St. Joseph's Boys' High School

Infobox high school

|right|frame|The School 150 years logo
image_caption =
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name = St. Joseph's Boys' High School
motto = _la. Fide Et Labore
established = 1858
type = Private School
faculty =
principal = Fr. Celstine Serra
enrollment = approx. 2,000
students = LKG - 10th (ICSE) and 12th grade (ISC)
address = Residency Road
city = Bangalore
state = Karnataka
country = India
colors = White and Khaki color box|whitecolor box|#C3B091
publication = Josephites
mascot =
information = [phone]
website = http://www.sjbhsbangalore.in/
footnotes =

St. Joseph's Boys' High School located on Museum Road in Bangalore, Karnataka, India is a famous boys' school. It has a very long past and has many famous people as its old boys. The school building has recently been reconstructed. This project which started a few years ago systematically demolished wings of the original aging building and replaced them with a modern structure. The school celebrates its 150th year of existence in 2008. Every year old boys travel from across the globe to attend the Old Boys Day which falls one day after the annual sports day of the school.

History of the School

St. Joseph's Boys' High School , Bangalore (formerly St. Joseph's European High School)was founded in 1858, initially to offer to European and Anglo-Indian families the means of securing for their children the advantage of a liberal education. The greatest care was taken to impart to the pupils a sound moral training, to improve their minds and hears, to cultivate in them gentlemanly manners and habits of regularity and cleanliness, in short, to prepare them for the duties of their future. This was subsequently extended post Indian Independence in the 1950s and 1960s to include students from all walks of life irrespective of race, religion or caste.

Pupils of all religious persuasions are admitted without any interference with their respective creeds and are constantly under the supervision of the Religious Fathers and Brothers. For the sake of order and discipline, however, they are expected to comply with the ordinary rules of the School. The School buildings, now spacious and well ventilated, are situated in the center of the (formerly European quarter of the) Town, between Museum Road and Residency Road. The now obsolete dormitories were initially housed in the upper stories.

The large open play-grounds belonging to the School afford ample space for cricket, football, hockey, badminton and other games and forms of exercises. One of the grounds was situated in the School premises; the other, called the Centenary Ground on M.G. Road near the Mayo Hall is where the school cricket team trains during season. Great attention has always been paid to providing a good physical training and games with the school conducting the Annual Hockey Tournament for I.C.S.E. schools in Bangalore for many a decade now. The School also possesses a Cadet Platoon and a Boy Scouts' Troop; as well as Debating and Literary Societies for the higher classes.

In the year 1883, when Fr. J.M. Vissac was Rector, the school was situated on St. John's Hill at the location of the present day St. Germain's High School; and next to the St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral. Fr. Vissac was in the tradition of nation builders and wanted the school to be located in the heart of the Cantonment in a big campus. For this purpose he purchased a property called Rocklands next to the Madras Bank, the present State Bank of India, and next to the Good Shepherd Convent. He was the architect of the stately buildings on Museum Road whose foundation stone was laid in 1894. In 1898, the school transferred from St. John's Hill to the new buildings on Museum Road with a complement of 100 boarders and 89 day scholars.

The school grew in strength and in 1913, had 239 boarders and 183 day scholars. To accommodate such a large number of boarders two new blocks were added to the original block and an immense playground called 'New Fields' was purchased in what is now Vittal Mallya Road. This was originally a tank bed and the land had to be drained to prepare extensive play fields for the students. In 1910, the school adopted the High School Examination System giving up the Old Matriculation System; and around about this time, it is believed to have taken the name 'St. Joseph's European High School'. The University had in the meanwhile, also abolished the F.A. and replaced it with the Intermediate Arts Exam.

Fr. Vissac also saw to it that two French priests from the diocese were sent to England to qualify themselves to teach in the school, and in those regards, sent Fr. Froger and Fr. Schmitt who would later return to Bangalore qualified with the degree of M.A. from London University. After 20 years of tireless service, Fr. Vissac handed over the Rectorship of the St. Joseph's Institutions to a worthy successor whom he had groomed in Fr. Froger who would be the Rector from 1903 to 1913 and again from 1915 to 1916. The poignance of this appointment is that the beautiful oil paintings on canvas which have adorned the walls of the refectories of the priests and the boarders for nearly a century now, were the products of the brush and easel of Fr. Froger.

In the first half of the 20th century, the course of studies embraced the subjects required for the Government High and Middle School Examinations, and for the Cambridge School Certificate, Junior and Preliminary Examinations. The School was recognised by the Cambridge University, and Senior Candidates could obtain Certificate A of the General Certificate of Education or GCE. The boys prepared for Preliminary Cambridge in Std. VI, for the Middle School in Std. VII, for Junior Cambridge in Std. VIII, and for the High School and Cambridge School Certificate in Std. IX.

With the coming of Independence to India in 1947, the school lost many of its privileges. During the British period, Anglo Indian schools had received grants in aid for teachers' salaries at a much higher level than teachers at Indian SSLC schools. The umbilical chord with Great Britain was cut because India was at the time, going through a sever shortage of foreign exchange and the University of Cambridge was continually raising the fee structure of the exam due to post-war inflation in Great Britain. The Government of India was unwilling to release foreign exchange for students to appear for these examinations. In its place the Anglo Indian Association under the leadership of Mr. Frank Anthony, its President who was a Member of Parliament organized the Indian School Certificate Council which developed two examinations at the end of Standards ten and twelve called the I.C.S.E. - Indian Certificate of Secondary Education and the I.S.C. - Indian School Certificate exams. All the erstwhile Anglo Indian Schools now prepare students for these exams. The Weekly Tests have also since been discontinued, and Unit Tests and Quarterly Tests are now being conducted in their place.

At present, the school follows the I.C.S.E - Indian Certificate of Secondary Education syllabus to Std. X. In 2005, the school was expanded to include Std. I - IV, as well as the I.S.C. - Indian School Certificate to Std. XII. The intake to Std. XI was expanded in 2007 to include girls for the first time in the history of the school. There are currently, around 60 students per class and there are three sections in the middle & high school. There are a lesser number of students in the junior section as well as Std. XI.

The only major change over the years has been the dissolution of the in-school boarding which used to house boys from the ages of 8 right up to 16, in 3 separate dormitories. These boarders were allowed out of the school premises on the last Saturday of the month. Whilst the boarders whose parents lived in Bangalore were allowed to go home, the others were allowed to spend the day with relatives or other persons on conditions laid down by the School. The health of the boarders was entrusted to an experienced Medical Officer. In addition to a large infirmary, there was a special room reserved for the infectious cases, with Matrons attended to the special needs of the boys. In the past, a lantern lecture used to be imparted on a monthly basis to cover various educational topics. On special occasions, Dramatic and Musical entertainment and Cinema shows were given to the boys in the School Hall. With the ceasure of operation of the boarding in the late 1980s, these events have also died away.

In the year 2001, construction started on the new school building under the able stewardship of Fr. Michael John, the school principal from 1994 right up to 2006. This would last for a period of 6 years through to completion in 2007. The new premises, with its revised structure, offers a more modern aesthetic environment, though keeping with the traditional public school imparts which originate from the British India period, thereby retaining the Roman Catholic Chapel, the Refectory, the Brother's & Priest quarters amongst others; and with it, its heritage.

The Houses

The House system is a feature common to Public Schools in India especially Christian run schools (based on an equivalent system in England).

The four houses are named after the patron saints of the four constituent nations of Great Britain, viz. St. Andrew of Scotland, St. David of Wales, St. George of England and St. Patrick of Northern Ireland (who happens to be the patron saint of the entire island of Ireland). Their respective house colors are blue, yellow, red and green.

The Houses compete with one another in studies, games, track and field sports, aquatics, arts, literary, dramatic and music competitions.

The Jesuit 'Society of Jesus' Association

As early as 1841 Bishop Bonnaud planned to start a Catholic High school in Bangalore. But this proposal took concrete shape only in 1854 when the priests of the Missions étrangères de Paris (MEP) bought a plot of land for a sum of INR 1000 at St. Johns Hill. Bangalore Fr. Bouteloup had a house constructed in 1854 at a cost of INR 3000 and this was named St. Joseph's Seminary. This house also contained an orphanage and a residential school.

The Madras University was established in 1858 and hence boarders could be admitted to prepare for the matriculation examination of the Madras University. Fr. Charbonnaux who was in-charge of the school at the time made this entry in his diary; "We decided to open a school for European boys. As a knowledge of English in necessary to our Indian pupils and that of Canarese to European boys we determined to build a wing and a kitchen adjoining the Seminary." This was the beginning of St. Joseph's College. In the nomenclature of the day, in European usage a college was what today we would call a high school and what we would call today a college would be termed University. By May 1865 a new house was built to take in the orphans and boarders of the school.

It was difficult for the three departments, seminary, orphanage and school to function in the same building. Hence in 1875 the orphanage was transferred to St. Patrick's Church and still exists as St. Patrick's Orphanage. The Seminary for all practical purposes closed down and hence the entire campus with all the buildings was utilized for the school and the boarding house. The school had a total of 144 students, 64 boarders and 80 day scholars.

The next most important development was the change made by the new Rector, Fr. Maurice Vissac in 1882. He had the school affiliated to the Madras University as a second grade college which could prepare and send students for the F.A. (First Arts) exams. In 1884, the first 2 candidates appeared for this exam and qualified successfully.

In the period during & immediately after World War I, the French Fathers - MEP were finding it difficult to staff the school. The slaughter of the young men on the battle field of Europe during the battle scarred years of 1914 - 1918 had practically destroyed a whole generation of men, some of whom would have become priests and joined the MEP. The Bishop of Mysore, Msgr. Despastures under whose jurisdiction came Bangalore at that time decided to find a suitable religious order to whom he could entrust the institutions thus freeing his priests for pastoral ministry. His efforts to get the Canons of St. Maurice from Switzerland did not succeed as well as his efforts to get orders of teaching brothers. He had earlier tried unsuccessfully to get the Jesuits, the Priests of the Society of Jesus founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, who were well known throughout the world as educationists to take over these institutions. The Bishop now approached the General of the Jesuits in Rome with the same appeal. He appointed a Visitor to study the matter on the spot. The visitor Fr. Van Kalken was endowed by the General with almost plenipotentiary powers to take a decision. In February 1937 he wrote to the Superior of the Jesuit Mission in Mangalore that Fr. General had approved that the Society of Jesus would accept the generous offer of the Bishop of Mysore and if the Mangalore mission of the Jesuits could not provide sufficient Jesuits then the Visitor would invite Jesuits from other Indian missions to offer their services for this work.

All St. Joseph’s institutions which included St. Joseph’s European High School, St. Joseph’s Indian High School situated at the ‘New Fields’ grounds on Vittal Mallya Road as well as St. Joseph’s College were thus transferred to Jesuit Management.

During the period leading up to World War II, the Italian Government with its leader Mussolini aligned itself with Hitler in the Axis against the British Allied troops, with the result that all the Italians and German priests were thus branded as enemy aliens and were interned. The Jesuit superiors had to then find Indians to manage the school. Fr.E.J. Jacques an Anglo Indian with an M.A. degree from he University of London and Fr. Studerus a Swiss and hence a neutral had to fill up the vacancies. And so, the baton passed on in the Jesuit society to Indian priests belonging to the Jesuit order to manage the school, which continues unto the present day.

School motto and school song

St. Joseph's Boys High School is a Jesuit school which strives to inculcate in each and every one of its students Jesuit ideals, i.e. to prepare men and women who will give themselves in service to others, to strive for excellence and not just competitiveness.

The motto of the school is "FIDE ET LABORE". This has inspired countless generation of youngsters to give of their best for God and country and society. Faith in God and as the school anthem says " Faith and Toil, conquerless alliance wherein we clasp human hands unto God's......." It is this inspiration that makes every Josephite know and feel that he (and from 2006, she as well) is empowered to scale new heights in learning, sports, service and giving generously of themself in the service of others. .

The words of the school song were written by T.Gavan & Duffy; whilst the music was composed by Rev. G. Leroy

Ring out the battle call of Duty!

Unfurl the flag of Faith and Toil!

We deem our soul's eternal beauty

A life-long Victor's worthy spoil

A thousand such have proudly gone before us

To win and spread our School's renown:

'Tis ours to swell with our voices the chorus

And with our deeds enrich her crown.

Faith and Toil, conquerless alliance

Wherein we clasp human hands unto God's!

In His control find we true self-reliance;

My hand and God's - Whate'er the odds

My hand and God's - Whate'er the odds

My hand and God's

Evil's onset hold in defiance!

Famous Old Boys

Here are some famous Old Boys of the school:
*Anil Aldren, A former captain of the Indian National Hockey Team
*Jimmy Anklesaria, Anklesaria Group
*Ashish Ballal, Goalkeeper for the Indian National Hockey Team
*Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail
*Krishna Bharat, principal scientist at Google, inventor of Google News
*Rahul Dravid, former captain of the Indian Cricket Team
*Hakimuddin S.H., Represented India at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in Swimming
*Fazeel Khaleel, Ranji Trophy cricketer
*Mark Mascarenhas, the founder of WorldTel
*Joseph Yubaraj Manuel Pillay, Former CEO of Singapore Airlines and currently Chairman of Singapore Stock Exchange
*Rehan Poncha, Gold-medallist at 2006 South Asian Games
*Karan Shetty, Junior National Representatives in Hockey
*Sudhindra Shinde, Junior National Representative and Ranji Trophy cricketer
*Sandeep Somesh, A former member of the Indian National Hockey Squad
*Anup Sridhar, Currently India's National Badminton Champion
*Robin Uthappa, Member of the Indian Cricket Team
*Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, Sports Journalist with Cricinfo
*Sadanand Vishwanath, Former wicket keeper of the Indian cricket team

External links

* [http://www.sjbhsbangalore.in/ St. Joseph's Boys High School - Web Site]
* [http://www.sjbhsoba.org/ St. Joseph's Boys High School OBA - Web Site]