HISTORY
St. John the Baptist High School and Junior College is a Catholic
school in the city of Thane, Maharashtra, India dedicated to St.
John the Baptist. It also has a school for children in need of
special care. It is administered by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Mumbai. The school is affiliated to the Mumbai Division Board of
Secondary and Higher Education. The school/college aims at the
education primarily of the Catholic community around and to the
extent possible of the members of all the communities.
It was built in 1905 beside the church of the same name (built in
1663 at the same site of the old St. Anthony’s Church). Built to
serve Portuguese children, it was reorganized into an English
school, and recognised by the Education Department as an English
Teaching High School in 1938 .
The school building was due to the foresight of the reverend Pascal
D’Souza. Following a stay in the United States, he worked to give a
try to the broad based American system of education. The growth of
the institution required a new building for St. John’s School. The
stately three-storeyed building, with wings spread out to the right
and left, capped by an open air terrace, sprang up within a period
of two and a half years thanks to the supervision of D’Souza and the
efforts of architect Vyom Keshav of “Studio Arch”. D’Souza was not
destined to give the final touches to it. He collapsed due to a
heart attack. His remains rest on the school campus. The reverend
Valerian Godinho stepped into the shoes of D’Souza. His first task
was to supervise the finishing of the school building. The first
students used the building in 1966.
At the request of the Educational Department, a junior college was
attached to the high school from June 1979. Science and Commerce
classes of the junior college started in 1979. In 1980 junior
college Science and Commerce classes opened
