a competitive examination held every alternate year, to necessitous students of the Junior B.A. and Junior F.A. classes respectively.
The training college at Rajahmundry was originally established as an elementary normal school by the Gódávari District Board in 1883. Its status was raised in 1890 to that of second-grade normal school. In 1892 it was taken over by Government and in February 1894 it was raised to collegiate rank with the Union high school, transferred to Government by the managing committee, as its practising school. In May 1904 it was affiliated to the University of Madras for the degree of Licentiate in Teaching. Its aim is twofold: to supply the educational institutions of the Northern Circars and Ceded Districts (Cuddapah excepted) with trained Telugu teachers, the want of whom has long been a bar to education in those districts; and to work (as a practising school) a large and efficient high school at Rajahmundry with classes as large as the needs of the town and the neighbourhood require.
The college is maintained from Provincial funds and the general management is in the hands of the Principal of the Rajahmundry college. The teaching staff consists of a Vice-Principal — a member of the Provincial Educational Service — eleven Licentiates in Teaching, two matriculates, a drawing-master, an agricultural instructor (who holds a diploma in agriculture), two pandits and a gymnastic instructor.
When transferring the Union high school to Government with all its properties, the managing committee also handed over a site, measuring two and a third acres, purchased by them in the heart of the town. On this, the Government began in 1897 to construct a building at a cost of about Rs. 65,000; and, on its completion in 1899, it was occupied by the training college classes, which had been before located partly in the arts college and partly in a rented building. With a view to providing a recreation ground for the boys of the practising school and the students of the training college, and to secure healthy surroundings for the latter, the authorities negotiated with the Rajahmundry municipality for the acquisition of the whole of the Potter's tank, situated in front of the college, and in 1895 submitted proposals for its acquisition. The scheme however fell through then owing to its prohibitive cost. In 1901 the subject was re-opened; and in the following year a portion of the Potter's tank and the house-sites in front of the college were acquired, and this area was reclaimed and enclosed within a compound wall at
