St Andrew's School - Rose Hill, Mauritius

The 8th of February 1943. A memorable day for St Andrew’s school as it was the day the school was founded. Father Alan Rogers, in his study at the parsonage of St Paul's, Vacoas, under the blessing of Bishop Hugh Otter-Barry, began the school with 16 boys and girls as students. It was a non-fee paying school, the first co-educational and only Anglican secondary school in Mauritius.

The next year in March 1944 the school moved to St Paul's Theological College opposite the present location in Ambrose Street, Rose Hill. This was made possible with the help of the theological College. Enrolment rose to forty and pupils who could afford it contributed to the cost of their education. The school obtained 80% in the junior Cambridge exams for which 7 boys and 3 girls had been entered.
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May 1946, Canon Alan Rogers left, for health reasons, handing over the duties of Warden to the Rev. Thomas Pritchard, B.A. In September 1946, the 29-years-old Reverend Gordon Williams Mc Avan, A. K. C., Chaplain of Radley, took over as Warden, while Canon Rogers remained on the staff for a term as chaplain. By then the school's population was around 125.

On 9 June 1948 the foundation stone of the school was lain down by Sir Donald Mackenzie-Kennedy, Governor of Mauritius, and thanks to Sir Edgar Laurent who donated the funds. On 15 June 1950, the St Andrew's College Foundation was established by Ordinance No.30 of 1950 on the wish of Dr the Honourable Edgar Laurent, C.M.G., M.D., Lic-ès-Sc. This was to enable the building of the School to be completed and to provide secondary education for Mauritian youth of both sexes. In 1952 the school entered its first candidates for the H.S.C. exams.

In June 1961, in her Birthday Honours list, H.M. the Queen conferred the OBE on Canon Gordon Mc Avan in recognition of his devoted service to the cause of education. In February 1962, owing to health problems, Canon Mc Avan went on leave and did not come back, taking up instead parochial ministry in England. In July 1962 Mr John Russan, B.A., succeeded as Warden. On November 1964, St Andrew’s Day, our benefactor, Sir Edgar Laurent, laid the foundation stone of the school’s chapel which was consecrated two years later by Bishop Edwin Curtis.

December 1967 saw the departure of the last expatriate staff and appointment of the first Mauritian Warden, the Rev. Rex Donat at the head of a completely Mauritanian staff. He had been a pupil of the school from 1948 to 1954 and also a member of the teaching staff of the school in 1961.

John Ng Lung Kit became the first laureate (science side) of St Andrew's in February 1972; he later obtained his FRCS from Edinburgh Royal College of Surgeons and is today Managing Director of Clinique Mauricienne.). Marie-Lourdes Allysamba our ‘golden girl’ and Gerard Macaque (mid distance runner) represented our school and Mauritius at the Universiades de Mexico in 1978. In May 1984, Rev. Rex Donat vacated his post to become Bishop of Mauritius and was succeeded by Mr Donald Runghen, B.A., P.G.C.E., as Rector since the title of Warden was phased out. In that year the sprinter Daniel Andre and field athelete Vivian Coralie took part in the Olympic Games in LOS Angeles. Then, seven years later, the mid distance runner of the school, Sameer Moss, was elected “Most promising athlete of Mauritius” but due to a severe injury he could not continue his career and is now teacher in the school. In 1995, Prof Goolam Mohamedbhai, former student of St Andrew's School was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Mauritius.

Since January 1987 reverend Patrick Lutchmaya became deputy rector until march 1998 and was then succeeded by Mr Daniel Congo in July 1998. However, Mr Congo occupied this post for only 5 months.
On the departure of Mr Daniel Congo, Mrs Indira Manrakhan was appointed as deputy rector. But, on the retirement of Mr Donald Runghen, Mrs Manrakhan took up the job as the first lady rector of St Andrew’s School in October 2000. During the same year, Mr Michael Chuttooa was hired as The Manager of the school.

On 2000, it was the turn of Mr Virgile Lieutier to be assigned the post of Deputy Rector. And, since February 2003, Mrs Mirella Couronne became the new rector of St Andrew’s School, following the departure of Mrs. Manrakhan. According to the rules of the PSSA the administrations have the right to have 2 deputy rectors if the population of the school exceeds 1200, in 2006 Mrs. Ruby Atmarrow signed up as the second deputy rector.

In 2006, following a thoughtful initiative by Ms W. Sébastien and Mr S. Rose, The SAS Welfare Club was launched. 2006 was also the year in which the school also improved the sports facilities by building a new basketball court and a new volleyball court.

The year 2008 was one of the most memorable years as after 36 years the school got another laureate, Kaneesh Munbodh. He was in the batch of 2007.

In order to provide a more comfortable working place for teachers and students, a new block was inaugurated in 2008 comprising of a new staff room on the ground floor and two libraries and computer rooms on the first floor. Two years later, the school continued to progress by adding another storey to the complex on which are found a new kitchen, a new Junior Lab and last, but not the least, a magnificent Digital Language Lab-St Andrews was the first secondary school to be equipped with such a class-which was built with the support of The Mauritius Commercial Bank.

Due to the sudden illness of Mrs Mirella Couronne in 2010, Mrs Ruby Atmarow has had step in as the Acting Rector, post which she is still occupying at the time of printing of this magazine.
2010 also saw the departure of Mr. Virgile Lieutier who decided to take his retirement after more than x years of dutiful service at St Andrew’s School. In order to fill the void left by Mr. Lieutier, Mrs Fichin Tin Loi was appointed Deputy Rector.

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This History of St Andrew's school was written by the editorial team of school mag 2011-2012 ( which was not published due to the cost). They took several weeks to retrieve all these information which was not an easy task. We would like to thank them.There names are in the description of the photo of the morning prayer.