In Assam secondary education was started in the year 1835. (At that time administrative Headquarter of East India Company was Calcutta and Assam was a part of Bengal.) Capt. Francis Jenkins, the commissioner of Assam (1834-’61), was the first British official to send a dispatch to the “Government of India” in 1834 for “taking some active measures to provide instruction for the Assamese youth” and recommended the establishment of schools “to impart English education in four sadar stations — Gauhati, Darrang, Nowgong and Bishnath”. Jenkins also immediately collected a sum of Rs 1,740 from the inhabitants of Guwahati for the purpose of setting up an English school in the town, which had a population of about 5,800, including that of the North Guwahati.
In 1835, the approval of the “Government of India”, run by the East India Company, came and the school was established in the same year with 58 students on its rolls. Mr Singer was appointed its headmaster on a salary of Rs 150 per month. With the establishment of this school, practically the foundation of modern education in the province of Assam was laid.
Soon the number of students in the Gauhati School began to rise and the number shot up to 340 by 1840. Donations for the school were pouring in from different quarters. That year, the Raja of Cooch Behar, Daya Ram Baruah and Juggo Ram Phukan contributed Rs 1,000 each. Dihingia Gosain of Kurua contributed Rs 500.
Emphasis was given in the study of English. The subjects taught in the junior classes in this school included Wilson’s chronology, Yate’s Elements of Natural Philosophy and English grammar. Use of globes, arithmetic with translation and composition were also taught. The senior class course included Meshman’s History of India, Homer’s Illiad and Elements of Natural Philosophy. In 1838, Mr Robinson was appointed as the new headmaster of Gauhati School, now named as Gauhati Seminary, with a salary of Rs 300.