The St. Joseph’s Convent School, Martam, East Sikkim

“St. Joseph’s Convent School is an English Medium, Co-educational Minority Catholic institution, established in 1983 by the Registered Society of the Sisters of St. Joseph’s of Cluny in the Diocese of Darjeeling. It is a sister institute of St. Joseph’s Convent, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, India.

The School is open to all irrespective of religion, caste or community.

The aim of the school is the all round development of the student. Care is taken to help each one grow spiritually and aesthetically, morally, physically and academically in a homely atmosphere and in close collaboration with parents. No effort is spared to inculcate values and habits of honesty, integrity and loyalty of politeness, respect and neatness, regularity and diligence.

Character formation, physical and academic excellence are based on the love of God, of dependence on His will and His grace and personal effort as modeled by JESUS CHRIST. Pupils are expected to do their best to attain that harmonious development which will make them worthy citizens of a great nation sincerely committed to God, home and country.  The School is affiliated to the council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi.

Martam, a pleasant solitude of mountains and hills, where tranquility favors union with God, is a unique place for St.Joseph’s School to take its roots.  Like all the tribal villages, Martam was backward and undeveloped. Most of the people were uneducated farmers but had the will to educate their children in a well established school.

On the request of the people of Martam, CR Fathers and in particular Rev Fr. Kunnath and Rev Fr. Brahier showed keen interest to start a missionary school in their locality.  Mother Cecilia Kenny, the then Provincial Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph’s of Cluny, Kalimpong came with a few sisters from Pakyong to see the land. Three generous people came forward and they were ready to donate their lands to start the school. They were Late Mr. Martam Topden, Late Mr. Tseten Gyatso and Mr. Dawchung Bhutia.

On 4th August 1983, the pioneer sisters of this mission-Sr. Justine and Sr. Marie Elise then set foot on this soil together with Rev Fr. Brahier, his driver and family. In the same year, Sr. Rosalia arrived. On hearing the news of a school come up in the village, residents saw a vision of the future and came forward for every help.

On 27th February, 1983, the school foundation stone was laid by the then Chief Minister of Sikkim, Mr. Nar Bahadur Bhandari in the presence of Fr. Kunnath. It was witnessed by a big crowd of villagers. The local people made a kucha road up to the school site. Fr. kunnath helped with the construction design. The architect was Mr. Kiran Rasaily, the well known Chief Engineer of Sikkim, who tirelessly worked till the completion of the school building.Fund for the constrution was provided from the Provinciliate, Kalimpong. Later, Missio, a German organization aided for the completion of the school building.

Water was a major problem in those days. It was brought in trucks for the construction work. The villagers were helpful and even collected water from the streams or dug tiny ponds(kuva) where they could find water trickling down from between the rocks. There are also instances of collecting rain water in many small containers. Side by side, with the construction of the ground floor of the school, a presbytery was built by the CR Fathers.

In September 1983, St. Joseph’s School was institutionalized as a co-educational school. The aim of the school is all round development of the student. Care is taken to help each one to grow, spiritually and aesthetically, morally, physically and academically in a homely atmosphere and in close collaboration with the parents. No effort is spared to inculcate values and habits of honesty, integrity and etiquette.
Since the construction work was on , the initial classes began at the Presbytery. In a singe room, smaller than today’s standard classroom and filled with planks or thin carpets were packed at least 60 kids with running nose and call of the cries of the newly admitted ones, perhaps the first Josephites to nurture.

In March 1984, the ground floor of the school was ready with adequate furniture for LKG, UKG and Class I students. Sisters shifted their residence to the school building with as the first boarders, to join them later were some small boys. Only the sisters taught in the school for the first six years, mainly because of accommodation and financial problems.

The school was established with the sole aim of making quality education available to the lower income group in and around Martam village and as such the school fees was very low as compared to other English Medium schools.

By and by, well qualified staff was taken in. Three sisters were also brought from South Indian Province. They were Sr. Fatima, Sr. Pamela and Sr. Bibiana. Sr. Bellarmine donned the cap of the school Principal in 1990 and brought about newer developments to the school including to ICSE Board, New Delhi. She was replaced by Sr. Anslem in 1998 as Superior cum Principal of the School. She remained here only till April 2001 and Sr Erica took over the charge of the school. Sr. Jacqueline was appointed the Superior. In 2006, Sr. Denise became the school Principal. In March 2008, Sr. Rosalia Rai, who had been the pioneers of the school, was installed as Superior of this institution.

Over the years, the school community has not only contributed their mite towards strengthening the academic base of the Sikkimese children, but also i setting in motion an over all development in the areas of economic activities, health and awareness of quality of life as a whole.

The Sisters and the Staff, who have toiled ahead of us in this institution, have provided us with tremendous values and it is the duty of each of us to nourish the seeds that was sown into sprouts, buds into blossoms and ripening flowers into fruitfulness.”

(The above was extracted from http://stjosephsschoolmartam.blogspot.com/)