Our History

Fr. Marshall Moran of Patna Province visited Nepal in October 1949, and while he was in Kathmandu, the possibility of a Jesuit school in Nepal had been discussed. In November 1950, General Mrigendra Shamsher Rana, the Director of Public Education in Nepal, visited Patna to inform Fr. Moran that the Government of Nepal was interested in a school to be run by the Jesuits at Godavari.

In the winter of 1950-51 Fr. Joseph M. Egan, the Provincial of Chicago, visited Godavari on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6. He found the proposal to open a school at Godavari was viable and promptly gave his approval. Fr. Moran together with Frs. Francis Murphy and Ed Saxton arrived in Kathmandu on June 6, 1951 and proceeded to Godavari. Godavari is about 15 K.M. outside of Kathmandu.

They brought along with them the provisions to meet the immediate needs to settle down in Godavari. Though there were a number of buildings already existing on the proposed school site, they were not suited for starting a school. The pioneers underwent a lot of struggles to convert the rooms into class rooms with amazing speed and efficiency. On July 1, 1951 the first batch of sixty-five students were admitted into the school at St. Xavier’s Godavari. As a result of the steady growth of the number of students, the Primary Section was shifted to Jawalakhel on 9th September 1954. The purpose was to have the primary section at Jawalakhel and the high school section at Godavari. In the years to come many more changes were adopted to satisfy the growing demands of admissions into the Jesuit school. Eventually St. Xavier’s Jawalakhel became a full-fledged high school and St. Xavier’s Godavari became fully a primary boarding school that accommodated the strength of 280 boarders in the course of time. These changes had their beginnings from the year 1969.

There was some scepticism about the motives, but the new Government officials were supportive and well disposed and made informal visits themselves from time to time. There were changes made to get the older boys more involved in their local communities and to take advantage of the increasing opportunities. In Godavari, the junior boarding continued till 1996.

In 1992 the Education Commission of the Nepal Jesuit Society started discussing how to make St. Xavier`s Godavari more relevant. In 1996, after long discussion, reflection and discernment, the Jesuit Fathers of Nepal took four decisions for Godavari School. The first was that it would go co-ed to show our concern for girls. Boys AND girls would be admitted in the school. Second that it would be a neighbourhood school to show our concern for people around us. The school primarily would take boys and girls from the Godavari area. Since there are so many good local schools in different parts of Nepal, they thought that it would no longer necessary to run a "National" school. Third, to help the students further, it was decided that Godavari would become a high school. Because of the limited resources and to achieve the above three goals it became necessary that the school become a day school, and the phasing out of the boarding began in 1996.

In the year 1996, after a series of reflections reading the signs of the time, the Jesuits in the Region made a few major decisions.

1. The School would go co-ed to show our concern for the girl students.
2. The School would cater to the students of the neighbourhood.
3. St. Xavier’s Godavari would become a high school eventually.
4. The hostel would be phased out completely by the year 2002 to accommodate only day scholars from the neighbouring villages.