SFS Matriculation School at Perumbakkam strives to achieve this goal through the apostolate of education to the rural population in Villupuram District, where the people predominantly belong to the backward class (31.54 %) and poor in terms of socio-economic indicators. Regarding people’s occupation, agricultural laborers constitute 48.86 percent, and other workers constitute 27.19 percent. This is one of those three schools started in the same year, and though it comes within the jurisdiction of Thely parish, the school is located between Adhanur and Kodungal parishes, which were already undertaken by our SE province.
With the foresight of future development, Fr. Mani Panthalani, MSFS, the provincial of Visakhapatnam province guided Fr. F. Emmanuel, MSFS to investigate the availability of land in this area. Accordingly, Fr. F. Emmanuel, MSFS was able to find a piece of 5 acres and 61 cents of land on the state highway from Vizhupuram to Thirukovillur and bought it in 2002, registering the land in the name of our Fransalian Andhra Society. However, the land was not used for seven years either for cultivation or any other specific work.
Our fathers were passionately concentrating their focus on developing the two parishes entrusted to our care. Later, after the Tamilnadu was erected as separate province, the provincial administration decided to start a school, and appointed Fr. D. Johnson Sahayaraj, MSFS the parish priest of Adanur to carry out the preliminary work. He made inexorable efforts to get legal permission for the construction, EB permit and digging a bore well. AS he was entrusted with the task of constructing ten classrooms, he prepared everything ready for constructing the first phase of the new school building and Fr. Philomin Doss, the VF of Villupuram Vicariate along with Fr. A. Lawrence, MSFS, the provincial laid the foundation stone on 4 October 2009.
By the month of May 2009, the ground floor with five classrooms and separate washrooms for the students was first completed and the new school building was inaugurated and blessed by Fr. A. Lawrence, MSFS the provincial on 19 August 2010. Fr. M. Rayappan John Britto, MSFS was appointed as the first principal, and he fastidiously prepared everything needed and formally inaugurated the academic programs on June 8, 2009, with two teachers and 58 students on the roll in the presence of the MSFS Fathers, working in the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore. Undoubtedly, this institution today stands as a beacon of hope amidst the people of multi-socio-religious culture, imparting quality education.
Developments undertaken at various times
Fr. M. Rayappan, MSFS, as the first principal, made arduous efforts to create a homely atmosphere by planting teakwood and other trees around the campus and thus developing the school to its glory. Realizing the need to increase the strength in the school and to provide a safe transport facility for the students, a Mahendra van was bought with the help of the province. Moreover, Fr. M. Rayappan, MSFS in the course of time worked out the legal modalities and obtained the official opening order for the school from the government on 7 January 2011 and subsequently the recognition order on 4 August 2011 on the Feast of St. John Maria Vianney. A school bus was bought in 2011 with the support of the province for transporting children from the interior villages. Consequently, the school strength increased with 7 trained teachers, 8 non-teaching staff and 123 students on the roll from LKG to class III. Initially, while residing at Holy Trinity Parish, Adanur, Fr. M. Rayappan, MSFS looked after the school, and assisted the parish for pastoral needs. Since the school is 17 km away from the parish, he was going to the school by bike every day for three years (2009 – 2012). As it was laborious to travel 34 km every day, a community was formed with the principal and a regent, who resided in the school with temporary arrangements. This arrangement was practically and pastorally convenient for our fathers that they were able to assist St. Joseph’s Parish, Thely and its substation, Kanai. In this way, the fathers could establish personal contact with the local people who were sending their children to our school. As the strength kept increasing every year, Fr. M. Rayappan, MSFS with the support of the province constructed another three rooms on the first floor and thus there were eight classrooms with 350 students from LKG to class V as of May 2015.
After him, Fr. G. Dominic Savio, MSFS was appointed as the principal along with Fr. Anto Legion Rex, MSFS as the procurator. He initiated the process of obtaining official permission for the school building from the DTCP department and he served the school for only one year.
Then, Fr. J. Savarimuthu, MSFS became the principal, succeeding Fr. G. Dominic Savio, MSFS along with Fr. I. Jon Gregori, MSFS as the procurator. They worked rigorously and obtained permission from the collector to convert the wetland into general use, got DTCP approval for the old school building from the district administration, constructed two extra classrooms in the old block with the support of the province, and initiated the process of getting official permission from town panchayat to construct a new block for the school.
After him, Fr. A. Innacimuthu, MSFS took charge of the school as the principal and followed up the process initiated by Fr. Savarimuthu, MSFS and got the official opening order for running classes VII and VIII. Since it is agricultural land, it was a Herculean task to meet the legal modalities to convert the land and get permission for upgrading the school. Hence, it remained for many years in the same status with minimum infrastructure without any further development. However, our fathers worked strenuously to comply with legal requirements of the government to get the needed permission.
Fr. A. Charles Michael, MSFS,who succeeded Fr. A. Innacimuthu, MSFS as the principal along with Fr. Britto Clinton, MSFS as the procurator, was able to obtain the official permission in 2024 and constructed the new school block with 14 rooms, which was inaugurated by Fr. Johnson Kalladikkal, MSFS our Superior General and blessed by Most Rev. Dr. Francis Calist, the archbishop of Pondicherry – Cuddalore in the presence of Fr. A. Patrick Jayaraj, MSFS the provincial on 14 March 2025. It was a long-cherished aspiration of the province to take the school to further development and upgrade it into a high school. This goal was achieved with the construction of the new block and there are 600 students from LKG to class IX as of June 2025. Our SFS school at Perumbakkam emulates the rays of hope for quality education, imparting human values to the students.
Succession of Principals
Fr. M. Rayappan John Britto, MSFS 2009 – 2015
Fr. Dominic Savio, MSFS 2015 – 2016
Fr. J. Savarimuthu, MSFS 2016 – 2019
Fr. A. Innacimuthu, MSFS 2019 – 2020
Fr. A. Charles Michael, MSFS 2020 –
Succession of the Procurators / the Correspondents
Br. Britto, MSFS 2012 – 2013 Regent; Fr. V. Yesuraja, MSFS, 2014 – 2015 on the staff; Fr. Anto Legion Rex, MSFS, 2015 – 2016 Procurator /Correspondent; Fr. I. Jon Gregori, MSFS, 2016 – 2018 Procurator, Fr. Anthony Christopher, MSFS, 2016 – 2018 Correspondent, Fr. P. S. Joseph, MSFS, 2018 – 2023 Procurator / Correspondent, Fr. Anthony Christopher, MSFS, 2023 – 2024 Procurator / Correspondent; Fr. Britto Clinton, MSFS 2024 – procurator.