The founder of Nair Service Society Bharatha Kesari Padmabhushan Sri. Mannathu Padmanabhan founded N.S.S. Training College, Ottapalam in the year 1960. Initially this college was affiliated to University of Kerala and subsequently to University of Calicut. In the year 1995 the institution attained the status of a Post graduate college with the introduction of M.Ed. course. The college now upgraded as an approved research centre in Education under University of Calicut.
N.S.S. Training College, Ottapalam is one of the scores of educational institutions, ranging from elementary schools to Grade I colleges, owned and managed by Nair Service Society. Nair Service Society, a registered charitable society, was founded in the year 1914 by late Mannath Padmanabhan, the legendary social reformer, educationist and visionary. Today its organs or units sprawl from one end of the state to the other, and even beyond the boundaries of the state playing pivotal role in the social transformation of the state by means of the mighty tool of widespread education.
The crying need for a college of Teacher Education in Palakkad District struck Mannath Padmanabhan as early as 1960, a time when such a college was absent in the entire area. Aspiring students of Education, therefore, had to move to places far from their homes, and the result was that trained teachers were hard to come by. Often schools had to recruit untrained teachers which affected adversely the standards of teaching and learning in the schools.
Comparatively women were the worst affected in the absence of teacher-education facilities near their homes. Though there were plenty of girl’s schools in the area, the number of women-teachers available was fewer. The opening of this
institution was a boon for the women who aspired for the profession of teaching. This institution has paved for them the way to empower themselves with greater educational attainments. Thus the role that this institution has played in the development and empowerment of the women community of the state is a vital and pioneering one.
Ottapalam stands on the banks of Nila, the river that meanders through the whole of south Malabar districts of Thrissur and Palakkad and Malappuram and it epitomizes the rich age old culture of Valluvanad, a geographical area that still stands untouched by the pathetic aftermaths of mindless industrial growth and wanton commercial exploitation. A paradise marked by pure serene idyllic charm, Ottapalam is also known for top diplomats like Mr. K.P.S. Menon, Scientists like Dr. M.G.K. Menon and legal luminaries and statesmen like Mr. Chettur Sankaran Nair and Mr. V.P. Menon. The very high standards of education the area maintained justified the founder’s plan to set up an institution of teacher’s training here.
N.S.S. Training College had indeed modest beginnings as in the case of many of the great institution that we see today. It was opened in 1960 by Sri. V.P. Menon in the premises of the N.S.S. K.P.T. High School with 80 students and three teachers, one of whom was the principal. Two years later, the college was shifted to a nearby two storied building specially built for the college. Then its student strength was a hundred. 1965, it catered to a hundred and fifty students, and in thirty five years, its strength had doubled to reach three hundred. It now imparts teacher training in half a dozen discipline with 22 teachers on its faculty excluding the Principal. In the development of infrastructure, UGC came to its help in 1976-1977 and the administrative block in two storeys was the result. The management built up
another three storey block to accommodate the increasing number of students, in 1995. Now the construction of an open air auditorium cum lecture hall complex in two storeys is completed wholly funded by the management. A new P.G. block with well equipped computer lab and other facilities was inaugurated on December 10, 2014.
Another mile stone in the growth of the college was the commencement of M.Ed. course in 1995, which raised the status of the college to a full fledged institution of teacher education.
With total student strength of 325 and thirty four staff on the roles, the institution today has substantial merit and mettle as the facts furnished in the report substantiate.
The college was established in 1960 and was affiliated to the University of Calicut. To start with, it imparted instruction for the one year B.Ed. Degree course with eighty students on the rolls. In 1995, the college was upgraded to a Post Graduate college with M.Ed. course. The college celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1985 and it’s Golden Jubilee in February 2010. The college is modeled on semi-residential pattern and this offers adequate opportunities of curricular and co-curricular activities for the mental as well as spiritual development of the students. The special concern of the college for the moral standards of the students is well evidenced by the spiritual discourses held occasionally in the college. These discourses have undoubtedly enriched the personal as well as social identity of the students.
The college and its hostels are open to students of all castes and creeds, and provide amenities for the creation of a healthy cosmopolitan atmosphere in the campus.
Guidance from NSS Management with regular administrative and financial support helps the Principal to serve the community through imparting quality education. The institution charges the fees stipulated by the University of Calicut which is affordable to students from all sections of the society