By the 1930s, several overseas missions had established a widely scattered presence throughout the vast region of pre-partition Punjab. Both the American Presbyterians and the Methodists had a number of small schools with few students and teachers. The Great Depression brought financial difficulties. Mission managers decided to pool resources of several small schools in order to manage a single larger school. The vision of a large central high school, established and administered by inter-denominational effort, took shape. The missions constituted a governing body for the central school and registered it as United Christian Schools on June 4, 1941.

United Christian Schools continued to grow. In 1970, United Christian Schools was re-christened as the United Christian Institute. The boys' wing is now called the United Christian Senior Secondary School for Boys. The girls' wing is called the United Christian High School for Girls. The vocational training wing, the Industrial Training Center, was established in 1952. The St. Thomas School was established in 1972. Most recently, the United Christian Primary School was established in 1993.