St. Xavier's High School, Patna

History

In the late 1930s, the superior of the Jesuit Patna Mission, Fr. Frank Loesch, was approached to set up a school in the city of Patna. Fr. Loesch was to be assisted in this task by Fr. Marshall D. Moran. Fr. Loesch decided to open a Cambridge school to provide service to the people of Patna and Bihar. There were other such Jesuit schools in North India in places like Calcutta and Darjeeling, including one of the oldest ventures in Patna – the Irish Christian Brother's St Michael's High School. But most of these schools provided education to the children of Catholics, British expatriates and Anglo-Indians. The new school in Patna was to be for Indians of all castes and creeds. St. Xavier's High School opened on 17 January 1940 with Fr. Moran as its first Principal. In 1949, the vice-chancellor of Patna University asked Fr Moran, who also served on the senate of the university, to supervise exams in Kathmandu, Nepal. In October 1949, Fr Moran crossed into Nepal to become the first Jesuit priest to enter the country in over 200 years. Later he was invited by the Nepalese Government to open a Jesuit school in Nepal. Fr Moran went on to establish St. Xavier's School, Godavari, Nepal in 1951.

After Fr Moran left for Nepal, Fr. Edward Niesen became Principal of St. Xavier's, Patna. In 1953, Fr. Niesen also moved to Nepal and the leadership of the school was passed on to Fr. Gordon E Murphy, S.J., who served as Principal of the school for nearly 16 years.

The school ceased to be a Cambridge school when the Jesuit fathers took over St Michael's High School from the Irish Christian Brothers in December 1968. Fr. Murphy left St. Xavier's to become Principal of St Michael's High School. Fr. Joe Paschal became Principal of St. Xavier's. Many of the students and teachers also moved to St Michael's, but many teachers and students stayed behind. The curriculum set out by Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) was adopted in place of Senior Cambridge Examinations.

In the early 1980s a small computer lab with BBC Microcomputers was set up under the supervision of Fr Tim Ribeiro. In 1995, Xavier's Centre for Computer Studies was established within the campus.

After being a boys-only school for 59 years, in 1999 St. Xavier's became co-educational, one year at a time beginning with grade one. That same year, under the administration of Fr. Peter Arockiasamy, Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) was introduced as an alternate course for students preferring the English medium education. Today ICSE and Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) courses run simultaneously. That same year St. Xavier's High School along with Patna Women's College and the Patna Holy Red Cross Society celebrated Diamond Jubilees. In 2008, under principal Fr. George Nedumattam S.J., +2 was introduced in the BSEB course.In 2009, St Xavier's switched from Hindi to English as the medium of instruction in junior classes.In 2013 Lower Kindergarten (L.K.G.) was added.

Campus

The school is situated at west Gandhi Maidan Marg in Patna, in the heart of the city. The school began operations in the early 1940s in what is now the Jesuit residence. In the late '40s under Fr. Frank Loesch the main building which houses the school office and classrooms came into existence, and in the 1950s it was extended. This part of the campus accommodates the school auditorium, library, science labs, and staff rooms. In the late '90s a new building along the southern boundary was constructed, for more classrooms.

Until the late 1960s, the school provided boarding facilities for its students. Xavier has excellent facilities for sports: a beautiful swimming pool with diving board, a cricket pitch, a basketball cum korfball court, a tennis court, a table tennis room, and handball court. The school was one of the first to provide swimming facilities in Patna, in the 1950s. The main campus also has a canteen, a cafeteria, and a church. For sports such as athletics, cricket, football and hockey, the school uses Gandhi Maidan, which is across the main road in front of the school. The main residence for the Patna province of Jesuits is at Xavier. The ground floor in front of the school building is used for assemblies and ceremonies. The school has a principal residence besides the school building, and a guest house nearby along with several gardens besides those at the Jesuit residence.

Infrastructure and other facilities

There are separate school buildings for the Kindergarten (two-storied), for the Primary School (five-storied), and the third for the Secondary School (three-storied) which includes laboratories for physics, chemistry, and biology, two multi-purpose halls, spacious classrooms, and a library. There are five computer labs with over 200 computers equipped with Microsoft Windows and Zip drives. By early 2008, St. Xavier had become the first school in Bihar and one of the first in Eastern India to use Smart Boards in classrooms. The school has also installed Educomp smartclasses in every classroom from 1st through 12th grade.

The school offers private, city-wide transportation services for students and faculty through Pandey bus services. It was one of the first schools in India and only school of Bihar to introduce elevators in the buildings. In 2010 the school installed CCTV cameras on campus and along corridors to monitor the students and premises.

Patna doesn't have a real korfball court. In August 2012, St. Xavier's announced construction of a dedicated Korfball court for the use of the Korfball Association of Bihar (KAB) and future korfball stars. The Cricket Academy (XCA) was set up to provide youngsters specialized training.

Affiliation

The school is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, New Delhi as well as the Bihar School Examination Board, Patna.

Subjects

Subjects taught at Xavier's for junior classes (from classes I to V) are English and Hindi language and literature, social science, mathematics, general science, moral science, drawing and crafts, general knowledge, computer (class III onwards), Sanskrit/Urdu (class V), and writing skills.

For middle classes VI to VIII, the subjects are English and Hindi (language and literature), physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, geography, history, civics, value education, Sanskrit/Urdu (till VII), general knowledge, and SUPW.

For senior classes IX and X, the subjects taught at ICSE level are English language, English literature (differentiated into drama, prose and poetry), Hindi (prose only, ekanki suman and gadya sankalan and language), math, physics, chemistry, biology – math and science are required subjects – geography, history and civics, computer application/economic application (either one), value education, and SUPW.

The two streams for senior secondary classes XI and XII are Commerce and Science. Class XII is preparation for BSEB examinations held state-wide in February-March.

School session

The school year is from April to March, divided into three semesters. Days are divided into eight-periods, ordinarily from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. The order in which the classes meet varies from day to day. Saturday is half-day.

For Classes I to X

The school uniform consists of the school badge, school tie, school belt, white shirt, grey skirts/shorts for classes I-V and grey trousers/skirts for classes VI-X. Plain grey socks and black shoes are to worn by all.

During winter months, students also have the option of wearing a deep maroon blazer.

A metal badge which shows the house colors is worn by the students on the top left side of the shirt. The class monitors, house captains and captains have badges that denote their designations along with the house colors.

Footwear is black leather shoes with laces. On days when students have Physical Training in school, they wear white canvas sport shoes, along with the vests of their respective house colors, blue for Panthers, green for Tigers, yellow for Lion, and red for Leopard.

Motto & slogans

The motto of the institution is "For God And Country", with the implication that God comes first.

The school has a variety of slogans from school spirit slogans to senior slogans to educational slogans to anti-bullying slogans. Some common slogans used by Xaverians are:

Student council

The Student Council is a body of student representatives, headed by the Head Girl and the Head Boy. It is made up of the captains of the teams and representatives from other co-curricular activities along with elected and nominated students of each class from grade VI through X. Parliamentary procedure is used at meetings and the main purpose of this group is to assist the Principal, Vice-Principal, staff, and students in fulfilling their responsibilities. The Principal moderates the Council with a creative sort of guidance. The student members help maintain order in the school during the Assembly and breaks, in between classes, and also on important occasions like the Annual Day and the one-act-play festivals.

Dramatics

Each year, the school conducts senior and junior one act play festivals. Students from grade IV-X take part in this.

General Knowledge (GK) Club

Students become members of the junior, inter, and senior G.K. Clubs according to their classes.

Debating

As a co-curricular activity, debating is offered to the students of Grade VI and above during and after class hours.

NCC

A National Cadet Corps unit has been functioning at St. Xavier's since January 1980. The cadets are entirely from grades VIII to X.

The Air Wing NCC was raised in 1980 at St. Xavier's, with fifty cadets enrolled in the first year. This was troop no. 15 of no. 1 Bihar Air Squadron NCC, Patna. From 1981 onwards, St. Xavier's Air Wing cadets have been represented at Gandhi Maidan Ceremonial Parades, as on Republic Day, Independence Day, and NCC Day. Apart from the regular activities, cadets take part in the ATC and CATC at Air Force Station, Bihta (Patna), or at the Homeguard Training Centre, Anandapur, West Bengal.

LTS and YCS

Leadership Training for Service and Young Christian Students are popular activities. LTS recruits all seniors; YCS is for Christians. Members strive to be faithful to the motto "For God and Country" and to the uplifting of society.

Tarumitra

Tarumitra is a student forum promoting ecological sensitivity.

SPIC MACAY

The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture among Youth (SPIC MACAY) holds weekly meetings on campus and invites students to participate in their activities.

House system

Students are grouped into four houses: Panthers, Tigers, Leopards, and Lions. Each house has a House Captain and a House Vice Captain – generally from grades 10 and 9 respectively. Reporting to them are the House Representatives – one for each of the other grades. Nomination is based on academics, community involvement, behavior, and popularity. In addition to leading their respective houses, the officers maintain discipline around campus. The houses compete against each other in sports. On the annual sports day, the winning house is declared on the basis of points earned throughout the year.

Miscellania

Xavier's Cricket Academy

Xavier's Cricket Academy (XCA) is a cricket academy of St. Xavier's High School, Patna, in association with Amikar Dayal Centre for Cricket Excellence. XCA is managed by former cricket captain of India's under-19 team, Amikar Dayal. This academy is the state's first professional cricket training academy at the school level.

XCCS

Under the guidance and supervision of its founding director Fr. E.C. Sebastian, the Xavier Centre for Computer Studies (XCCS) was established in 1995. It is a registered society under Societies Act XXI of 1860 bearing registration no. I/1955-56 and later headed by Fr. Arun Ignatious, S.J. It is located on the campus of St. Xavier's High School, Patna. It was the oldest Programme Centre (0516P) for its region of the IGNOU Computer Programme CIC, DCO, BCA and MCA in 1996.

Under the supervision of the Fr. Gregory Gomes, the centre reached several milestones, such as being designated "Largest Centre of India". It had about 9000 fresh candidates in 1999-2000. Even during the slump in the IT industry, XCCS was constantly the most sought after centre admitting the largest number of students, which rises each year.

Publications, past & present

Xavier Life was a magazine published for and by the students, with an editorial board of students interested in journalism. A Jesuit Father usually served as moderator. Students had almost complete freedom in its planning and publication. In the 1970s through 1990s up to four issues of Xavier Life were published each year.

Xavier Yearbook captured life at St. Xavier's in a very creative manner. Though not published every year, Xavier Yearbooks were an integral part of the school's history and tradition. The yearbooks were primarily photographic publications, which highlighted and commemorated life of students and staff through the years. Published regularly in the decades of the 1940s and 1950s, the format was very similar to that of high school yearbooks in the United States. In 1968, a joint yearbook was published for both St. Xavier's and St. Michael's. In the 1970s and 1980s, yearbooks were published in 1972, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1988.

Xavier's Life Annual is an annual magazine produced by an editorial board consisting of several teachers, headed by the most senior English language teacher. Features include the talks by the principals, rectors, and vice-principals, group photographs of all classes, photographs of office bearers and major events, and English and Hindi articles written by students, teachers, and alumni.

St Xavier's Alumni Association

St. Xavier's Alumni Association (SXAA) is an alumni organization for former students of St. Xavier's High School, Patna. It was founded in 1947, and is one of the oldest alumni associations in the country, boasting over 3,500 members, some of them very famous names.