Overview
St. Xavier's Collegiate School, Kolkata is a all-boys’ day school affiliated with the Council for the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (CICSE). The school was established in 1860 by the missionaries of the Society of Jesus and named after St. Francis Xavier.
The school’s alumni include Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly. The school has been described by British writer Dennison Berwick as the "Harrow on the Hooghly".
St. Xavier's Collegiate School is the one of the very few schools in India that hosts two annual international student exchange programmes with reputed Irish and Chinese education institutions.
Campus
There are two school buildings separated by a street, one for the Primary School (Grades K - 5) and the other for the Secondary School (Grades 6 - 12). The secondary school building shares the campus with the St. Xavier's College building and one of the college hostels.
Accomodation
The school provides hostel facility to its students.
Academics
The school is affiliated with CISCE (which conducts the ICSE and ISC exams in Grades 10 and 12) as well as the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (which holds the Madhyamik exams after Grade 10). Students are given a choice of following either of the two boards up to class 10 or follow the Indian Council's board for classes 11 and 12. However, fewer students opt for the West Bengal board and classes are held only for the ICSE and ISC boards for the 11th and 12th standard.
St. Xavier's Collegiate School also has many active clubs such as the Computer Club, Nature Club, Sanskriti (Bengali Cultural Club), Leadership Training Service, Christian Life Community, Debate Club and Film Club to foster leadership qualities in the students.
Admission
Application forms for Class 1 are issued at the Primary Section, 12-A Wood Street, between 9.00 a.m. and 10.30 a.m., in October. The cost of application form is Rs 200. Birth Certificate of the candidate must be shown at the counter while collecting the application form.
Achievements
St. Xavier's Collegiate School is the one of the very few schools in India to host two annual international student exchange programmes. The Belvedere College, Dublin, Ireland exchange programme was started 17 years ago and is open to 15 students of Classes 9 and 10 to visit Dublin in the summer vacation of May and the Irish students visit St. Xavier's in November.
The second exchange programme with China is open to the boys of Classes 11 and 12 (those who have not been a part of the Dublin exchange program). St. Xavier's Collegiate School is the only school in India to have a student exchange programme with China at this level. The first successful exchange took place in May 2011, led by Fr. Sebastian SJ, when the Xaverians visited Shida Fuzhong High School, Kunming, and the Chinese students visited St.Xavier's in November 2011. The second batch of 10 Xaverians also visited Kunming with Mr. Torcato in May 2012.