(Don Bosco Higher Education India) – The 12th Annual General Meeting of the Don Bosco Higher Education, India (DBHEI) began on 15th November 2024 at Salesian College (Autonomous), Sonada. The event was organized in the Province of St. John Bosco, Kolkata, India as it marks its centenary year of establishment. The theme of the event of the three day meeting was Innovating in Higher Education: Embracing Autonomy, Technology and Industry collaboration. The total participants were 73 from the 11 Salesian Provinces of India.
The event opened with a Morning Prayer followed by the Holy Eucharist by Bishop Stephen Lepcha of Darjeeling Diocese. At the inaugural function after the breakfast, Fr. Johny Nedungatt sdb, Rector of Salesian College Sonada welcomed the participants. Fr. Joseph Pauria sdb, Provincial of Kolkata, the host province and Fr. Jose Koyickal sdb, Provincial of Bangalore and President of DBHEI, addressed the gathering calling on the leaders on the sacred mission of educating the young. Fr. Babu Joseph sdb, Principal of Salesian College outlined the focus of the meeting in the line of the theme of the event.
Fr George Thadathil sdb, former principal of Salesian College and now the General Coordinator of the IUS, Rome also addressed the participants and put forward the challenges and opportunities that await the Indian Salesian world in the field of education. The chief guest, Dr. Nupur Das, the Registrar of North Bengal University addressed the Salesian educators stressing on the importance of inclusive education.
In the first technical session that followed was conducted by the team from the United Board for Christian Higher Education in India. The focus of this session was on faculty training on leadership, fellowship, student exchange and service learning with community connects.
In the session following lunch, Fr. Sabu Thomas, of Sacred Heart College(Autonomous), Kochi took the participants through a hands-on session with AI based tools and applications useful for educators. The participants left for local site-seeing after the tea.
The first day of the meeting was concluded with the dinner followed by the night prayers and good-night talk by Fr Maria Antony sdb, Principal, Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Tirupattur.
The executive members of DBHEI met together to plan the dynamics of the coming days.
By: Valan Peter