It was an "idea whose time has come or should have come long ago,” stated Bharda New High School and Junior College trustee and secretary Dr Shehernaz Nalwalla on March 20, 2023 regarding the decision to make the 132-year-old School co-educational. "Parents were requesting that their children could all study in the same School.” Additionally, there was the issue of falling numbers that had to be arrested. "Our infrastructure could accommodate girls in the School section too,” she stated.
"The idea was first implemented during Covid 2020-21… We got only one girl,” Nalwalla said. "During the online time the idea did not pick up…” But the change came only in 2022-23 when "the physical school started.” There are 16 girls enrolled, with 11 in the lower and higher kindergarten.
Top: Sharing space at the co-educational Bharda New High School (above)
Photo: Homyar Mistry, Homz Prints
There are 29 girls in the Junior College, which was established nearly four decades ago as a co-education facility. "It was a Commerce-only college, but in 2019 we started Arts and Science streams too,” she noted. There is only one Parsi student, shared the trustee, who retired as vice principal of Wilson College in 2018. Nalwalla is also vice president at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai and chairs their Mumbai Research Centre.
What changes did the 1891-established School have to make in the policies and procedures? "We had to inform the (State Education) Board and since in our Junior College we already had girls it was easy to get permission… The Board was mainly concerned about separate toilet facilities and overall safety. The girls also have a similar uniform of pants, shirt and tie. The students and parents had to be sensitized. The teachers were very supportive.”
Will co-educational facilities be a good way to go for other Parsi schools? "If the all-girls schools are doing well in terms of their numbers, then maybe they could continue. After all, several top schools are single sex,” she stated, naming Campion, Queen Mary and J. B. Petit. "Criteria can be the readiness of parents and numbers” on rolls, she added.
The board of trustees of this educational institution, besides Nalwalla, comprises president and retired corporate executive Kersi Treasurywala, and former office manager Dilnar Ahmadullah.
The credit for establishing the New High School in Bombay, as the School was then known, jointly goes to Jalbhai Dorabji Bharda and Kekobad Behramji Murzban” (see "The committed educationist,” Parsiana, July 7-20, 2021). The School, whose motto is "Ever new,” was renamed after Bharda on his demise in 1921.
Jalbhai Bharda was connected with other educational institutions as well. Being a committee member of the Bai Avabai Petit Girls’ Orphanage, he had helped establish the Sassoon Reformatory. He conducted a class for teachers of the Zoroastrian Girls’ Schools Association and was an enthusiastic member of the committee of the J. N. Petit Institute. A trustee and president of Udvada Anjuman and Daman Parsi Anjuman, he put in considerable efforts to better the conditions of Zoroastrians there.