Governor presides over Annual Function of Convent of Jesus & Mary
Shimla: Smt. Prabha Rau, Governor, Himachal Pradesh presided over the Annual Function of the Convent of Jesus & Mary, as its Chief guest here today.
Addressing the audience Smt. Rau said that education opens new vistas in an individual’s life with awareness about self, society and the work around. She said that investment in the education sector, especially in the areas of school education has increased manifold in the last few years. Laying special emphasis on the education of the girl child, she said that the vital subject of girls’ education received greater attention in the last two decades with the mounting awareness in the drive towards women’s equality and emancipation besides providing more opportunities to girls’ for their intellectual development.
Governor said that girls are today venturing into different fields breaking the male monopoly in administration, science and technology, journalism and the like. She said that, in fact, in certain professions like medicine, nursing, teaching, social work etc. they have evolved to be better than men. Today, they are briskly walking into the higher echelons of administration, Science and technology, academic, corporate sector and politics, she added.
Smt. Rau, while underlining the importance of education in character building in young generation, said that it would go a long way in producing best citizen for the service of the nation and the society. She said that the Annual Function provides us an opportunity for introspecting upon the role of teachers and quality of education being imparted to the students. She called upon the teaching community to go in for intense deliberations for upholding the value-based education in our schools.
Governor said that women empowerment could be achieved in real sense only when women are economically strong and independent. She said that Government had announced to generate employment and self-employment avenues to unemployed girls and women in order to make them self-dependent, adding that women Self Help Groups had done commendable job in this direction.
She said that State Government is spending about Rs. 30 crore every year on various programmes aimed at the welfare and upliftment of women in the State. She said that Himachal Pradesh has come a long way to acquire the present position in the field of education with its extensive work of educational institutions, both in public and private sectors and the State is on its way to become the knowledge hub of the country.
Referring to the alarming impact of unprecedented climatic change extremes recently witnessed in our State, Smt. Rau hoped that in containing this horrific situation of global concern, the women and students could also contribute significantly as agents of change by creating awareness. She said that to achieve the objective, proactive awareness programmes could be initiated by formally incorporating environmental studies in our school curricula.
Sister Rosely, Principal, Convent of Jesus & Mary, Chelsea, read out the school report on the occasion. Smt. Prabha Rau, Governor gave away Ashwarya Thakur Memorial Scholarship and Shield to Sparsh Mehak for excellent performance in ICSE Examination, of 8th standard 2008.
A colourful cultural programme was also presented on the occasion, which was appreciated by the Governor.
