Education of girls was the dire need of the people in Bejai. The parish had an elementary school for girls started in the year 1940 which was managed by the Sisters. Boys had Aloysius High School and Padua High School but the girls from Bijai, Urwa, Derebail and Bondel had to flock to Lady Hill for high school studies. Parents were reluctant to send their girls to a distant school. Catholics were living hand to mouth and could not afford educating girls at high costs. Knowing the plight of poor girls Mgr Francis Jerome Pinto, parish priest of Bejai, enthused Mother Genevieve, the Superior General of the Ursuline Franciscan Congregation to start a high school for girls. She entrusted the responsibility of establishing a high school to Mother Ernestine, the local Superior, who having known the difficulty of the girls of the place made earnest efforts to get the required permission at the earliest. Lourdes Girls High School, Bejai entered the annals of the Ursuline Franciscan Congregation as the first
high school of the Institute. It was on June 8, 1963, that the School was formally opened.
The Congregation had neither planned for any high school nor trained any personnel for one. There was not a single Sister qualified to be the headmistress of a high school. The Apostolic Carmel Sisters offered the services of Sr Mary Attracta who became the first headmistress of Lourdes High School. Lack of infrastructure was another difficulty the nascent High School had to face. Mrs Nympha Lobo, the godchild of Mother Nympha Fernandez, the first Superior of the Company of St Ursula, offered two rooms in her house. Lourdes High School found a shelter there for two years until its own school building was ready. The untiring efforts of the Sisters, the staunch support of Mgr Jerome Pinto and the unfailing generosity of the people were behind the realization of the high school building. Together with the building the whole institution made progress by leaps and bounds owing to the dedicated and undaunted spirit of the successive headmistresses and their collaborators.
Sr. Mary Attracta served the School as headmistress for one year. Sr. Gertrude D’Sa took over the reins of the School in the second year. The building was constructed and completed under her able leadership. She took personal interest in the formation of every student who was part of Lourdes. People supported the School. There were 39 girls in the very first batch. In the following years girls from the nearby parishes of Bondel and Derebail swarmed into the School. As a result the sections were increased to two in each class.
After Sr Gertrude D’Sa (1964-69 & 81-86), Sr Patricia Tauro (1969-74), Sr Claudia Tauro (1974-79 & 1991-99), Sr Nonnita Pinto (1979-81)), Sr LetitiiaFernandes (1986-91), Sr Susheela Sequeira (1999-2004) and Sr Leena Rodrigues (2006-2013) were the able custodians giving good leadership to the School as headmistresses Sr Leena D’Souza was the headmistress of the School up to 2015. At present Sr. Lettitia D’Silva is the present Headmistress of Lourdes High School.
The School has a number of success stories to its credit. Five students of the School were presented with ‘President Guides’ award. In the year 1998 K Divya brought laurels to the School with 19 th rank at the State level SSLC Examination. The School maintains the tradition of bagging first or second place in the Taluk as best Kannada Medium School, year after year. Miss Lavanya of 2013-14 batch added a feather to the cap of the school with sixth rank in the State in the SSLC results in Kannada Medium with an overall percentage 97.76. This is indeed a Golden Jubilee gift to the school.
The year 2013 was the Golden Jubilee year of the School. This event was celebrated with great fanfare on November 19, 2013 with a Dance Drama on the history of the School, directed by Mr. Suresh Attavar. The predecessors of the School have been a constant inspiration towards the efforts to read the signs of time and swim against the current.