Media Release
Vijayawada, Jan 29: Pupils, teachers, former students and parents of Nirmala High School marked the milestone by taking part in the spectacular Golden Jubilee celebration held from December 27 to December 29, 2013 at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
The golden Jubilee thanksgiving Holy Eucharist was celebrated in the presence of numerous religious, priests and friends of the city who gathered at the newly set open- auditorium of the school on December 27 to give thanks to God for the manifold blessings bestowed upon the school for fifty long years.
As the choir sang delightful hymns of the Jubilee, Nirmala Sisters thanked the Almighty God for the wonderful way He used the school for the work of evangelization.
The assembly paid touching tributes to the founders who toiled for the growth of the institution with a view to bring the good news of Jesus in this area of the city of Vijayawada. At the end of the Jubilee Mass the past teachers of the school were honoured and tributes were paid for the founding elders.
On December 28 the school presented a cultural show attended by the State Education Minister, Partha Sarathi, the four local MLA”s of the city the Collector of the district and other eminent personalities and parents. After months of grueling rehearsals, the children went on the dais with a series of musical performances, dance routines and value based skits, to display the school’s Journey through the Decades. The evening cultural show proved that they were superb as applauds echoed for hours throughout the campus.
The atmosphere on December 29 was so lively and cheerful that it was difficult to imagine that the first students admitted to this institution of learning were over 50 years old now. The members of NOSA ( Nirmala Old Student’s Association ) which was celebrating its fortieth year anniversary on December 29 were so jubilant and the mood was so very buoyant that the entire campus reverberated their claim that they belong forever to Nirmala High School.
The three day’s festivity also saw eminent speakers on the podium who congratulated the school for its success, appreciated the loyalty of the former students and highlighted the significance of the missionary institutions for the building up of a new society.
Fr Ralph Jassawala, the Regional Superior of PIME( Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) in India stressed that education should help young men and women to achieve the five Cs, namely - character, competence, conscience, compassion and commitment. The priest who was one of the chief guests, of the cultural show on December 28 compared education to nurturing a young plant and highlighted that education was an indispensable tool to realize the vision of a global fraternity.
Nirmala School came into existence as Bishop Mgr Ambrogio de Battista; PIME, the then Bishop of Vijayawada invited in 1963 the Nirmala Sisters to set up an English Medium School owing to the repeated requests of the people of Patamata for a convent school in their locality.
The call to open an educational institution in a new area is a call to actively participate in the city’s restoration through spiritual and social programmes that support the local church in their core ministry of evangelization, said Fr Stephen, the Parish Priest of St. Paul’s Cathedral as he opened the function with a blessing on December 28 Saturday.
The people’s continuous request for a convent school run by the missionaries is their inner urge to meet God through the instrumentality of the missionaries and have a diverse education in a safe, supportive environment that promotes self-discipline, motivation, and excellence in learning and the teaching team joins the parents and community to assist the students in developing skills to become independent and self-sufficient adults who will succeed and contribute responsibly in a global community, said the headmistress, Sr. Biji in her report.
Thus, Nirmala School that was started at Patamata continues to provide the much needed platform for the attainment of high quality secondary education in several fields. To reckon the number of students trained thus far, and the stature and eminence such students have attained in our society gives much to be celebrated about, said Sr. Marina, the Provincial of Nirmala Sisterson December 28 in her presidential address.
It is a fact that, fifty years of existence, having a very positive influence on the city of Vijayawada is no mean an achievement and I seize this unique opportunity to heartily congratulate the past and present Administrators, Principals, PTA, Teachers, Staff and Students and the NOSA- Old Student’s Association for the feat achieved, she added. This has resulted in the demand for access to higher levels of education growing dramatically in this city and elsewhere she felt.
The Nirmala sisters belonging to an International Congregation will continue to explore ways of strengthening the already existing educational structures for the integral development and sound spiritual training of the students who will give priority to live uprightly as good citizens of the society, said the Provincial in her concluding remarks.