General Cariappa Higher Secondary School (GCHSS) is located near Gandhi Nagar, Kamaraj Street, Saligramam, Chennai. GCHSS was founded in 1956. It is a Government aided school helped by the Guild of Service. At the Higher Secondary level, the school offers vocational courses in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Repairs and Maintenance, Draughtsman (Civil), Radio and Television Repairs and Maintenance, Business Machines and Computer Programming. GCHSS provides dedicated service of education with a vision of improving the quality of surrounding humanity.

This school is a model school for OPEN. Students from this school take vocational streams and some have been getting jobs right out of high school. A growing number of students from this school pursue two-year Polytechnic programs to expand their skills. GCHSS has always been in the news when the Plus 2 results come out. A long list of meritorious students from families of poor financial background grab some of the state top ranks. Children of weavers and manual laborers who graduated from this school are now part of the Indian middle class, working for companies such as Airtel. 

Every year a major portion of the successful students pursue higher education in a discipline of their choice of engineering in various disciplines, nursing, etc. These students need funds to pursue their education further.

School Profile:

• Total strength of the school - 894 (100% - Tamil Medium)
• No. of Teachers - 34(Govt.) 

Infrastructure work completed:

OPEN renovated the boys toilet and built the computer room during the year 2009. During the year 2010 OPEN renovated the multi purpose hall, noon meals kitchen, men staff toilet and built the lady staff toilet.  

Educational needs:

Students of the GCHSS lack basic English speaking and writing skills. Most of these students are first generation students. These students get very little help from their parents. OPEN is evaluating options to partner with external organizations to offer basic English classes to all students in 6-12 standards during the latter half of academic year of 2010-11. The cost of the program is estimated to be approx Rs 300 per student per year.

OPEN is also evaluating options to start an after school program for the elementary school children from the school. This program is aimed at providing a well rounded development for these kids.

Infrastructure needs: 

The The school receives very little funding for infrastructure from the Government.