St. Edmund's School, Shillong
St. Edmund's School, Shillong is an all-boys institution of the Roman Catholic Church affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, (ICSE) New Delhi, India. The school is situated in the Laitumkhrah Hills of Shillong.
History
The school was established by the Congregation of Christian Brothers (India province) in Laitumkhrah, Shillong in 1916. The school is located in Shillong (5,088 feet above sea level)the capital of Meghalaya State. Set amongst the lush temperate forests of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills with its many waterfalls, Shillong was known as Scotland of the East during the British colonial period. The brotherhood was founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. The Christian Brothers were invited to Shillong in 1915 and St. Edmund’s College was begun in 1916. It was, however, in 1923 that the College was ready to start Inter-Arts and Inter-Science classes, and affiliation to Calcutta University, for these courses was received in 1923. The first classes of the University section of St. Edmund’s College opened in 1924. Bro. J. E. McCann was the first Principal of the College (he was also the Principal of the School at this time). Bro. I. O’Leary was the first Principal of the College (separate from the School).
From 1924 to 1936, St. Edmund’s College was junior college for Intermediate Arts and Science. At this level the college offered English, Alternative English, Latin, History, Maths, Geography, Physical Chemistry for arts and science respectively.
The College celebrated its Platinum Jubilee in 1999.
Activities
Creation Week is a week-long extravaganza where students are provided a platform for displaying their non-curriculum talents. Students from other schools are invited to participate as guest viewers for the week. The students display their talent in debates, extempore speeches, declamations, dances, spelling bee, skits, dramas, quizzes, dumbcharades to individual talent displays like solo singing, solo musical performance and poetry.
Annual Sports
The annual sports is held in April. On this day, students from classes KG to 10 perform drills. Other schools participate in the sports. It is one of the most popular activities in Shillong and people from all places come to watch it.
Annual Concert
The annual concert is usually held in September.It is a grand extravaganza of theatrics, dance and music and draws a wide audience of students, parents and teachers.
Academics
The school caters to not just subjects prescribed by the CISCE but also includes subjects like Moral Science.
The Card System Until the 1990s the school maintained a system of class tests spanned across the academic year, in between regular term exams. These class tests were for different grades - green, blue, pink and yellow. The green cards were averaged based on high percentage while yellow denoted failure in one or more primary subjects.
Unit Test
Unit Tests ara a regular feature.
Term Exam
The School usually has two terms exams a year, one in June and the other in the final week of November. Unlike card tests, which were conducted within classrooms, the term exams were more formal. Classes KG to 3 do not have term exams and their promotion is based mainly from class tests. Classes 4 usually have their exams in their classrooms, classes 5 and 6 have their exams in the classrooms of 6 .Classes 7-9 have their exams in different class.
From 1992 onwards the ICSE pattern was changed, with the introduction of projects and later bifurcation of the syllabus. A typical class-X term exam had the following schedule:
- English Literature
- English Language
- Mathematics
- History
- Geography
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Computer Science/Commerce (Computer compulsory from Classes 4-8)
- 2nd Language(Khasi or Hindi)
- 3rd Language* is needed from class 5 to 8.
- Art
- P.T.
- Aerobics (till Class 6)
- Music (till Class 5)
For e.g.,if a student takes his 2nd Language as Hindi,that means his 3rd Language will be Khasi.
Report cards and counselling
Based on the term exam result a report card is prepared by the class teacher and, after the principal verifies it, it is distributed to the student along with their parent/guardian. During the time when Christian Brothers were in charge of the school the first and second term reports would be given to the student in the presence of the class teacher and all the students of that class, to be later signed by his parents/guardian and handed over to the class teacher within a week. Now, the school engages in counselling with student and parents during the report card distribution.
SES Computer lab
Introduced in 1988-89, the Computer lab of SES is one of the oldest in Shillong. It started with the BBC Micro Computers.
The majority of the computers use Windows 7.
Notable alumni
A community of over a thousand alumni called St.Edmund's School, Shillong exists in Orkut. The 'Edmundian Alumni' yahoogroup where alumni are called "elders" and the 'Edmundian' yahoogroup have about 100 members each.
A vibrant organization called SEPPA (St Edmund's Past Pupils Association) exists worldwide along with a charitable arm "SEPPA Gives". The operational Headquarter of SEPPA & its charitable arm is at Guwahati, Assam, India. An annual meet of Seppans and families worldwide is held on the 2nd weekend of February every year. Meets are largely held in North East India with active participation of Seppans all over the world.
Principals
List of principals in chronological order
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