Imphal, March 26: In commemoration of its fifty years of existence in the service of education, Don Bosco High School, Chingmeirong has begun its golden jubilee celebration from today.

Governor Dr SS Sidhu inaugurated the celebration as chief guest.

In his address, Dr Sidhu said the golden jubilee of an educational institution is an important milestone for the institution and the occasion provides an opportunity for dispassionate introspection and retrospection.

Sustained progress and growth of an educational institution largely depends upon its management and also on the activities and achievements of both the students and the teachers community of the school, he added.

The Governor appreciated that since its establishment in 1957, the first mission or catholic school of Manipur has been flourishing and its reputation on the rise.

'I am happy to note that the school pioneered education in English medium in Manipur and that the performance of the school in the academic field in the three decades of 70's, 80's and 90's was excellent with its students consistently taking top position in the Board examination year after year', he said.

It is indeed commendable that the institution is developing its activities in the field of education, the main beneficiary being the poor and marginalised section of the society, Dr Sidhu remarked.

Don Bosco School has many firsts to its credits.

It is first school in the whole of North East India to offer students the possibility to study computer science in School starting from 1986.In 2003, it also became the first school in the State to introduce counselling services for its students and today the school staff offer free counselling to 21 schools in their neighbourhoods.

The school also has an extensive reach-out programme taking education to the most marginalised youth of the city through a literacy programme and right now it has 41 centres giving free classes to a few hours a day to over 1100 children who have never admitted into regular schools and nearly 3000 of them have been admitted into regular schools.

The school is also sponsoring 600 poor children, paying one-third of their school fees.

Apart from running an 'intensive' or leapfrog course through which illiterate pre-adolescents are brought up to class V level in a single year of schooling and reintroduced into the mainstream, the school has also 'adopted' 12 schools in various parts of the State giving systematic training and regular follow up to the primary level teachers of these schools.

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