The Gujranwala Theological Seminary traces its history to April 1877 when Rev. J.S. Barr, DD, was appointed senior professor and began teaching students who gathered for courses in Sialkot. According to one reliable source, the seminary students lived in “small one-room huts” on “the south compound” of the Sialkot Mission, which was where the first American UP missionaries lived, and where the Girls’ Boarding School, Hajipura, was located. The senior leadership of the seminary supervised CTI when it was established in 1881.
[Prof. Salamat Akhtar claims that CTI was established in 1888, but this is an error. https://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/news-details/282 ]
The CTI Facebook page states: “Established in 1881, our school provides outstanding education, preparing students for success.”
From Dr. Wilbur C. Christy, who published the article, “The United Presbyterian Church and the Development of Leadership for the Punjabi Christian Church,” Journal of Presbyterian History, Fall 1984, Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 223-229.
“[CTI] began with only 11 students in 1881; by 1892 it had 102, and in 1916 275, including 12 women and 48 non-Christian day students. Originally it went up only through the eighth grade and Urdu was the medium of instruction. Then as the demand both for the English language and for higher education increased it became an Anglo-vernacular school, in which English was both a required subject and the medium of instruction for many classes.”
