St Joseph's Boys' High School (formerly St. Joseph's European High School) is a private Catholic primary and secondary school located on Museum Road in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Founded by the Jesuits in 1858, the school caters to boys only from kindergarten to Grade 10 and is co-educational in Grades 11 and 12.

Large, open playgrounds accommodate sports such as cricket, football, and hockey. and other games and forms of exercise. The cricket team trains at the Centenary Ground located on Mahatma Gandhi Road near the Mayo Hall. The school pays great attention to physical training and sports and has long conducted the Annual Hockey Tournament for ICSE schools in Bangalore. Sports rivalries have been strong since the mid-19th century.[2] The school hosts a Cadet Platoon, a Boy Scout Troop, and Debating and Literary Societies for the higher classes.[citation needed]

In 1883, when Father J.M. Vissac was rector, the school was situated on St. John's Hill at the current location of St. Germain High School, adjoining St Francis Xavier's Cathedral. Vissac relocated the school to a large campus in the heart of the City Cantonment. He purchased the "Rocklands" property adjacent to the Madras Bank (the present State Bank of India) and the Good Shepherd Convent and designed the buildings on Museum Road in 1894. In 1898, 100 boarders and 89 day scholars moved to the new facility.[citation needed]

By 1913 the school had grown to 239 boarders and 183 day scholars, and two new blocks were added along with an immense playground called "New Fields" on Vittal Mallya Road. The tract had to be drained for the playing fields. In 1910, the school adopted the High School Examination System giving up the Old Matriculation System and is believed to have at this time adopted the name St Joseph's European High School. The University meanwhile had abolished the F.A. and replaced it with the Intermediate Arts Exam.[citation needed]

Fr. Vissac had two French priests from the diocese, Frs. Froger and Schmitt, earn their MA from the University of London, England, and they returned to teach. After 20 years Fr. Vissac handed over the reins to Fr. Froger, Rector from 1903 to 1913, and again from 1915 to 1916. Fr. Froger also did the oil paintings on the walls of the priests' and boarders' refectories.[citation needed]

In the first half of the 20th century, the school curriculum was directed toward the Government High and Middle School Examinations, the Cambridge School Certificate, and the Junior and Preliminary Examinations. The School was recognized by Cambridge University and senior candidates could obtain Certificate A of the General Certificate of Education (GCE). The boys prepared for Preliminary Cambridge in Std. VI, for the Middle School in Std. VII, for Junior Cambridge in Std. VIII, and for the High School and Cambridge School Certificate in Std. IX.[citation needed]

During British rule, teachers in Anglo Indian schools had subsidized salaries that were significantly higher than at the Indian SSLC schools. With Independence in 1947, the school lost many of its earlier privileges. Continually rising exam fees of the University of Cambridge, a result of post-war inflation, coincided with a severe foreign currency crunch in India.[citation needed]

The Government of India, unwilling to release foreign exchange for these examinations, switched to the Indian School Certificate Council, with two examinations at the end of Classes X and XII, the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and the Indian School Certificate (ISC).[3][4]

The school follows the ICSE syllabus up to Class X. In 2005 the school expanded its curriculum at both ends. It added Classes I through IV and extended the high school to include the ISC at Class XII. The year 2007 included another first: Class XI was expanded to include girls. Today there are about 60 students per section and three sections in the middle and high school. The other classes have fewer students.[citation needed]

Another major change over the years was the closing of the in-school boarding house, which had housed boys ages 8 to 16 in three separate dormitories. They were allowed one out-of-school outing on the last Saturday each month. Their health was entrusted to a Medical Officer and matrons in a large infirmary with a special room for infectious diseases. A monthly lantern lecture addressed various educational topics and on special occasions, drama, music, and cinema shows were screened in the School Hall.[citation needed]

Construction of the new school building took from 2001 until 2007, under Fr. Michael John, the principal from 1994 to 2006. The new facilities, along with improvements, offer a modern and aesthetic environment while retaining from British India the Roman Catholic chapel, the refectory, and the priests' residence

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