Golden Jubilee Celebrations for St Lawrence High School Moodubelle
By Dr. Eugene D’Souza, Moodubelle

Udupi, Dec 19: St. Lawrence Composite PU college of Moodubelle will be celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the High School Section from 28 to 30 December 2009. During these three day celebrations various stage and cultural programmes will be conducted and the past and present Correspondents, Principals, teaching and non-teaching staff and the outstanding old students and parents will be honoured. These programmes will be attended by eminent personalities as guests. Most Rev. Dr. Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Bishop of Mangalore will preside over the Golden Jubilee Celebration on 28th December 2009.

College Building

Old School building

The foundation of St. Lawrence High School fifty years ago has practically transformed Moodubelle from a relatively backward to a progressive village. Up to 1959, the school going children from Moodubelle either had to give up education or travel long distances to various destinations to continue their studies after the 8th standard. Due to the dangers involved in travelling to far off places, especially during the rainy season as the children had to cross the rivers and due to chronic impoverishment of the farming families most of the children had to give up their education after 8th standard. They either worked as farm hands or migrated to Mumbai in search of employment.

Realising the difficulties faced by the children of the village in pursuit of high school education, and respecting the keen desire of the people of Moodubelle to have their own high school,  Fr. Abundius D’Souza, who had arrived as the parish priest of St. Lawrence Church in 1957, made up his mind to establish a high school in the parish. Being assured of moral and material support from the parishioners of Moodubelle, Fr. Abundius acquired necessary permission and St. Lawrence High School officially started from 2nd June 1959 in the premises of the Church Higher Primary School.

For the construction of a separate building for the newly established high school was a difficult task. As the majority of the people of Moodubelle were basically associated with agriculture and few of them working in Mumbai had meagre salaries, collection of funds for the high school building was a daunting task. In spite of these difficulties, people volunteered to donate according to their capacity in cash or kind. People of different wards of the parish did voluntary work in turn for nearly two years while constructing the building and later to clear the hillock in front of the high school so that a proper playground could be provided for the students.

While Fr. Abundius D’Souza provided the much needed leadership, it was Fr. Theodore Lobo, the Assistant Parish Priest who was instrumental in mobilizing funds by persuading the parishioners to donate whatever they could in the name of St. Lawrence for the noble cause. Parishioners of Moodubelle still remember the fact that, Fr. Theodore Lobo did not hesitate to take up any kind of physical work related to the construction of the high school, either working with the people during the voluntary labour, offloading cement bags from trucks or bullock carts or even accompanying the trucks transporting granite blocks or sand. Thus, meagre donations and more of labour and sweat went into the making of St. Lawrence High School fifty years ago.  

St. Lawrence High School had the good fortune of being administered by forward looking Correspondents, discipline conscious Head Masters and dedicated teachers. The earlier Head Masters, Denis D’Silva, Deju Uchil and  B.A. Samak had to work hard in bringing up the high school in terms of academic improvement and infrastructure. The greatest academic achievement during the tenure of Head Master Samak was that for the first time in the history of Moodubelle a student of St. Lawrence High School, Philip D’Souza secured the first rank in SSLC at the State level in 1969. Another student, Narasimha Acharya secured 19th rank in the State in 1970 during the tenure of Fr. V.G.F. Rego as the Head Master.

Fr Joswey, Fr Paul and Philip Dsouza (First Rank Holder in SSLC in 1979)

Under successive Correspondents and Head Masters infrastructural facilities of the high school were added and quality of education was enhanced. In order to provide the students an opportunity to continue their education further, Fr. Alexander Lobo took the bold step of starting the PU College in the year 1981 with Arts and Commerce streams. Mr. John Menezes, the former lecturer of St. Mary’s College Shirva served as the Principal of St. Lawrence Composite PU College for a long period of 18 years from 1984 to 2003.

The present Principal, Fr. Paul Sequeira introduced a number of innovations for the improvement of the academic   atmosphere of the high school and PU College. In order to develop the overall personality of the students, Fr. Paul introduced computer course, National Service Scheme (NSS), Ecological Club  and other activities including Karate, Yakshagana, Bharata Natyam and English Speaking Courses. Midday meal to all the students, initially introduced with the support of the Lions Club of Moodubelle, but later managed by the management and staff was a significant achievement of Fr. Paul. In 2008, Science Section to the PU College was added with appropriate laboratories for physics, chemistry, biology and computer science.

Since the inauguration of the Golden Jubilee Year of St. Lawrence High School on 1st January 2009, a number programmes have been organized  throughout the year that were aimed at developing the teaching skills of the staff by organizing seminars and workshops and for students to increase their learning ability. There were also cultural and sports activities including inter-school Pratibha Karanji and Udupi Taluka South Zone Inter-PU Colleges Athletics meet hosted by St. Lawrence Composite PU College in October 2009. The infrastructural facilities of the educational complex are being augmented by expanding and renovating the playground and acquiring new land and laying down courts for various games.

Fr. Joswey Fernandes, the Correspondent of the Parish educational institutions and Fr. Paul Sequeira, the Principal of the Composite PU College along with the Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee have been planning and implementing the various programmes associated with the Golden Jubilee celebration which will be held on 28th, 29th and 30th of December 2009.