Chief Minister lays foundation for reconstruction of French girls’ high school

Pensionnat De Jeunes Filles is India’s only French girls’ high school run by the Puducherry government and it will be reconstructed by the Public Works Department at an estimate of ₹8.21 crore

Chief Minister N. Rangasamy on Friday laid the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the Pensionnat De Jeunes Filles, India’s only French girls’ high school run by the Puducherry government. The project will be implemented by the Public Works Department at an estimate of ₹8.21 crore.

Official sources said the existing building which is in a dilapidated condition would be brought down and reconstructed. The project will be completed within 10 months.

The two-storey French architecture-styled building, which remained in a precarious condition was provisionally shut down along with two other government schools that functioned out of heritage buildings in 2014, after the collapse of the 144-year-old Marie (Town Hall) building on the Beach Promenade.

The grade II A heritage building has French architectural style, including a colonnaded portico, a teak staircase, and a wooden-louvered shutter. The Pensionnat de Jeunes Filles was the Bedier house before the Second French Empire. In 1858, it was rented and then sold to the colony to house a school for European girls, and classes were taught by the nuns of a catholic order.

Today it is the only French medium school for girls. After the school was closed in 2014, the students were shifted to another school on Mission Street.

PWD Minister K. Lakshminarayanan was present on the occasion.