St. Xavier's Senior Secondary School, Delhi
St. Xavier's School, Delhi is a Christian co-educational school from prep to grade 12th founded and run by Jesuits.
famous alumni of St. Xaviers, Delhi
History of St. Xavier's School, Delhi
The school is based over the grounds and the building of one of the three top-most British hotels of Delhi, Hotel Cecil, on Rajniwas Marg in the Civil Lines area of Delhi, India . Situated in an 11 acre park it was a posh hotel with over hundred rooms and lush green lawns and a swimming pool.
The Patna Province of the Society of Jesus bought it (including the premises and the services of the hotel employees) from the American siblings Mr. Hotz and Ms. White and was granted permission by the Commissioner of Delhi to convert it into a residential school for boys.
St. Xavier's School was inaugurated on the 6th of January, 1960 by the Archbishop His Excellency James Knox, the representative of the Vatican in India under the stewardship of Fr. Frank Loesch, the first Rector. Loesh went on to negotiate and bought property around the area (the adjacent land from the Gujarati Samaj and the Bombay House a little distance away) keeping in mind the expansion in the years to come.
In the following week admissions for new classes began starting with Std. V and reaching down to Prep. At the end of the week there were over 700 boys on its rolls, a record for any school in its first year of admittance. It was no wonder then that within a month of its inception the school was granted recognition by the Directorate of Education.
While the Prep classes functioned from the Bombay House, the school utilized the five buildings of the hotel with a few necessary changes keeping for the time being the major part intact. The rooms were converted into classrooms and dorms with four to five boys in a room which had the unique facility of a dressing area and attached toilets. Some parts of the residential quarters were renovated to accommodate the staff.
At the same time work was started on the five storied school buildings and slowly the premises took on a new shape as appropriate to an establishment of learning. In the process many of the old buildings were destroyed but some were retained and are still in use like the Fathers' Residence, the Chapel, the Hall, the Snob's Row and the swimming pool. Modern classrooms, teacher's tutorial rooms, science laboratories, a library and a host of other facilities were in the process of being constructed and a large playing field was created by leveling the ground occupied by a road that had cut across the area.
By 1965, the Junior and the Senior school buildings were ready and were occupied, and the reins of administration came into the hands of Fr. Thomas Kunnunkal who took over from Fr. Thomas Athazhapadam, the first principal. Fr. Kunnunkal - who was later awarded Padam Shri- was responsible for much of the pattern the school adopted in later years. Under his extended term as principal the school gained the status of one of the most prestigious institutions in Delhi.
Hostel and boarding facilities were discontinued in 1970 and the hostel building was converted into a Jesuit training facility
In the 1980s St. Xavier's got itself into controversy when it switched from English to local language Hindi as the medium of instruction in junior classes. This measure (along with decision to set apart a 25% of seats for the poor - with subsidized uniform/books/tution) was part of changing the image of school from one of "school for affluents" to one of "school for local needs". A large number of parents pulled their children out of school as well as many teachers left. The hitherto popular reputation of St. Xavier's as an elite school took a nose dive and the public was bewildered at the direction this top of the rung school had chosen for itself. Nevertheless, the school continues its policy of teaching in Hindi as it believes that "younger children learn best in their mother tounge".
In 1985, school started admiting girls starting from prep grade and each year moving one grade up and is now fully co-educational.