Our pioneering missionaries who served the Fransalian mission at Virudhunagar had the novel ideas and creating methods to put into concrete actions our foundational apostolate of education to the young with creativity and foresight. The successful journey of the SFS school at Virudhunagar through the years reveals that it had traversed a long path of challenges, struggles and hardships. As the parish was erected without basic facilities and infrastructures, it was the initial period of development and a lot of things needed to be done like building a parish church, priest’s residence, organizing the parish activities, etc. Fr. J. Stephen, MSFS as the pioneer, was actively involved in taking care of all such things facing the initial challenges. At the same time, he also was focusing his concentration on establishing a school in the new parish. So, he initiated the process of buying a piece of land in the name of the province and finally he was able to purchase 5 acres and 80 cents of land with the help of the province at Villipathri on the way to Mallanginar. Then, he worked out the modalities and started the primary section with LKG class consisting of 52 students along with two teachers and two non-teaching staff members.
Thus, the SFS school had a very humble beginning in a simple shed on 3 June 2004 in the parish campus of St. Xavier’s Church. Pandian Nagar. Then, he initiated the construction of the first phase of the school building in the new land and completed it in the following year. The new building was inaugurated by Fr. Thomas Perumalil, MSFS the provincial and blessed by Most Rev. Dr. Antony Pappusamy, the Auxiliary Bishop of the archdiocese of Madurai on 2005. Then, the school was shifted to the new school building which had all the amenities and classroom facilities needed for the school. Fr. J. Stephen, MSFS as the parish priest and the first principal of the school, worked relentlessly with greater commitment, taking lots of initiatives for developing the school with all necessary structures. With the hard work and dedication of our MSFS fathers, the school was successfully prosperous and became popular among the people. It was a great satisfaction to realize the successful growth and development of the school within ten years. Today it is one of the best schools in Virudhunagar district, imparting quality education to thousands of students from the remote villages.
Developments undertaken at various times
Fr. J. Stephen, MSFS as the pioneer started the school and put up the main structures to conduct the classes. As the admissions increased steadily every year, the school’s strength soon reached its highest number with 1509 students with 56 teaching staff and 39 non-teaching staff members within a short period. He served the school for five years, sedulously working and relentlessly making efforts to develop the school. Then, Fr. R. Mathias, MSFS followed Fr. J. Stephen, MSFS as the principal and he served the school only for three months in 2009. He did his best in guiding and serving the interest of the school.
After him, Fr. A. Edward, MSFS was appointed as the principal in 2009 and he worked tirelessly for five years. The students were taught to become assiduous and sagacious in their study, and consequently, the first batch of SSLC with 27 students appeared for public exam and got 100 percent result in the academic year 2012-2013. Similarly, the school got 100 percent result from the public exam in the following academic years, and our student V. Padma Priya got 3 ranks at the state level in the class 10 Public Exam for the academic year 2014-2015. Fr. A. Edward, MSFS made serious efforts and constructed a new block of classrooms, upgraded the school to higher secondary level, established the lab and then built the mess hall where our school students could have their noon meal. The first batch of the twelfth standard consisting of 24 students appeared for the Higher Secondary Public Examination in 2014-15. He also in collaboration with the school community organized with jubilation the Triple celebrations of the SFS school, namely, the Decennial celebration, School Annual Day and Patron’s Feast on 24 January 2015. By this time, the school was well developed with all the infrastructures as a full-fledged institution through the help of the province.
After Fr. A. Edward, MSFS, Fr. S. Arockia Britto, MSFS was appointed as the principal, and he served the school for three years. During this period, he realized the water scarcity problem on the school campus, and therefore he purchased one acre and thirty cents of land near Villipathiri through the support of the province and solved the water problem. From the academic year 2017 onwards, our SFS school continued to get centum results in the Public Exams, conducted for the classes of 10, 11, and 12.
Then, Fr. A. Arul Francis, MSFS succeeded Fr. Britto, MSFS as the principal, and he served the school for three years. As the restroom facilities for the students were quite old and in a dilapidated condition, constructing new restrooms became an urgent need. So, he along with the school administration initiated the process and bought a piece of land behind the school and constructed new toilet blocks for the children with the support of the province.
Then, Fr. A. Innacimuthu, MSFS was appointed as the principal in 2020, succeeding Fr. A. Arul Francis, MSFS. It was the time of Covid Pandemic, and he served the school for only one year. He worked hard and took care of the necessary things needed to continue the children’s education during this challenging time and prepared the children for the final exam.
Afte him, Fr. Simon Prabu, MSFS took charge of the school as principal along with Fr. A. Arockiam, MSFS as the procurator in 2021 and he served the school only for three months.
Fr. A. Arockiam, MSFS was appointed as the principal in 2021. During his time, he diligently and prudently guided and animated the school, took measures to overcome some practical hurdles that the school was facing at that time and restored normality, creating peaceful atmosphere in the school. He made efforts and built a watchman’s chamber, a new compound wall around the school and prepared a new playground. To promote an intellectual ambience and enhance students’ learning interest, he introduced courses like NEET, JEE, Artificial intelligence and Robotics. According to the present statistics as of 2024, there are 1032 students in the school, and they are given a wholistic education with the help of 49 well-trained staff members. There are 36 non-teaching staff to assist the students in providing food and transportation. With the intention of developing team spirit and leadership qualities of the students, they are divided into 4 groups, and a captain and a vice captain elected for each group with a teacher animator, monitoring and leading each group.
Thus, our SFS School today is one of the popularly famous schools in Virudhunagar district, and it shines like Cocklight in dispelling intellectual darkness by imparting quality education with professional skills and moral values. While offering a lot of extracurricular activities to develop the students’ talents in various fields, A peaceful and natural atmosphere is created to inculcate deep faith in God and reverence for nature.
Succession of the Principals
- Fr. J. Stephen, MSFS 2004 – 2009
- Fr. R. Mathias, MSFS 2009 (only 3 months)
- Fr. A. Edward, MSFS 2009 – 2014
- Fr. S. Arockia Britto, MSFS 2014 – 2017
- Fr. A. Arul Francis, MSFS 2017 – 2020
- Fr. A. Innacimuthu, MSFS 2020 – 2021
- Fr. M. Simon Prabu, MSFS 2021 – 3 months
- Fr. A. Arockiam, MSFS 2021 –
Succession of the Procurators
Fr. S. Alexander, MSFS , 2009 – 2010; Fr. S. Arockia Britto, MSFS, 2010 – 2011 Fr. D. Amritharajan, MSFS, 2011 – 2013; Fr. Vincent Sahayaraj, MSFS, 2013-2014; Fr. K. Rajasekar, MSFS, 2014 ( only 6 months); Fr. Anthony Raj, MSFS, 2014 – 2017; Fr. Jeyaraj, MSFS, 2017 – 2020; Fr. X. Vincent, MSFS 2020 – 2021; Fr. A. Arockiam, MSFS 2021 (only three months); Fr. K. Martin Kumar, MSFS, 2021 – 2023; Fr. Emmanuel Sathish, MSFS, 2023 – 2024; Fr. Maria John Franklin, MSFS, 2024 –
Succession of the Correspondents Fr. J. Stephen, MSFS, 2000 – 2007; Fr. V. Vedharaj, MSFS, 2007 – 2009; Fr. C. Sebastian Robert, MSFS, 2009 – 2010; Fr. I. S Jesuraj, MSFS, 2010 – 2013; Fr. K. Rajasekar, MSFS, 2013 – 2015; Fr. N. Arockia Selvam, MSFS, 2015 – 2018; Fr. A. Michael, MSFS, 2018 – 2019; Fr. A. Maria Selvan, MSFS, 2019 – 2020; Fr. S. Stephen Xavier, MSFS, 2020 – 2023; Fr. A. Lawrance, MSFS 2023 –