St. Joseph Higher Secondary School

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 around 160-180 seats. Other classes (4-9) may offer admissions if seats are vacant.

The college section usually selects only 600-700 students out of approximately 7000 applicants.

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.

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 170 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.

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.

(The Italic ones show the English Version Sections.)

The uniform consists of white shirt, dark grey trousers and black shoes.

The school has a 3.5 acre campus. It has grounds for association football, basketball, cricket, and volleyball, amidst other sports.[1] 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.

The South Building, viewed from the school football ground.

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.

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.

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

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 Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad.[2]

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, Josephite International Understanding Club.

Scouting was introduced in St. Joseph in 1964. Many of the scouts have camped in countries like Australia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.[1]

St. Joseph runs a Literacy School at its premises in the afternoon to impart free primary education to children around Mohammadpur. This Literacy School was founded in 1978 by Nicolas Thiemann. Students can get free education up to class-V from this school.

"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.

Football, cricket, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, chess are the most common sports and games held almost regularly on the ground. St. Joseph has produce players such as Shahriar Nafees (cricketer) and Grand Master Reefat Bin Sattar.

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.