Old students of Cathedral Free Primary School in Santhome to meet

The 1984 batch is organising a reunion meet on May 29

On May 29, the 1984 batch of Cathedral Primary School in Santhome will meet on the campus at 11 a.m. to relive the good old days. The organisers of the meet point out this is the first ever reunion for any batch of the institution.

Located amidst a cluster of institutions on Santhome High Road, Cathedral School would not easily ring a bell but the primary school has a few firsts to its cap.

The Tamil medium co-educational institution catered to underprivileged sections of the society and has offered the gift of education to many first-generation learners including those from the fishing community.

For many decades, the institution has served as a preparatory ground for students before they moved to Santhome Higher Secondary School, St Raphael Girls Higher Secondary School and other institutions in the neighbourhood.

Many of the early batches studied at the building attached to the premises of the Santhome Cathedral Basilica, before the school moved to a new campus located opposite the road.

According to The Hindu archives, the new building for the school was inaugurated in 2006.

The school began a century ago with just three children from the slums located nearby. The report notes that the Santhome Church used to incur huge costs of running the institute, providing uniform, stationary items, notebooks and bags to the children.