In the annals of Catholic learning institutes in Davao region during the 20th century, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy (IMHA) ranks as the oldest school in the postwar era. It dates to March 3, 1927, when Mati was under the parochial leadership of Fr. Maurice Michaud, as parish priest, and Fr. Conrad Lafortune, as his assistant. Both belonged to the Foreign Mission Society of Quebec, known more as the PME Fathers, or Société des Missions-Étrangères du Québec.
The school, in response to the challenge to spread Catholic education in town, was originally managed by four members of the Canadian congregation for women, the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (MIC).
Initially, the school, officially recognized as IHMA on June 19, 1947, was found in a two-story residential building along Zamora Street, which belonged to the family of Pacencia Lim vda. de Serrano. The structure was remodeled to house the classrooms and hosted the offices, dormitory for interns, and sleeping quarters of the Sisters.
In its first school year, it only had fifteen pupils. The trials the school management had to face were reflected in its April 19, 1950, graduation, the first for the school, with only two pupils receiving their certificates of completion. Despite the challenges, it still gained considerable growth under the leadership of Mother Bernadette du Lourdes (Rachel de Mars, MIC), the local superior of the congregation at the time.
That same year, a significant development took place. The family of Maria vda. de Lopez swapped her lot at Quezon Street, in Mati City, for the school’s original site. With the deal sealed, construction of the administration and high school buildings commenced that same year. The following year, the school moved to its new and permanent home.
The first high school graduation took place on March 27, 1954, with five students. Five years later, it started offering tertiary education but low enrollment forced the institution to phase out the undergraduate courses a decade later.
To address the growing need for more structures to house the school population and its academic musts, a two-story Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) edifice was built in 1968. Seven years thereafter, another two-story elementary building was erected. In 1980, the health-and-nutrition building was built, the first floor hosting a canteen and the faculty on the second.
In honor of the MIC’s foundress, Sr. Delia Tetreault, a five-story edifice was started in 1983; it was completed in 1997 in time for the golden jubilee of the school; it housed the audio-visual room and Student Development Center. Five years later, the school gym was completed to coincide with the holy Mass launching the MIC centennial celebration.
The school celebrated its diamond year in 2007 with the theme “IHMA at 60: thanking the Past, Transforming the Present, Creating the Future, Keeping the Dream Alive.’ When it reached its sixty-fifth year in 2012, the institution, under Sr. Regina R. Villarte, MIC, as directress, erected a façade, a three-story frontage. That same year, the school applied for accreditation with the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU).
With more positive developments on hand, the administration, in 2015, planned the construction of a four-story structure, a replacement of the 63-year-old semi-concrete high school building, to house the new senior high school program. The ground-breaking rites were held on June 8, 2015, and the turnover was later conveyed to the school’s Board of Trustees led by Sr. Leticia Dotollo, MIC, the provincial superior and chair, who cited that the project as ‘our way of giving back to the Almighty God as this is an act of mission in realizing our dream for the children.’
