Principal's address on Prize Nite 2010

Dear Teachers, Parents and my dear Students,

First of all let me place on record my hearty congratulations and sincere well wishes to all the award winning students of this evening. It is a moment of great pride for all of us and especially for the students and their parents who have made it to this day. All of you who are sitting there having received your awards will agree with me that ‘success is the reward of toil' and it is a heady combination of hard work, parental guidance and support and encouragement from your teachers.

On a day like this it is important that we reflect on the significance of the school education especially in the context of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 which came into effect from 1st of this month. In the history of independent India this is a landmark amendment to our Constitution and no doubt the UPA government does deserve our

applause. However, the fundamental question that pops up in our mind is how this Act could be implemented in its letter and spirit freeing it from the political clutches and bureaucratic stranglehold. Education is a powerful means of empowerment and the success of a democracy depends on its enlightened citizens and therefore it is all the more significant that this Act be implemented in its letter and spirit.

A true education must focus on the totality of a human person and as all of us know that a person is a combination of body, mind and spirit. No single aspect can be overlooked without doing harm to the individual. Education is the integral formation of an individual that enables him or her to become a person of good character, competence, conscience and maturity. Our Jesuit education aims at the development, training and integration of a child's physical, intellectual, emotional, moral, social, spiritual and aesthetic aspects to their highest possible potential. School education is not the time for specialization, but it is the time for shaping one's character and forming good habits as one grows up to be a person who is physically fit, intellectually competent, emotionally mature, morally sound, socially sensitive, and spiritually sublime. Nurturing children into sound, mature human beings is not an easy task and probably you would agree with me that the most difficult job in this world is to be a teacher. Therefore it is unfortunate and sometimes painful that some of the parents without realizing that their children are their greatest investment set price tags on this priceless investment treating it as a commodity that can be bargained for and haggled over.

Let me wind up with this little piece titled ‘A Parent's Note to a Teacher' that I received in an e-mail from one of my friends a few days ago.

I am the voice of a grateful parent whose child was in your class... the one who needed help to find his way. You have been a special blessing as you helped my child succeed and I am thankful for the part you had to play. You gave him so much more than just the lessons in the books. You gave him wings...so he could learn to fly. You ignited a flame within his soul.. a passion to learn and grow...to never give up and always be willing to try. Your encouragement inspired him and your kindness was so real. But the thing that thrills my heart the most is this...By building his self-confidence you changed his life this year...he believes in himself...and a brighter future is his!

Let us all pledge together as a family to think together, move together and work together in such a way that every parent of our school will echo year after year the same sentiment as of this grateful parent.

Thank you all and God bless each one of you!

Fr Sebastian Puthenpura, SJ