Holy Cross School (Salem, India)

Holy Cross School (Holy Cross Matriculation Higher Secondary School) is a primary, secondary and higher secondary Catholic school founded in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India by the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1965. It is a boys' school, and also runs a hostel.

Heritage

When a river is more than full it will overflow and find a place in distant fields. In the same way the missionary zeal after filling the native place will try to find some other destination. In 1835, when France was under the clutches of French Revolution, one man of God, Fr. Moreau, founded a religious community to help the people. After a tumultuous period this community got a strong foothold. It was named Holy Cross. Canada was the fortunate country to receive this community and became a strong fold for this community.

Some decades ago there was an urge in this community to spread its wings to different countries. A fervent gust of missionary zeal blew some young religious to Bengal. Some of them with inexhaustible enthusiasm found a place in India. They were all far-sighted religious individuals. It was little doubted that these band of young religious would form a long-standing religious community in India. They were groping for truth in the complex Indian society. This led them to find satisfaction in the field of education. Education field was not something new to them. They had already some successful expedition into this noble field in far more developed countries. Plato said, “The guardians of state should not know their parents.” These religious left all their kith, kin and comrades and came to this unknown, fascinating India. What is surprising is that there was real warmth and affection between these religious and the natives. Both the groups joined hand in hand to develop some schools of excellence, which could send good citizens into the social stream. It was Divine providence that the Brothers of Holy Cross chose Salem among all other places to start a school in the year 1963 as a legacy of their hundred years of educational expertise in the west. It had a humble beginning as all the good things begin. Not even its founder would have thought that a school started with just five students would grow up to be an institution to keep 3600 students and 200 staff in its portal.

The present school

Now it has classes from Kindergarten to Std. XII. [L.K.G to 12th Standard] . The school has adopted from its inception Matriculation syllabus till Std. X [L.K.G to 10th Standard] and Tamil Nadu State Board syllabus in the Higher Secondary Classes [11th and 12th Std.] . Students have the opportunity to select one among Tamil, Hindi and French for their second language.A CBSE school for LKG to 4th Std. , Co Education will be serving from June 2008 at Gundukallur, Udayapatti area.

Its mission

True to the ideals of the founder of The Society of Holy Cross, ,Fr. Moreau, the school aims at developing not only the minds but also the hearts of young people. Though strongly rooted in Christian faith, it respects the ideals and values of all religious faiths. It approaches its responsibilities from a global perspective while preparing the children to become good positive citizen of our great nation. All round development is the framework on which Holy Cross education is built

The present scenario of education

Normally school is a place where children are taught. The process of teaching differs from school to school depending on the ideals and philosophy of the schools. There are schools that aim at high marks; they concentrate only on the pages of books, that too only the subjects that are needed for certain professional courses. Such schools also come under the comprehensive term school. In such schools from morning till evening or night the students are expected or required to carry the subject books in their hands to realize their strategic target of memorizing or mugging up all the pages. This may be accepted or acclaimed by a part of the society that needs immediate benefit at the risk of losing the long-term goal of achieving skills for their life in this complicated and competitive world. They try to appear as attractive as possible. But the success of this type of education is yet to be seen.

School with difference

There are still many schools, which have not got corrupted by this dangerous and bizarre type of education. They still keep their minds clear about the goal of education i.e to prepare the students entrusted to them to face the world boldly with justice, equality, liberty and fraternity. A school, which prepares their students only for the board examination will never achieve this end. A school that has futuristic approach knows the difference between teaching for marks and teaching for life. A good school has a judicious mixture of these both ingredients of education. A school will be handicapped if one is totally removed from the other. A student of such a school has exciting experience of gathering more and more skills for his life. "'In a school students should be exposed to the four basic skills for the success of life
1) skill to take decisions in a short time,
2) skill to accept difficult situations,
3) skill to communicate what he has in mind to others effectively,
4) skill to work under pressure."' The co curricular and extra curricular activities with little sugar coated and falvoured cultural programmes can develop such skills.

Success of Holy Cross

It is not an easy job to run such a school in this present result-oriented society. Due to the dauntless and tireless efforts of a series of dedicated principals and correspondents, Holy Cross Higher secondary School has achieved this unique status of preparing the students who come to its portal to face the challenging world with a smile on their face. Life of a student in Holy Cross is very challenging. He has to cope with many activities without losing his aim on getting good marks. It may appear to an outsider a dangerous spectacle like walking on a wire. But to the inmates this becomes their life; they take up their work with conviction. Holidays are not to spend on bed; nor to have an overstretched sleep. They are mainly meant for outside activities like trekking, social service, visiting different factories to have first hand information and tours. Apart from their regular activities specially designed programme, PERSONALITY ENHANCEMENT PROGRAME, gives them opportunity to learn through social activities. Thanks to the principal Bro. John Britto, C.S.C., the underprivileged students of the neighbourhood are given special classes in the evening time. Nearly 200 students get benefit from this project. Higher-class students of the school have a chance to teach these students. These classes are conducted in a highly organized manner. It is better to get a glimpse of this programme. PEP is the acronym of PERSONALITY ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMME. Holy Cross Matriculation Higher Secondary School believes in all round development of the students and it has committed itself to change its system to accommodate programmes to facilitate the students to achieve this development. This year (2005-2006) we have a special programme with well-defined objectives to enhance the total personality of the students. Hence it has the name PERSONALITY ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMME (PEP) All the students are required to be part of this programme. They have to visit industries, agricultural farms, museum and places of historical importance in and around Salem. At the end of year they have to prepare an adequate project report using the experience they gain out of such visits. Apart from this programme they have to involve themselves in social activities. All their activities in the school will also be evaluated and given marks. A student of Holy Cross is packed with activities – his normal studies, sports, dance, music, band, and martial arts like kung fu, karate, and hand writing classes. It has some major annual programmes to its credit – trekking to Yercaud Hills, Sports Day [http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2085481 Sports Day 2007] , Holy Cross Tournaments, Kalothsav (cultural festival), 10 km Road Race. Most of the students manage all these activities with ease and comfort. If some of them lag behind in studies special classes are conducted. The students who face the board exams are given special attention in their studies. They write test almost everyday and at least ten full exams. Such constant vigil in their studies gives the school good dividends in the exam results.

The management and staff who work for all these activities are completely convinced that academic should never take the back seat. The co-curricular and extra curricular activities are like appendages to the main activity of academics.

External links

* [http://www.salemholycross.org www.salemholycross.org]