St. Columba's School
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The Senior School Building |
St.Columba's is one of twelve of its kind conducted by the Indian Province of the
Congregation of Christian Brothers which was founded by
Blessed Edmund Rice. Following the C.B.S.E. system of education since 1991, Columba's is spread over a comfortably sized campus, in the very heart of Delhi. Offering a modest range of subjects for students in Class Eleven and Twelve, Columba's was the first to introduce many a facility for the betterment of the students, such as computer sciences and computer labs. Columba's, though known for numerous prestigious events of its own, has always had a notable presence in all other inter-school events like the
Columban Open Quiz, which is one of the largest inter-school quizzes in
North India, attracting over 200 teams and has been at the forefront when it came to charitable causes.
Another school, of the same name, exists in
Kilmacolm,
Renfrewshire in the
United Kingdom.
Officially opened on Tuesday, 29th April 1941, St.Columba's began with 32 boys in
New Delhi next to the
Sacred Heart Cathedral. Admitting boys till class 6, the school known for its beautiful buildings, soon grew in strength and reputation to become one of the premier institutions of education in India. It was one of the first schools in the India to introduce computer education. It was a pioneer in providing other facilities like a swimming pool too.
Blessed
Edmund Ignatius Rice (born
1762, died
1844) was a Catholic missionary and educationalist who was Beatified by
Pope John Paul II in October 1996. He was born in Callan, County Kilkenny,
Ireland, in 1762 and died in Waterford, Ireland in 1844. His remains are in a casket in Mount Sion, Waterford.
When Edmund's wife died after an accident in 1789, he devoted himself to prayer and charitable work, particularly with the poor and marginalised. In 1802, he opened a school for them but the children were so difficult to manage that the teachers resigned. This prompted him to give up his own business and devote himself to training teachers who would dedicate their lives to prayers and to teaching the children free of charge.
He is the founder of two orders of religious brothers: The
Congregation of Christian Brothers and the
Presentation Brothers.
The Christian Brothers grew throughout Ireland, England, Southern Africa, India, America and Australia and today many schools in those countries owe their existence to his vision. His mission is continued by more than 1900 brothers living in over 350 communities educating more than 200,000 students throughout the world.
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The Senior School Building |
The school compund comprises of 5 buildings:
* Junior School
* Middle School
* Senior School
* Edmund Rice Hall
* Residential Block
Junior School
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The Junior School Building |
The Junior School, built in 1955, was the second building to come up. Attendance having increased dramatically to 2200 from 600 in 3 years, its need was clearly felt. Today, this cream and brick structure houses the junior classes from K.G. to 3, including an upgraded computer lab and other facilities such as singing rooms and a separate multimedia room. The place where it was built was earlier a rose garden.
Middle School
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The Middle School Building |
The Middle School building, built in stark contrast to the rest of the school, not only in colour but also in style, was built in 1967-68. It now houses classes from 4 onwards to 10, with even more laboratories, a totally separate computer room, the best in the school, and, the most reminiscent place for every ex-columban, the Canteen.
The Middle Section has many facilities like a small hospital wing, auditorium, basketball court, cricket nets, a large field, computer lab, a separate multimedia lab, physics, biology and chemistry labs, two libraries (one for small children and the other main), and a music room. It also has a P.A. intercom system connected to all rooms in the building.
The Prism
The Middle Section started an annual Children's Day Bash on the 14th of November 2004. It was called the Prism. The Prism is a study-free day when children first participate in various competitions in different activities, like clay modelling, greeting cards, singing, dancing and art etc. After these competitions, the children go out to the Middle School Field where a DJ is organized. Hundreds of people dance on the beats of the latest hit songs.
Senior School
The most majestic of buildings, the senior school building, when built, stood alone and housed the entire school. Today, the 11th and 12th classes are to be found here alongwith a library, science laboratories and the administration wing. On the first floor are the residences of the Christian Brothers.
Chorus:We sing praises of you St. Columba,Scholars of Columba's we,Date to be wise alwaysSincere and constant we.This is our motto that guides usThrough life eternally,This truth we learn in our days of youthGives us strength in fraternity.
Para 1:With glory glows the spirit of S.C.S.Marking all our efforts with true successAnd our Alma Mater seals us as a chosen bandWe all work together for the glory of our land.
Ch:We sing praises of you St. Columba,Scholars of Columba's we,Date to be wise alwaysSincere and constant we.This is our motto that guides usThrough life eternally,This truth we learn in our days of youthGives us strength in fraternity.
Para 2:Pride in Carrying our banners of green and goldBanners that will lead us towards, all our goalsService to others and our nation's goodWe all come together in godly brotherhood.
Ch:We sing praises of you St. Columba,Scholars of Columba's we,Date to be wise alwaysSincere and constant we.This is our motto that guides usThrough life eternally,This truth we learn in our days of youthGives us strength in fraternity.
The school's alumini is full of distinguished personalites in all fields imaginable like
Shahrukh Khan,
Deepak Chopra,
Pramod Haque,
Vivek Paul,
Rahul Gandhi, Anil Shastri, DJ Cyrus, and Palash Sen, the lead singer of the band
Euphoria.
External Links* The Official
School website* Another (detailed but unofficial, last updated in 1998)
website*
Old Columban Association website (regularly updated)
*
St. Edmund's College, Shillong, Meghalaya website (regularly updated)
[[Category:1941 establishments]
