Media Release
Udupi, Feb 17: On the occasion of Mannikostava (Ruby Jubilee) of St John’s Kannada Medium High School, Bishop Isaac Lobo (Udupi Diocese) said that currently in India the Christians were baselessly targeted on religious conversion issue.
He said that the high school had completed 40 years of teaching and hundreds of students belonging to all religions have attended and passed out but none of them converted to Christianity. He further said, "Yes, we are converting people but from untruthfulness to truthfulness, ignorance to knowledge, darkness to light. We teach them to be good and honest citizens of this country as our great Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi dreamed."
"We, the Christians in India are only around 2.45 percent but our contribution to education to around 21 percent. So all these talks on conversion are baseless," he said. He further said that only education can enlighten the people but school education alone is not enough for the growth of the individual or amassing the wealth. That which brings about an all round growth of a human being is the real education, he opined.
However, he stressed,“The foundation for this growth is education and we must continue to educate people and that is our goal. Jesus Christ taught us to follow His path and we are just doing that.” He congratulated the school management, all the teachers who taught from 1981-2022 and all the students on the occasion of Mannikostava of the school.
Shankerpura, a land of jasmine, spread its fragrance all over the globe as the students of Shankerpura educational institutions. Until 1981, Shankerpura had only Primary School Kannada Medium. In 1981, Fr G B D’Souza, the then parish priest of Pangla Parish established the high school which is running smoothly for the last 40 years and this year being the 40th year the school celebrated the Ruby anniversary (Mannikkostava) along coinciding with the release of school magazine to commemorate the Jubilee year on February 14, 2022.
Until now hundreds of students have studied in this St John’s High School and are currently working in different fields and spread all over the globe, especially in the Gulf, America, Canada and many European countries.
The school needed an urgent facelift as it was in a bad shape. Following an appeal by the current headmaster of the school, Ashwin Rodrigues, practically every alumnus of this school contributed generously giving a new look to the school including a brand new computer lab with 12 desktop computers arranged under the leadership of Naveen Amin (businessman and alumnus) and Alphonse Mendonsa (alumnus of primary school).
A sports room with all the sports items, furniture and all the essentials has been built with the help of generous donors.
The grand celebration on February 14 began with a procession from the St John’s church to the high school at 10 AM attended by the bishop of Udupi diocese Fr Gerald Isaac Lobo, Fr Ferdinand Gonsalves (correspondence St John’s Educational Institutions), Fr Vincent Crasta (secretary SESU, Udupi diocese), Ashwin Rodrigues (HM of St John’s High School). The dignitories and all the teaching staff of both Kannada Medium and English Medium schools, guests and well wishers were welcomed by the students of the high school, English medium school and junior college with showers of flower petals.
On reaching the school, the guests were invited to the office of the HM Ashwin Rodrigues for refreshments. Former headmaster Mohandas Shetty welcomed Bishop Gerald Lobo and guests and briefed on the progress of the school. He requested Ashwin Rodrigues to take the bishop, Fr Vincent Crasta and Fr Ferdinand on a tour of the school and witness the progress made especially the brand new computer lab.
Bishop appreciated the the computer lab set up and wished all the success to the students learning computers and thanked the donors who helped financially to set up the computer lab.
The stage function of the grand event was held at the PU College Hall. The celebrations began with the beautiful welcome dance by students. All the guests were invited to the stage namely Bishop Isaac Lobo, Fr Vincent Crasta (secretary of SESU, Udupi diocese), Fr Ferdinand Gonsalves, Ashwin Rodrigues, John Rodrigues (VP of Parish Council), Anitha D’Souza (secretary, Parish Council), Seema Margaret D’Souza (president, 18 Commissions), Rayan Fernandes (president, Alumni Association), Priya D’Sa (principal, PU College), Sr Saritha (HM, high school) and Leena D’Souza (HM, primary school).
After the prayer song, Fr Ferdinand Gonsalves accorded a warm welcome to all the guests and they were offered a rose each. While welcoming he said today is the grand day for all of us, loads of preparations are done for this grand celebration under the leadership of HM Ashwin Rodrigues and his efforts have yielded fruits and we must applaud him and the staff who supported him to organize Jubilee Celebrations and Jubilee magazine release. It is a known fact that the love, happiness, bond, friendship and kindness and blessings of the teachers will not be possible anywhere else and students will never forget the love, help and education received from the teacher. The world famous Shankerpura for Jasmine flowers, this High School was established in 1981 by Late Fr G B D’Souza (parish priest of Pangla Parish) and has provided value based education to the hundreds of students who have spread now all over the globe. We have proud of the various achievements this school has done and wishing more success in future under the able leadership of Head Master Ashwin Rodrigues.
High School teacher Shashikala read the school report for the year 2021-22 and highlighted various school activities and achievements of the school followed by inauguration of the Jubilee Celebrations by all the guests on dais.
Prior to release of school magazine (Jnana Mannikya) by bishop Gerald Isaac Lobo, high school teacher Leena Sunitha D’Souza (editor) of school magazine thanked the donors and editorial committee and those contributed ads for the magazine. Walston D’Sa, old student of the school who suggested the appropriate name for the magazine (Jnana Mannikya) who felicitated by the bishop along with who helped to get funds for the school facelift/refurnishing were also felicitated.
Speaking on the occasion Fr Vincent Crasta (secretary, SESU), speaking on the occasion said that wherever the church was built by the Catholics, the school was also established as per the teachings of Jesus Christ and provided education for all the children without any bias such a caste, creed or religion. Currently, he said there are educational institutions are run by Private Business People and asking for enormous fees from the parents but catholic schools are providing value based education for free with government aid. We Catholics established Kannada medium schools prior to our Independence but today I feel sorry to say that most of them are closed due to lack of students to Kannada medium schools.
On this special occasion three former headmasters of St John’s High School were felicitated for their dedication service namely- John Lobo, Mohandas Shetty and Clara Mendonsa. John Rodrigues introduced them to the audience prior to the felicitations,
Also, felicitated on the occasion were Naveen Amin (Old Student and Entrepreneur) Alphonse Mendonsa (Photo Journalist and Member Old Students Association) and Teacher Assumpta Veera D’Mello for organzing funds for the 12 computers for the school, by bishop Gerald Isaac Lobo and other guests on the dais.
Fr Ferdinand Gonsalves was also felicitated by the bishop as a correspondence of the high school who leads the school under his able leadership. HM Ashwin Rodrigues introduced and thanked Fr Ferdinand for his constant guidance and support to the school.
On behalf of felicitators, Naveen Amin thanked the headmaster for his kind gesture and applauded Ashwin Rodrigues for his role not only in school but outside the school such as organizing cleanliness drive around Shankerpura, and taking students to rice field to teach harvesting and various visionary activities.
Headmaster Ashwin Rodrigues was also felicitated by bishop for his excellent service to the school during last five years and all round achievements. Fr Ferdinand introduced him and thanked him for his dedicated service to the school and especially to the students.
Rayan Fernandes proposed the vote of thanks and Suchit Kotian emcee of the day conducted the entire stage programme.
A cultural extravaganza followed by stage programme that included Janapada Dance and skit highlighting the effect of hunting animals and depicted how the environment is imbalanced due to constant hunting. It was a beautiful presentation by the student which enthralled the audience.
All the students and guests of the day were served with sumptuous lunch for the first time in the school.