Geographical location and History background of the school
Saint Joseph school is found in the town called Nazareth or Adama, which is located on the eastern part of Ethiopia. Adama/Nazareth is a small commercial town, located 99 km from the capital city, Addis Ababa. The population of the town is estimated Over 250,000 live in Nazareth and most of them are very poor. Its population is alarmingly growing with more demand and need for a Christian education.
The school was found in 1959 with the coordination of Bishop Urban Parson. Originally the school was boarding for the girls and it was being run by the sisters and the teaching was done by the sisters only. It was in 1955 lay teachers joined the school. In 1974 the secondary section had begun. The school became mixed school in 1980 and the boarding school was terminated because the sisters wanted to open kindergarten. In order to facilitate the secondary section the consolata fathers joined the school and they look the responsibility of running secondary section while the primary section was run by the sisters.
Saint Joseph School is a non-profit-making school which engages in the service of education. The school doesn't get financial assistance from the government. Therefore, it, at times, seeks assistance from parents and sisterly (twinning) schools abroad when needed for development Projects.
Saint Joseph School Adama/Nazareth is run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools which is under the Catholic Church. Initially, the school was begun by the Franciscan Missionary of our Lady to give access for education to the children of the poor. After the Brothers have taken over, the school has emerged into high school and now it has grown into the college preparatory level. The school has been successful with the number of its students joining universities. St. Joseph school is doing the best possible to give quality education with special attention to those students from the poor families. As more students join the school, more needs arise and more effort is required to keep the good standard of the school and help the poor as desired. However, this has become a big challenge as the numbers of students grow. Currently the school teaches over 2043students from Kindergarten to grades12 in the day and above 2100 students in the night sessions.
The mission of the school
The school teaches students to give reverence to God, show respect to all humanity and become loyal to the country. The school teaches students to be able to make important decisions in their lives so as to become responsible, be able to take risks and become peace loving citizens. The school teaches the students to denounce evil actions courageously and stand for the common good. The school teaches students to be competent, confident and compassionate.
Statistics
The students pay 110 to 180 Birr the local currency per month. In dollars, this amounts to $8 to $11 per month. The very poor night school students pay only 25 birr to 52 per month which is $1.55 to $3.2. The school we collect from students is for the running cost of the school. If we plan other projects like constructions and other bigger projects, we write projects to generous donors like your organization. We also provide scholarships to the very poor students who come to us with the donations we get from our twinning schools from abroad. For this academic your, we have got 108 scholarship students in the regular classes and around 25 in the night session.
We have got 2043 students in the day school among whom 1023 are male and 1020 are female. We have 57 teachers 43 male and 14 female. In addition, we have got 36 workers 18 male and 18 female. All together we have 93 teachers and workers operating in the kindergarten and in the main campus (Grades 1 -12).
Contact St. Joseph
Nazareth Community
P.O Box 406
nazareth, Ethiopia
Tel School: 251 (22) 111.3019
Br. Sheferaw Mekonen(Heaqdmster)
Email: