Calabar High School

Calabar High School is an all-male secondary school in Kingston, Jamaica. It was established by the Jamaica Baptist Union in 1912 for the children of Baptist ministers.It was named after the Kalabari Kingdom later anglicized by the British to Calabar, in present-day Nigeria. It has produced at least five Rhodes Scholars, and is respected for its outstanding performance in track and field.

In 1839, William Knibb, Thomas Burchell and James Phillippo, the three leading English Baptist missionaries working in Jamaica, worked to create a college to train native Baptist ministers. Out of this effort, Calabar Theological College was founded in 1843, sited in the village of Calabar, near Rio Bueno in Trelawny Parish. The British named Calabar after the Kalabari Kingdom in Nigeria of the same name.

In 1868, Calabar College was removed to East Queen Street, Kingston, where a "normal" school for training teachers and a high school for boys were added. Shortly afterwards, the high school was closed and the teacher-training activities ceased. This left the practising school—now Calabar All-Age on Sutton Street—and the theological college, which was relocated at Studley Park (on Slipe Pen Road) in 1904.

At the beginning of the 1900s, there were few high schools to educate the sons of the working class and the rising middle class. In September 1912, the Revds. Ernest Price and David Davies — Principal and Tutor, respectively, of Calabar Theological College, founded Calabar High School under the joint sponsorship of the Baptist Missionary Society of London and the Jamaica Baptist Union.

The high school opened 12 September 1912, with 26 boys; the foundation was laid in the Christian tradition. Rev. Price was the first headmaster. Within a year enrollment had reached 80 and the school had received government recognition. An early benefactor was Elizabeth Purscell, who in 1919 bequeathed the adjoining property on Studley Park Road in trust for the school. The school offered boarding facilities on nearby premises —the Hostel— to accommodate boys attending from outside the Corporate Area of Kingston.

In 1952, Calabar Theological College and Calabar High School moved from their location at Studley Park to Red Hills Road, where 60 acres (240,000 m²) of land (then called "Industry Pen") had been purchased for the re-siting of both institutions. At the time, this was a thinly populated, undeveloped area and many people thought the move unwise. The new school was built to house 350 boys but before long, extensions were needed. The school provided boarding facilities up to 1970. When boarding ceased, dormitories were converted to workshops.

In 1967 the Theological College moved to Mona as a part of the United Theological College of the West Indies and the High School took over the vacated space. This is the section of the premises which the boys now call "Long Island." At about this time a portion of the Calabar lands was sold, to be used for commercial and residential development. A privately run Extension School was added in 1971.

In 1978, the school adopted a shift system incorporating the day and extension schools, at the request of the Ministry of Education. There are over 1600 students on roll, with eight forms in each year group between grades 7 and 11, and four forms in grades 12 and 13 (sixth form).