Zita Falcao: school founder with a sense of commitment
BY DR JOSE DE SOUZA A month of remembrances and recollections is rolling down in the fast moving wheel of time over the passing away of Maria Zita Pereira Vas Falcao, the founder of St. Anne School in Borda, Margao. It was on her return from East Africa, armed with her Kenyan K.G. School Training, with unfaulting support of her husband late Antonio Vas Palcao, tha Zita founded St. Anne School in 1970. From a modest beginning with 20 tiny tots, in a small rented house, a school van and she herself being the only teacher, today the school is housed in its own building, with about 3000 students, spread oyer units in surroundings, a fleet of school buses and with nearly hundred teachers and staff members. In 1995, on the grand occasion of the school silver jubilee, Zita had openly acknowledged in the jubilee brochures It gives me immense pleasure and a sense of fulfillment to participate in the silver jubilee celebration of the school which I founded in 1970. Earlier, in the year of foundation of the school in 1970, in the magazine Flame (The Voice of Teachers) in an article About a nursery teacher she had written: A great man once said that the secret of education lies in respecting the pupil... To these little ones a nursery teacher must be a mother, a nursemaid, a teacher and a protector all rolled in one... There is a word of wealth in the trusting smile of a child. Last July, on the occasion of her 85th birth anniversary, the teachers, staff members and the students paid an honour to her in the following poem Our Founderon the school board: Z - Zealous and zestful I - Imaginative and impressive , T - Talented and tolerant A - Ambitious and abiding F - Friendly and fashionableA - Administrative and accomplished L - Liberal and loving C - Cool and calm. A - Admirable and accurate 0 - Optimistic and outstanding . Thirty seven years full of accomplishments have rolled since the foundation of the establishment by this ambassador of education in South Goa and her school stands today tall, great and famous. http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=3227&cid=26 Sanny de Quepem <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
