About St. Joseph's High School, Wadala - Mumbai in St Joseph's High School, Barretto Road, wadala (west), Wadala

The story of St. Joseph’s opens in 1917 when Wadala was nothing more than a cluster of villages in the midst of marshy fields and salt pans. It was in such surroundings that Fr. Domingo DeSa ventured to sow the tiny seed – a humble effort with a single teacher to take care of the few boys and girls he had gathered together in two elementary classes, accommodated in a dingy little room, adjoining what was then the chapel of Our Lady of Dolours. The successors toiled hard although with no resources at their command.

The first break came in 1937, when, thanks to the determined efforts of Fr. Augustine Fernandes, St. Joseph’s was recognized as a Municipal-aided English teaching primary school. It had then 175 students on its roll. Two years later, another step forward was taken when the school, despite its many deficiencies and shortcomings, was recognized as a Municipal-aided Middle School, the student population in the meantime rising to nearly 300.

The year 1947-48 was a turning point in the history of the school. In the year of India’s Independence, the Management of the school was taken over by the Salesians. Fr. Edward Rego SDB and Fr. P. Spratt SDB were appointed Principal and Vice-Principal respectively. True to the Salesian traditions, the new Principal did not let grass grow under his feet and with nearly 600 students on his hands; he soon raised the number of classes to seven while simultaneously taking a number of steps to tone up the standard of the school. From 1946 to 1951 the Salesian Sisters were involved in teaching in the school. In June 1951, when they opened their Institution, the girls were taken care of by them, and St. Joseph’s High School, which was co-educational till then, was converted into an exclusive boy’s school.
In 1952, Mr. G.N. Desai the then Mayor of Bombay, laid the foundation stone of the school building. In the following year, the number of students having touched the 800 mark, standards VIII & IX were introduced. It was at this time also, the Institution had the privilege of playing host to a large number of refugees from North India.

There was of course, no relaxing the quest for funds, for as the building began steadily to come up, the demand for finance grew by leaps and bounds. The construction work was thus kept up and the building was completed. The new building, a single storied structure with spacious class rooms, a science laboratory and a fully equipped auditorium was declared open in 1954 by the late Msgr. V. Dyer, the then Vicar-General of Bombay.

Recognition came in 1954 and in 1955 St. Joseph’s sent up its first batch of 28 students for the Government SSC examinations. With 27 candidates returning successful, St. Joseph’s had made its first bow in a spectacular fashion and it is gratifying to note that the reputation has since been assiduously maintained as evidenced by the results in the following years. In June of the same year, St. Joseph’s which had been till then a co-educational institution, was converted into an exclusively boy’s school in view of the coming into existence of the Auxilium Convent High School, that would cater to the girl students.

June 1966 witnessed a radical change in the management of the school. Departing from the past practice of combining the offices of Principal and Parish Priest in a single individual, the authorities concerned appointed an independent Principal in the person of Fr. Jos Menezes, with Fr. Fernandes continuing as Parish Priest and Fr. Victor D’Souza continuing as Vice-Principal. Under the stewardship of Fr. Menezes, who literally devoted his every waking moment to the mission entrusted to him, the school continued to make rapid progress towards the goal of providing ideal conditions for the all-round education and uplift of the young. Nearly 1,500 boys were now seeking the light of knowledge under its roof.