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INDIA Priests Promote Technical Education To Help Youth In Goa PANAJI, India (UCAN) -- A small group of Catholic priests has turned a village in Goa into a hub of technical education to help young people become self-reliant. The 10 priests of Agnel Ashram all focus their work on technical education. They broke away from the Missionary Society of Saint Francis Xavier, or Pilar Society, which was founded in India. In Goa, a western state, they run Agnel Technical Education Complex. This comprises a dozen institutes where they train about 4,000 students every year from kindergarten to the master's degree level. Father Anselmo D'Sa, superior of the complex, told UCA News his congregation views technical education as a means to help youth become self-reliant. Confreres run technical educational centers in New Delhi and Mumbai. The center in Verna village, 25 kilometers south of Panaji, Goa's capital, occupies 10 hectares of a site called Agnelgav, formerly home to rice fields and cashew plantations. Panaji is 1,910 kilometers southwest of New Delhi. The small religious community named after Venerable Agnelo De Souza, a Pilar priest, started the educational project 25 years ago at a cost of 10 million rupees. Its value now exceeds 400 million rupees (US$8.96 million). Father Pedro M. Rodrigues, who directs the complex, said 1,000 students are enrolled in the polytechnic diploma course and 1,000 in the engineering college. About 2,000 attend classes from kindergarten to 12th grade. The complex also has a children's village that cares for about 220 orphans. The children's facility, Konseisanv Balgram, was started with funds from benefactors in Austria, Germany and Italy. Father Rodrigues said the priests now focus only on administration while leaving the daily management of the institutes to professionals. "This helps in speedier growth," he told UCA News. The leading institute on the campus is Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, set up in 1997. It is the second institute in the country approved by the All India Council of Technical Education to conduct master's degree engineering courses in information technology focusing on the Internet. Father D'Sa described the council approval as "God's gift." At the launch of the Internet technology course last October, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar hailed the Agnel Ashram priests for introducing the course within six years of the college's inception. Parrikar said the priests would play a "pivotal role" in actualizing his dream of making all Goans Internet-savvy by 2010. Meanwhile, Goa is the first Indian state to offer interest-free loans to students to buy computers. The engineering college offers degree courses in mechanical, computer, electronic and telecom engineering. It has a training and placement office that coordinates with top companies to conduct campus recruitment interviews. Jaime Afonso, principal of the polytechnic section, said it is the only institute in Goa that offers automobile engineering. He said they plan to open a part-time engineering bachelor's degree program from next year due to increasing demand. "There's no institute in the state offering such a course. We also plan an agricultural college and a food institute that, again, would be the first in Goa," he added. The priests also run a vocational school to help students having difficulty with the traditional system of general education. Under this scheme, training is provided in catering, basket making, tailoring, welding and other skills. Father Rodrigues says their "ultimate goal" is to award doctoral degrees within the campus. "We want excellence and quality" to produce people who can create jobs, he added. Former students say the training has helped them a great deal in their careers. Digambar Naik, who studied at Agnel Maritime Academy, recalls that the training helped him plug a leak on a ship at sea. "My training at the academy helped plug the leak and eventually earned a promotion," he said. ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
