New De Paul School, Berhampur is a Catholic Institution, established and managed by the Northern Indian Province of the Congregation of the Mission (C.M) under Arts. 29 and 30 of the Constitution of India. This Province is registered under the Societies Act No. 1860 (XXI of 1860) as Vincentian Orissa Society in 1959. All its members are Catholics, a religious minority community.
As a minority institution, New De Paul School primarily caters to the educational needs of Christians. However, it is open to students of other communities irrespective of caste, color, or creed. The school maintains its Christian atmosphere, identity, and character, conducting only Christian worship on its premises.
New De Paul School was established in the year 2006 and currently offers classes from Nursery to Class VIII. The process of becoming a high school is almost completed through the district and state education department, with the declaration awaited.
Today, it is the concern of every parent that their children grow up to be well-educated human beings with certain values in their lives. These days, if you ask children how many friends they have, they will count on their fingers - one, two, three, four, five… Not more than that. If you don’t know how to be friendly with the 40-50 children present in your classroom, how will you ever become friendly with the six billion people on this planet?
The basic tendency to be friendly is lost somewhere in the pursuit of selfish education. It is high time that we come together to identify ways and means of restoring the respect, honor, and dignity that education has historically commanded.
The need of the day is a broad-minded education accompanied by a warm heart. It is of no use if you acquire good education and then look down upon everybody else. A well-educated person is one who is friendly and compassionate; who can be a ‘nobody’ with everybody.
Obsolete principles, theories, systems of education, and methodologies of transmitting knowledge need to undergo a change. Today, you need not memorize the multiplication table. In this computer age, one can know all about history with just a click.
Still, children spend hours learning when the mutiny happened and carry huge loads of books on their backs- books on irrelevant subjects. By the time a child enters college, he or she is already worn out.
We need to harness children’s capacities to digest more, understand more, instead of bombarding them with a lot of unwanted information. Creative methods of teaching will help children build their personalities.
The education system should prevent people from becoming fanatics. The right education must harness a mind that is free, not obsessed with anything, neither angry about the past nor worried about the future.
A good system of education must instill self-esteem and creativity. We have to instill confidence in education, broaden the vision, and deepen the roots. Everybody who has a stake in education must ponder on a holistic, healthy education system that retains the virtues and values we are naturally endowed with.
Education must attend to all facets of human life. The key is to harness the ancient and be innovative with the modern. Only an education that can nourish inherent virtues can impart true intelligence. This needs to be jointly accomplished by parents and teachers.
