Started in 1964 , the Department of English has been imparting education as a unit of the college to the young aspirants in and around Marthandam, which is socially, educationally and economically a backward area in the district. There were only three batches in the pre-University class in the first year. The next year it was upgraded into a first grade Degree College and Mr. S. B. Lysander took over as the head of the Department. English Literature major was introduced in the year 1971. At present the Department teaches part II English to 13 batches of I year and 10 batches of II year U.G students, apart from the English major students.
The students in those days came from distant villages. Some of them had to walk a few kilometers to take a bus to college. Many of them came from economically backward families. Their parents were labourers or farmers who had just a hand-to-mouth existence. Besides, they were all first generation learners. As most of them came from rural schools where the medium of instruction was Tamil, special efforts had to be taken to make them feel at home with English teaching. It short, an English Lecturer had to face an uphill task. However, they took it as a challenge and taught them in words. The result is that a good number of students who passed through the poetals of this great institution are well placed today.
Although the College has been serving this area for the past three decades, still there are students who are first generation learners. It is because there is an earnest thirst for higher education even among people living in the remote of the district. Moreover. higher education still remains inaccessible to many, especially the downtrodden. Therefore, the mantle of educating this generation of students has fallen on the present teaching community.