Situated within the erstwhile institutional and administrative hub of the town and at a walking distance of the river Ichhamati, the school remains as one of the oldest educational institutions in the district of North 24 Parganas. In 1854, a group of enthusiasts initiated a Minor School, which in the 1960s, became a Middle English (ME) School, later taken over by the then Basurhat Municipality, as Basirhat was called those days. That ME School finally grew into Basirhat High School
The formation of the school was part of an educational movement, the significance of which is realized when seen in the annals of history of that time. An important document to take clue from is the Statistical Account of 24 Parganas and Sunderbans (1877), prepared by Sir William Wilson Hunter(1840-1900), a Scottish historian, statistician and a member of theIndian Civil Service, who has been remembered as the compiler of The Imperial Gazetteer of India published in 1881.
Post-Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, with the transfer of power to the British government, administrative structures changed. Multiple social institutions were opened. Basirhat was not exception to it. The Sub-division was formed in 1861 with a population of 2,68,146. In 1870-71, the town contained one Magisterial Court. The Basirhat Branch Dispensary started its operation in 1867 under the charge of an Indian doctor in a room of the Sub-Divisional Courthouse. By the end of 1871, a separate building for the dispensary started. The educational drive, too, began at that juncture with Basirhat High School the seed of which was nurtured for two decades to finally give a full form in 1877. Almost a century later, in the 1960s, the school finally got the Higher Secondary status.
Interestingly, around the time the school came into being, Basirhat municipal town had a population little over 12000 which grew to 1.43 lakhs in 2011. All these years, Basirhat High School, a witness of the quantitative growth of the town, has been the torchbearer in nurturing young minds qualitatively, through spread of education, culture, sports and many other facets of life. A stellar team of dedicated teachers steered by visionary headmasters and supported by passionate civil society members has been the asset of the school.
Follow our Most Important News
Basirhat High School Alumni Association (BHSAA) is the Alumni Body (formed under Registered Charitable Trust according to Indian Trust Act, 1882) of 140+ year-old Basirhat High School.
The Alumni Body , today, has eminent members from all walks of life, who are not only settled at Basirhat, but also spread across India and various corners of the globe.