School History

St. Anthony’s Convent was opened on 21st November 1923. The Canossian Sisters came here from Belgaum at the request of Bishop Angelo Poli, O.F.M Cap, the then Bishop of Allahabad who wanted the sisters to start an English medium school and a boarding for poor Indian Christian girls. The pioneers were M. Margaret Cambiaghi the first Superior and Headmistress, M. Victoria Suares, M. Louisa Fernandes, M. Enrichetta Cazzaniga and M. Maria Ferrario.

On 15th January 1924 the school was opened with seven girls, who were all boarders. Thus the school and boarding started on the same day. In July the same year the dispensary too was started. The school continued as a primary school for many years with enrolment increasing from year to year, so also the boarding. In October 1947 M. Olive Rodrigues came here to take charge of the school. In February 1948 it was recognized as a Junior High School with Hindi as medium.

In 1951, the school was recognized as a High School. The first batch of students appeared for the High School Examination of the U.P Board in 1953. They were only four but all passed. In 1955 M. Olive was transferred to Alleppey and M. Amelia Menezes took charge of the school from July 1955. Up to 1958 there were both boys and girls in the primary classes. In 1958 a separate primary school was started for boys with English as medium.

The school continued as High School up to 1960 with increasing enrolment. In 1960, an application for the recognition of Intermediate was submitted. It was granted but information was received late in July 1961. By then all the students who had passed High School had joined other colleges. So the Board allowed Intermediate classes from 1962, with first batch of students appearing for the Intermediate Examination of the U.P Board in 1964.

From 1962 to 1969 no other recognition was granted even though applications were submitted for ‘Art’ in the Intermediate and Instrumental Music in the High School and Intermediate and for Science in the High School.

The reason for the refusal for recognition was “non-submission” of the scheme of Administration. During this period, the R.I.G.S (Regional Inspector of Girls’ Schools) and the Board asked if we had submitted our scheme of Administration. In reply we quoted a letter of the D.D.R by which we had exempted the Institution from submitting the scheme of Administration. This was not accepted and so the scheme of administration was submitted and approved by the D.D.R in 1969.

On the advice of the D.D.R and the consent of the R.I.G.S and the repeated remarks made by the auditors, the primary classes along with their staff were separated in 1970. In 1970 recognition was granted High School Science and in 1972 for Inter Science. Mother Amelia Menezes who was the Principal since 1955 retired from service in July 1974. Sr. Rosaline Jacob took charge of the college from 1974.She continued as Principal till 1982. In 1976, the Institution was declared a minority Institution by the then R.I.G.S. Sr. Rosaline was on leave from 1982 and Mrs. Leela De a senior teacher was acting as Principal in her absence. In July 1983 Sr. Marisa Mathew took charge of the College.

We got recognition for Intermediate Home Science in 1989 and in 1995 for High School Commerce. Due to increasing number of girls a separate section was started in August 1991. At the same time it was also decided to close the existing Boys section in English Medium from K.G to class V by not taking admission in K.G from July 1992. The Boys Section was finally closed down by April 1997. This was done by eliminating one class every year.

The school now is heading towards its Centenary Year.