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Saint Joseph Higher Secondary School
সেন্ট যোসেফ উচ্চ মাধ্যমিক বিদ্যালয়
Sancti Iosephi Scholae et Collegii
The school building
Location
Map
97, Asad Avenue, Mohammadpur, Dhaka - 1207

1207

Bangladesh
Coordinates23°45′35″N 90°22′12″E / 23.7598°N 90.3701°E / 23.7598; 90.3701
Information
Type
Motto
  • Latin : Progressus In Sapientia et Virtus
  • English: Advancing In Wisdom And Virtue
  • Bengali: প্রজ্ঞা ও পুণ্যের সাথে হও আগুয়ান
Religious affiliation(s)Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dhaka
(Congregation of Holy Cross)
Established19 March 1954; 69 years ago (1954-03-19)
School boardDhaka Education Board
School districtDhaka
Session2023-24
School code1204
PrincipalLeo J. Pereira
Faculty85
Grades3-12
GenderMale
Enrollment2600 (As of 2023)
LanguageBangla and English
Campus size3.5 acres (1.4 ha)
Campus typeUrban
Color(s)  White and   Gray
SportsFootball, basketball, cricket, chess, volleyball, athletics, table tennis, badminton
NicknameSJSC
PublicationThe Josephite
AlumniFull list
Alumni nameSaint Joseph Old Boys Foundation
DemonymJosephite
Named afterSaint Joseph
EIIN103564
Websitesjs.edu.bd

St. Joseph Higher Secondary School (Bengali: সেন্ট যোসেফ উচ্চ মাধ্যমিক বিদ্যালয়), also known as SJC is an American Catholic higher secondary school in Asad Gate, Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2023, St. Joseph was awarded the 'A+' grade by Bangladesh Government.[1][2] It is a mono-ed (boys') school offering education from Third grade to Twelfth, averaging 8–18 years of age. The school is a single-shift (morning) school with over two thousand students.[3]

After the independence of Bangladesh, it was changed from English to National Curriculum-based Bengali medium. At present, English and Bengali are used for teaching up to higher secondary level.[4] As the name St. Joseph Higher Secondary School suggest, education provided by the school is at the higher secondary level. Every year, about 650-700 students graduate from its Higher Secondary section and 170-180 students from the secondary school section. The students of this institution are known as "Josephite".[5]

The school has its own spacious playground, basketball court, volleyball court, badminton court and table tennis court.[5]

History

St. Joseph in the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971

On March 19, 1954, Brother Jude Costello, an American Missionary member of Congregation of Holy Cross working under the Catholic Archdiocese of Dhaka, founded the school as the "St. Joseph English Medium School" at Monir Hossain Lane, Narinda, in the current old part of Dhaka for forty students to start the School, the institution had a General Certificate of Education (GCE) based education structure.[6] The classes were taught in the parlor for the first year. The following year, a single storied building was constructed by Brother Andrew at Shah Shaheb Lane in Narinda. In 1960, a second roof was added as the enrolment of the school rose to 269.[7]

In 1963, nine years after opening, the school was sufficiently developed to enable two major accomplishments to take place—both of which was to bring Brother Jude’s original idea closer to realization. In October 1964, to accommodate the increasing enrollment, Brother Fulgence, Superior of the Brothers, began work on a new school complex in Mohammadpur. In November of that same year, the first class of boys from St. Joseph sat for the Cambridge Examinations.[7] This group was the first group of many groups to bring honor to the school. In July 1965, all the classes shifted from Narinda to the Mohammadpur compoyears.[3]The new school was very modern and quite unfinished. The first classes held here were for adventuresome boys who had to climb over construction materials, bear up with construction noises and brave the elements. But the joy of having new school brought out a new spirit which grew as the school developed.[8]

After the liberation and independence of Bangladesh, the school started to grow and develop with the new country. The medium of instruction changed to Bangla and the school registered with Dhaka board. In 1973 the last of the Cambridge groups took their examinations.[9] During the ten years of Cambridge, 233 boys took the overseas examination and 98% passed with over 60% in the first division.[10] In 1974, the first batch of boys took the SSC Examination and 32 of the 33 boys passed and one of them was placed first in the combined merit list.[1] Each year brings forth some achievement.[11]

It celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2004 at the school campus and on 19 March 2014, it celebrated its 60th anniversary of establishment.[12]

Religious affiliation and ethos

Saint Joseph, after whom the college is named

The college is Roman Catholic and the Congregation of Holy Cross exercises responsibility over it through a Governing Body whose chairman is the Archbishop of the Society. The institution is named after Saint Joseph, a christian saint and the legal father of Jesus. The college seeks to give an all-round formation, inculcating both human and spiritual values. It gives special consideration to Roman Catholics and also Buddhists and Ethnic minority (under the minority rights enshrined in the Constitution of Bangladesh) for whose education the college was founded.[13]

Architecture

Robert G. Boughey: An American architect born in Pennsylvania, US. He completed his Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York in 1959 and received Diploma in Tropical Studies from AA School of Architecture, London in 1967. He is a former research professor of architecture at Pratt institute.[14][15][16]

Academic identification

Having both primary and secondary education level, this institution also offers higher secondary education from 2001. The secondary level has both science and commerce version. The higher secondary level includes humanities too. All the levels have both Bengali and English language versions, each class having two Bengali and one English version sections. Besides, from the year 2017, it has restarted the English medium section of the school named St. Joseph International School following the Cambridge Curriculum.[4]

Admission

The school section admission goes through three levels; interview, written test and final selection. Admission into class 3 is held officially, around 2500-6000 competing for only 180 seats. Other classes (4-9) may offer admissions if seats are vacant.[5]

The college section usually selects only 600-700 students out of approximately 12000 applicants.[17]

Curriculum

The school follows the National Curriculum of studies. Upon establishment, it was an English Medium Cambridge school. Following the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the school abridged itself along with the national curriculum. In the year 2004, it introduced the English Version first in grade 6, gradually adding one English version section to each grade.[3]

The school was initially named "St. Joseph High School". In the year 2001 Higher Secondary Education (equivalent to college) had also been introduced in Saint Joseph, changing the name of the institution to "Saint Joseph Higher Secondary School". The school is recognized by the Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The average graduating class from Saint Joseph each year has 160 to 180 students. The secondary level offers S.S.C (equivalent to O level) examinations and the higher secondary level offers H.S.C (equivalent to A level) examinations. The curriculum includes both Bengali and English versions (not to be confused with English Medium). The institution is recognized by the Board of Intermediate and Higher Secondary Educations.[10]

Grades and classes

Instead of Section 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C etc. St. Joseph uses names for its sections of grades. There are three sections for grades 3–10, and there are six sections for grades 11–12. In the school section, each class contains 50-60 students.[18]

Grade Names (3-10)
3 Hawks Eagles Falcons
4 Tigers Lions Mountain Lions
5 Hornets Wasps Drones
6 Wildcats Bears Polar Bears
7 Leopards Jaguars Panthers
8 Comets Meteors Asteroids
9 Jets Concords Rockets
10 Stars Giants Titans
11 Venus Jupiter Mars
12 Uranus Phobos Earth

(The Italic ones show the English Version Sections.)

Uniform

The uniform consists of a white shirt, dark grey pants, and black shoes.[4]

School grounds

Outdoors

The school has a 3.5 acre campus. It has grounds for association football, basketball, cricket, and volleyball, amidst other sports.[5] The school basketball court, built in the 60s and modified in 2008, also serves as a multipurpose auditorium. The main field is used as the football pitch and beside the main ground, the mini field is used as Volleyball court. There are Badminton Courts beside the volleyball court.[19][20]

The South Building, viewed from the school football ground.

Campus and buildings

The School Campus viewed from the first gate

A composite of two four-storey buildings with a two-storey building in the annex for teachers and office is located in Dhaka City. The four-storey buildings are known as north and south building. The ground floor of the south building serves as a table tennis court. The school has three main entries. The first and the second one serve as the entry for students and teachers, the third one is for official purpose.[21]

Laboratories

One of the chemistry labs

Facilities include two computer labs equipped with multimedia projectors, a separate internet lab, two advanced chemistry labs, two physics labs and two biology labs. Of each of the chemistry, physics and biology labs one is used by the secondary students and the other is by higher secondary students.[22]

Library

Library of Saint Joseph Higher Secondary School

The library was founded in 1954. It has approximately 10,000 books and magazines. The library works with the Bishwa Sahitya Kendra and British Council to arrange book reading programs.[23]

Purposes of the campus

National Math Olympiad 2013 at St. Joseph Higher Secondary School
National Math Olympiad 2013 at St. Joseph Higher Secondary School

The southwest corner of the school holds a small hostel for the brothers of Holycross. Since 2004, the school has been hosting the national occurrence of the Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad.[24]

Legacy

Academic Results

and H.S.C. Examination in 2004–2023.

Records

Headmasters and principals

Past and current faculties

Spes Unica at St. Joseph Higher Secondary School

Starting with a handful of American Brothers from Congregation of Holy Cross, the school received the services of a large number of teachers both before and after integrating itself with the secondary education system in Bangladesh. The current faculty consists of 50 Secondary Section teachers, 25 Higher Secondary Section teachers, two counselors, two Prefects of Discipline, two librarians, office staffs, two sports instructors, and individual coaches for the soccer, basketball and cricket teams. Leo James Pereira is the current principal of the school. Victor Bikash D'Rozario and Rocy J. Costa are the current vice-principals of the school.[29]

Extracurricular units

Joseph's students, "Josephites", maintain relationships with peers from other colleges by participating in inter-college competitions and college festivals.

The Extra Curricular Credits Committee (ECC) monitors the performance of students and sends contingents to other colleges. Extra-curricular and co-curricular activities include the Scintilla Science Club, Josephite Debating Club, Josephite Language and Reading Club, Josephite Business Club, Josephite Chess Club, Josephite Eco Earth Club, Josephite Interact Club, Josephite Cultural Forum, Josephite Film & Drama Club, Josephite IT Club-JITC, Josephite International Understanding Club.[30][20]

Scouting

Scouting was introduced in St. Joseph in 1964 with a view to creating among the students a sense of sensitivity, sympathy, fellow feeling, camaraderie, benevolence, generosity and rationality towards the deprived, distressed, underprivileged and the marginalized. It teaches an individual to become self-reliant by honest means. It instigates good human qualities in the individuals to make them prepared for people in their times of crying need. The scout groups of St. Joseph have participated in numerous camps, rallies, jamborees at home and abroad. Many of the scouts have camped in countries like Australia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.[5]

Literacy School

As a part of its continued strides towards humanitarian and social services, St. Joseph runs a Literacy School at its premises in the afternoon to impart free primary education to the underprivileged children of the slums and Geneva Camps around Mohammadpur area. This Literacy School was founded in 1978 by Brother Nicolas Thiemann, CSC. Students can get free education up to class-V from this school. The classes are held on every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The school starts at 2:30 p.m. and breaks at 5:00 p.m. Besides basic literacy skills, they are taught discipline, good manners, moral and social values.[3]

Publications

"The Josephite" is the yearbook of St. Joseph published annually to record the activities of the institution all the year round. The contents of the yearly magazine include massages from the Archbishop, Principal, Vice-Principal, Counselor and Students’ Guidance, editor and student editor, photographs of the teachers, photographs of all students (III-XII), photographs of the activities of the students, events and programs, individual writings of the students in both Bengali and English and so on. "The Josephite" is thought to have been first published in 1967 and since then it has been published every year.[30]

Sports and games

Football, cricket, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, chess are the most common sports and games held almost regularly on the ground.The institution has an extraordinary chess club in the country. St. Joseph has produce players such as Shahriar Nafees (cricketer) and all Grand Masters of Bangladesh like Niaz Murshed, Reefat Bin Sattar, Ziaur Rahman.[31][32]

On the annual sports day, a number of traditional track and field events are organised for both the students and teachers. These include long jump, high jump, triple jump, shot put, discus throwing, relay race, 100-metre sprint, 200-metre sprint, 400-metre sprint, 800-metre sprint, 1500-metre sprint, dress as you like and tug-of war.[29]

Notable alumni

The alumni of St. Joseph include some of the most illustrious contributors to the society for the past decades. Alumni of the institution include members of the parliament, ambassadors, union and state ministers, justices of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, business executive, high-profile jurists and attorneys at law, professors of MIT, liberation martyrs, senior national and state-level bureaucrats, captains of Bangladeshi industry, financiers, philanthropists, educationists, scientists, leaders in the Bangladesh armed forces, journalists, leaders in the medical field, chess players, cricketers, luminaries in art and culture including several major film actors and musicians.

Actors

Education

Music

Sports & Games

Politics

Businesspeople

Medical

Others

Alumni association

The alumni of the school have formed the Saint Joseph Old Boys Foundation (SJOBF), which organizes events and programs.[70]

The alumni of the school have formed the Josephites Foundation Canada, a North American foundation that accepts members from all over the world who are Josephites.[71]

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