St. Anselm's Sr. Sec. School, Ajmer
Affiliated to C.B.S.E. Affiliation No.: 1730002
HISTORICAL SKETCH
The many Catholic employees in the Railway workshops not only in Ajmer but around Ajmer, had several time asked the Head of the Catholic Mission to open a High School for their boys and girls.
The Convent High school, which had been established some ten years before, would admit boys only up to Std. II and the boys had either to attend the European Railway school teaching up to the High School Exam; the Allahabad University or had to join the boarding schools at Agra to the North East, Nagpur to the South East, Bombay to the South, and Karachi to the west; all, indeed rather far, and these employees could not dream of sending their children to the Hill
Schools.
The Perfect Apostolic of Rajputana ( Rt. Rev. Fr. Fortunatus, later the first Bishop of Ajmer ) decided to start a Catholic School and accordingly on 4th. Feb. 1904, St. Anselm's was opened as a boarding and day school, with Rev. Fr. Pius as its head. There were about fifty pupils, a dozen being boarders. The new school was the "Boys" section of the Convent. For three years it was officially considerd as a section of the Convent but in January 1907 the school took a corporate existence. Rev. Fr. Pius become its First Rector and Rev. Fr. Augustine and Gervais continued on the staff/Fr. Gervais taking over, the additional duties as Perfect of Discipline, Boys were prepared for the examination of the Allahabad University till about 1912, when the Cambridge syllabus was adopted.
The beginnings were very unpretentious. Everything was contained in one building: the Fathers' quarters, the boarder's dormitory, a study hall, a dinning room, as well as the class rooms. The school had no play ground worth mentioning. In 1910, however a piece of land suitable for the purpose was bought on the Mayo College road and games started in right earnest and St. Anselm's began to make itself felt in the sphere of all sports. From the very beginning St. Anselm's met with ready sympathies not only in Rajputana, but even far beyond it's boundaries. Boys flocked to St. Anselm's from Bombay, Lahore, Hyderabad (Sind), Karachi, Delhi, Rewari, Bandikui, Jaipur, Phulera, Mhow, Ratlam, Neemuch etc. And in time to come even from the Persian Gulf and before many years passed St. Anselm's had made a name for itself; and applications came from many more quarters.
Since then the school has never looked back. It has grown in every sense of the word. In 1958, the school was affiliated to the Rajasthan Board of Education. On two occasions the school was awarded the State award ( Madan Mohan Verma Award ) for the best results and all round performance. In 1972, the school was affiliated to the Central Board of Education. The Hostel which housed student from all over India was closed down in 1985. The School Turned co-ed in 2014-15. The school presently is a Senior Secondary school, affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi, though it has seen phases of being attached to various Boards and University and being an Inter College and whatever the time demanded.