Media Release:
Udupi, Oct 27: On the occasion of the Ruby Jubilee celebration of the school, St Mary’s English Medium School, Kannarpady, organized an International Educational Tour for students to Singapore and Malaysia from October 12 to 19. The purpose of the tour was to make students observe the cultural aspects, life style and administration in these two countries, learn the disciplinary values and environmental sensitivity and inculcate the good values and other positive aspects noticed along with exploring the tourist attractions of these countries.
On October 12, the journey started from Udupi Church campus to Mangalore International Airport. Later to Singapore via Thiruvananthapuram and arrived back to Udupi on Oct 19 evening, flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The journey was most exciting as it was for the very first time St Mary’s had organized an international tour for the students of grade 9 to 12. The students were accompanied by principal of the school, Fr Johnson Sequeira, two teaching staff and a few parents. Fr Roshan D’Souza looked after all the requirements of the tour being the guide for the group of 22 people.
Durning the international tour, the students were taken to different places of tourist attractions, historical places, museums, war memorial. Marina Bay Sky Park, Gardens by the Bay, the botanical gardens with a variety of plant species of different countries, Merlion, Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Sentosa Island, Singapore fly over with giant capsule ride and time capsule Journey, Fort Siloso and the world famous universal studios were the main attractions in Singapore. The attractions in Malaysia were Jonker Walk Night Market-Melaka, Statue of St Francis Xavier Malacca, Legoland, Water Park Johor, Petronas Twin Tower, Berjaya Times Square Kaula Lumpur, K L Tower, Genting Highlands, Batu Caves, Gendola cable car ride, Portuguese Heritage Gallery, Harriston chocolate making unit, Putra Mosque, Seri Wawasan Bridge, the Tugu Negara War memorial.
The tour provided a lot of opportunities to the students to know about the culture, tradition, language and life style of the people in these countries. The lessons of discipline, obeying and following rules and regulations, importance of environment-friendly behaviour, cleanliness was well understood and appreciated by the students. Living away from the family, being independent, cost control, managing and well-presenting themselves in an unknown place, adjusting to the surrounding environment, more importantly time management were accepted and followed by the students. On the whole this tour provided a thrilling experience to the students along with learning and inculcating lessons of life.
The international educational tour is an important milestone in the history of St Mary’s, a dream which was realized under the leadership of principal Fr Johnson Sequeira and the support of the correspondent of the school, Fr Charles Menezes and the management of the school.