Bhagalpur: Mokshada Plus II Girls' School in Bhagalpur, Bihar's first girls' school, is set to celebrate its 150th anniversary on January 31 in a big way.

State ministers, dignitaries besides alumni from across the world are scheduled to attend the daylong function.

Sri Aurobindo's father K.D. Ghosh had established the school. Actors Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar's maternal grandfather helped improve its infrastructure. Asia's first lady doctor, Kadambani Ganguli, was an alumna.

Preparations are on to make the anniversary celebrations remarkable, said teachers at the school. They have been assigned different tasks, including arranging money.

"We will celebrate the historic event of this glorious institution that has been serving the cause of girls' education for the past 150 years," said principal Dayanand Jaiswal.

When Ghosh established the school on January 31, 1868, the school was called Valika Vidyalaya. In 1878, Raja Shiv Chandra Banerjee, maternal grandfather of actors Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar, donated land and other facilities to the school. "Under his patronage, the school was renamed Mokshada Girls' School after Banerjee's mother Mokshada Devi Banerjee," said Raman Sinha, a senior teacher of history at Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TMBU). Banerjee also arranged land beside the school for upgrading the Durga Charan primary school - named after his father - into a high school.

According to Sinha, the school started with just 10 students and Urmila Banerjee was its first headmistress. On the occasion of the sesquicentennial ceremony, a special souvenir will be published.

"Mokshada is not only the first girls' school in Bihar but started Sundarwati Mahila College (SM College) here from August 15, 1949. S.M. College, under TMBU, pioneered women's' education in this region," said former college librarian Gouri Mozumdar, an alumna of Mokshada Girls' School who belonged to the first batch of the college.

"It's a matter of pride that this school produced so many students who are well-established in different fields not only in the country but also abroad," said Ratna Mukherjee, former professor at TMBU and also a former student of the school.

The school now has 32 teachers and nearly 700 students. But former students say quality of education is on the decline. The school also accommodates 100 students in its hostels, which are in a dilapidated condition. The school also lacks basic infrastructure.

"The government should take care of this old institution. It's this city's heritage," said Swapna Choudhary, a former teacher and alumna of the school.