St. Theresa High School Candolim is one of the oldest schools in Bardez having its origin almost a century back. The current premises of the school came into existence in sixties when it was shifted from the premises located next to the Asilo in Pintos Vaddo where it was run by Pe. Romano who was kind enough to hand it over to the Candolim Church under the then Pe. Vigar Pe. Niicholau Noronha who till his retirement was the best Pe. Vigar Candolim has ever had during the living history. Under his leadership Candolim Church made solid development physical structure wise and quality wise there were changes morally and spiritually in the faithful.
Though frail in body yet Pe. Nicholau was a giant intellectually having philosophical mind. Following him came many Pe. Vigars in Candolim but none to compare him, intellectually and spiritually. His contribution towards upliftment of the downtrodden was very impressive and his sense of equality was very high in which direction purely in a true Christian sense he never practiced discriminatary policy not only in the Church but even in the Church premises on the basis of status of the locals. He treated every body on equal basis and like a donkey not allocated preferential spaces for the few locals. He desliked the politicians and rejected their doles which he felt come from the public loot, to accept such doles is a sin according to him.
Coming back to the School, approximately 80 ago Nuns started a small school in the premises of the present day Asilo where the ground floor was converted into a school while the top floor was turned into a Boarding place for the girls. While they were in this mission, they acquired a land where we have now our foot-ball ground. However, due to some unavoidable circumstances they had to abandon this project by handing over their school to Pe. Romano who as Principal of this school named it as St. Theresa. It catered to the students from Candolim and also to the surrounding areas. Though it was not a high school yet it equipped its students with good quality education putting more stress on moral education which was responsible to build the character of the students.
Following the exit of Portuguese from Goa, the school was shifted to the Church premises which was not spacious needing imperatively new independent premises. Next to the Church there was a big Fabrica's plot where Pe. Nicholau Noronha decided to build a new building for the school. While he was preparing his strategy to construct a new building, Bishop of Goa issued a notice to transfer Pe. Nicholau from Candolim leaving the issue of school building construction into the hands of Pe. Cur - Pe. Alvito Vaz who worked very hard day and night single handedly to raise funds for the construction of the school building, by walking almost to every house in the village begging for donation. He had no luxury of a Car nor of a Motorcycle not even of a Cycle.
In this direction of raising sufficient funds he organised Tiatros of mighty director Prem Kumar all over Goa. Tomazinho Cardoso also staged his Tiatros in the village which were very successful moneytarily and performancewise as well. When collected fund was not suffucient enough to complete the first phase of constructing the ground floor, having no choice Pe. Alvito Vaz even mortgaged his mother's gold, borrowed money from his brother and his other relatives and finally got the work completed up to the first phase. Regretfully, he could not repay the loan he borrowed from his brother.
If this school is come up the major credit should go to Pe. Alvito Vaz who worked very hard and also to all the donors. The efforts put in by Pe. Alvito Vaz to bring this school up cannot be forgotten. The mighty edifice erected to make this school worth admiring was the making of Pe. Alvito Vaz. Though a bust or a monument is not erected in front of this school as a fitting tribute to his memory yet the school building itself will remain as a Monument of the late Pe. Alvito Vaz. His sacrifices for this school were enormous. The base he put was enough for all the subsequent school principals to have pepaceful and worryless nights. To create this base he even denied himself the pleassure of world tour. Candolim is very much indepted to him. May his soul rest in peace.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Bardez, Goa. Tel No. 7507394349.