterpart Girideepam Bethany School in Kottayam. The basketball tournaments held between the campuses are one that carries prestige to its student body.

School Events

Youth Festival

Onam

Christmas

Senior Day

School Facilities

Air Conditioned Computer Lab with Internet

Science Lab with specimens

Tournament sized Basketball courts

Play Ground

Children's Park

Chapel

Hostel Facilities

Multimedia Projectors for functions

Auditorium

Inter local School Bus Service

Library

Satellite Television Network

Intercom Audio Transferring System

Sister Campus

A sister campus called Mount Bethany Public School in Kumbazha, Pathanamthitta was built in 2003 to teach students in the CBSE syllabus. The CBSE program, started in 2001, was initially conducted at the Mylapra campus. But the increasing number of applicants and facilities, to accommodate the CBSE syllabus, pressured the management to start a CBSE school in the nearby town of Kumbazha.

References

1. ^ http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/31/stories/2005083107010300.htm