By Mrs Daphne Pereira
A Grand Jury of well-informed educationists and educators rated and ranked over 800 nominated schools in 11 categories of 21st century education excellence-Green Schools, STEAM Education Excellence, New Technologies Usage, Campus Architecture and Design, Community Outreach, Emerging High Potential Schools, Extraordinary Leadership, etc. The EW Grand Jury Awards 2018 have been instituted for the first time to facilitate and celebrate emerging schools making extraordinary efforts to introduce innovative 21st-century practices in primary-secondary education.
Don Bosco High School Matunga, a member of the Greenline organization, takes part in all the activities conducted by them, and others with like goals, to work towards a greener and cleaner environment and sustainable development goals proposed by the UN.
The students of the school were part of a few noteworthy projects viz. eco-bricks collection where students were assigned the task to make ecobricks with bottles - our students managed 1,730 such ecobricks - and were awarded the BOTO prize for the highest amount of ecobricks that helped provide proper sanitation facility in slums; anti-litter bag squads to promote cleanliness; Versova beach clean-up initiatives along with Afroz Shah and his team; awareness-raising campaign about the Ban on Plastic in Maharashtra.
The school assemblies, sports programs, camps and other outdoor activities promote the objectives of clean environment. The science research teams that make it to the State and National levels base their research on themes that promote innovative measures to help protect our environment.
“To be placed high up there and being acknowledged as one of the premier educational institutions of the country is indeed a special and proud moment,” said Fr Bernard Fernandes, the Principal of the school on receiving the award. “However,” he said, “it is a major responsibility appropriated to us to sustain the good and innovative practices that touch the lives of thousands of students that pass through the portals of this school every year.”
“There is no doubt that Don Bosco is a brand that is famous and revered in the country,” says Sir C Rai who received the award in Delhi on behalf of the school. “We ought to be proud that we are part of this great legacy.” Indeed we all are!
Source: Don Bosco India
