Moodubelle: Centenary Celebration of Church Aided Hr. Pr. School to be held on December 30, 2013

By Eugene DSouza
Pics by Anil Alva
Bellevision Media Network

Moodubelle, 05 Jul 2013: The historic Centenary Celebration of the Church Aided Higher Primary School, Moodubelle which is completing 100 years of its service will be held on December 30, 2013. This was decided by the Centenary Celebration Committee during the meeting held on  Friday, July 3, 2013 at 3 pm in the Parish Hall. The meeting was presided over by Rev. Fr. Joswey Fernandes.  Fr. Paul Sequeira, Principal of St. Lawrence PU College, Rajendra Shetty, Presdient of Old Students Association, Gerald Fernandes, President of Parents-Teachers Association, Alphonse K. Alva and Mrs. Jacinta D’Souza, Vice President and Secretary of the Parish Pastoral Council, Mrs. Sarita D’Souza, Principal of St. Lawrence Degree College, Sylvester Mathias, Headmaster of Church Aided Hr. Pr. School, Devdas Hebbar, Benedict Martis and Meera Lobo were present on the dais.

 

Following welcome address by Sylvester Mathias, Gerlad Fernandes in his introductory remarks narrated the origin and development of the school since 1913 and pointed out how the number of students that had increased from 40 in the beginning to more than 1000 in 1950’s onwards gradually declined and now it has come down to 250 students and number of teachers to 6. He also analyzed the factors for the decline of Kannada Medium schools due to the less number of children in the families and a growing craze for English medium education. He also pointed out that in the modern times having 250 students in the higher primary section itself is creditable. In this background he said that the centenary year of the school should be celebrated in a befitting manner.

 

As part of the Centenary Celebration, development work of the school is already in progress. The floor of three of the classrooms which were damaged have been repaired and the entire school has been painted. Separate and new toilet for the school children has been constructed and the plinth for the Midday Meal facilities has been laid. A computer for the school office has been acquired and the school has also got Edusat Channel and Television set donated by Gopinath Koradkal, son of late Dr. Koradkal and his family.  According to Sylvester Mathais there are still a number of projects which are planned for  the improvement of the school during the centenary year which  include improvement of playground, removal of water-logging in the ground in front of the school, laying down of a garden, building of compound wall, computer lab for school children, raising a fund to arrange payment to honorary teachers, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the discussion, Richard Rodrigues, Harold D’Souza-former teacher of the school and presently teaching at Kallianpur, Shivaji Suvarna and John Baptist Miranda gave their suggestions as to how to organize the centenary celebration.  On the basis of  these suggestions various committees were set up to make preparations for the centenary celebration. These committees and their Conveners are:  Souvenir Committee (Mrs. Lilly Lobo), Fund Raising Committee(Benedict Martis ),  Invitation Committee (Devdas Hebbar), Reception Committee (Rajendra Shetty), Hospitality Committee (Mrs. Jacintha D’Souza), Development Supervision Committee(Gerald Fernandes), Felicitation Committee (Charles Quadros), Cultural Committee (Narasimha Nayak), Stage Committee (Sr. Irene), Memento Committee (Henry Fernandes)  and Publicity Committee               (Dr. Eugene D’Souza). The conveners were asked to choose committee members depending on the nature of the function of the committees. All these committees will be functioning under the overall supervision of  the Steering Committee comprising of Rev. Joswey Fernandes-President, Sylvester Mathais-Secretary and Alphonse K. Alva-Treasurer.

 

Rajendra Shetty, president of Old Students Association made a suggestion that as the stage programme of the Centenary Celebration will be held on Monday. December 30, Sports meet and get-together of  the old students can be organized on Sunday, December 29 which was agreed upon by the organizing committee.

 

In his presidential address, Rev. Fr. Joswey Fernandes expressed hope that  with the help and cooperation of all the committees, old students, parishioners and villager, donors and well-wishers  the centenary celebration would be a great success.

 

Alphonse K. Alva proposed the vote of thanks and Narasimha Nayak, teacher of the school compeered the programme.