Brief History

The history of education in Sun Beams’ Campus is approximately 132 years old, and is intertwined with the advent of the American Episcopal Church towards the concluding years 19th century. The institution is situated in the open and green area Cantonment of Kanpur, which was the historical theatre of the first war of Independence, fiercely fought at Cawnpore, now Kanpur, in 1857, and this also included the site at which many institutions stand today including Sunbeams’.

From a war torn battle field to the peaceful class of education, the turning point came with the establishment of Girls High School in the Episcopal Church Compound in 1876, from which two institutions took shape in the times to come. Girls High School, later on, assumed the identity of Methodist High School. A part of this compound exchanged hands with the illustrious family of the Noronhas of Kanpur, who were running their own schools like Huddard and Noronha, run by Mrs. May Noronha and Mrs. Florence Noronha up to 1980s. Way back in 1963, Noronhas were gracious enough to part with the arena, which is now Sun Beams’ Campus. The Noronha’s transferred their rights and interests to Mrs. Bimla Nigam, who, in course of time provided the campus to Sun Beams’ School.

Mrs. Bimla Nigam was a legendary figure. She was the entrepreneur of the fifth biggest factory of Army Footwear in India, in the name and style of Bimla Cottage Industries, and needed the campus to meet the emergency of Chinese invasion of 1962. During Indo-China war of 1962-63, the school campus was temporarily used for the defense purposes, and this make-shift arrangement served the national purpose by providing emergency footwear to 13 divisions of the then ill-equipped Indian Army at war on high Himalayan altitudes, within a short span of ten months. Almost 1,35,000, Boots ankle complete with the leather lace’ were sent to the Himalayan frontiers.

The dark clouds following the emergency took some time to disappear, and as the silver lining appeared, the purpose and the permission expired for the war effort; therefore, the family of Nigams decided to windup the defense production and restore the premises to its original shape and purpose. The machine and the equipment were removed to pave the way back to the school.

In 1979-80 Sister Euginea, the then Principal of St. Mary’s Convent, Miss K. Lee, the then Principal of Methodist High School, Mrs. Romila Nigam, founder of Sun Beams’, co-founder Mr. Shyam Nigam the architect and the administrator of the institution, Late. Mr. Balwan Singh, renowned freedom fighter and politician, one time leader of opposition in U.P. Assembly and the then chairman of the State Public Accounts Committee, and a few others assembled in the south garden of the premises, to celebrate the resumption of education in the campus. The new name, given by Sister Euginea to the institution, was ‘Sun Beams’.
Ever since, the institution kept on growing in stature as per the divine bliss, human effort, legacy and the depth of history.

Sunbeams’ has many firsts to its credit. For the first time in Kanpur Sunbeam’s installed a generator to counter frequent power cuts way back in early 1990s. The first Computer lab was also set up here. Until then there were Computer labs in many other institutions but were run on contract by companies like ICS etc. Sunbeams’ lab was also run professionally by NIIT, but the institution decided to install its own independent system in the year 2000.

The Cantonment area, mostly educative now, were once the vast stretches of lands, dunes and ghats stood along the banks of the holy Ganges, dotted with the ancient temples, medieval forts and a small village called Kanhapur in the antiquity of time, became a hub of education with the advent of 20th century, as Kanhapur was destined to develop into a vast metropolises and a formidable industrial centre called Kanpur..

Beautiful churches that appeared on its horizon in the 18th and 19th century during the British Raj, entered into 20th century and promoted education in their fold. From the epical ages to the modern times, the Cantonment of Kanpur has a substance. Originally named as the Defense Zone during the British Raj, this was also marked as the school area later on, in the town plan of Kanpur.
Today the time has entered the third decade of 21st century. A lot of water has flown down the Ganges, but water has memory and it returns. Today the efforts are underway by the present Government, to clean the holy river and restore its divine purity.

The same is needed to revitalize the river of Indian knowledge, to which, Sun Beams’ is committed and would so remain in times to come. Educate the future generations about Indian contribution to global wisdom, to which they should further contribute.

Recognitions:
Sunbeams’ at present is affiliated to `Madhyamic Siksha Parished’ i.e. The Board of High School and Intermediate Prayagraj.

It is an English Medium Co-Ed Educational Institution.

Sunbeams’ also has NOC to shift to CBSE or ICSE but since the government has equalized all the boards by way of same course similar books and similar pattern of one paper each for all the subjects there seems to be no need to shift the Board as they are all on par now.

However, UP Board has done a little to propagate its stature as the biggest Board on planet Earth. The highest number of competitive exam qualifiers come from this board in its area of operation. Its curriculum used to be extensive and in-depth but to bring its courseware down to other boards, especially in the science stream has little to do with the larger interest of students.

However, we are teaching extensively and in-depth besides the prescribed course, so that the students need mot go to coaching giants which are filling the gaps of abridged course and level of knowledge required at pre-university levels.

If you aspire to provide profound learning to your ward, it would be expedient to come to a good centre of learning, rather than a fashionable branded institution.