104 years is a brief span of time when compared with immortality, yet the period is eligible encompassing enough to form an engrossing history entailing chronicle events, luminous legacy and promising prospects. St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School has to its credit the pride and privilege of witnessing these chequered yet charismatic, eventful and adventuresome pages of the past. The alma mater was founded way back in 1905 with the sedulous and self-effacing endeavours of the Mill Hill Missionaries.

 

Situated on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Highway in the lap of the beauteous mountains of Baramulla, St. Joseph’s has come of age and been the lynchpin in the social, cultural, ethical, economic and educational metamorphoses of Baramulla town in particular and its suburbs in general.

 

This is well evidenced by the stark fact that approximately 3000 children springing from different religious and sectarian background are on rolls of the seat of learning to receive educational enlightenment, thronging in from a radius of 30-40 kilometres under a purely secular umbrella. Moreover, the infinite number of illuminating alumni of the past century are scattered and settled in various corners of the globe at the moment, carrying with them the educational ethos inculcated and imbibed in St. Joseph’s.

 

The on-line education, as such, may not be proclaimed as a giant leap or a great achievement in the domain of education, especially when one considers the outburst of information technology that is looming large and reigning supreme in the modern era but it certainly assumes significance in the context of having been set up in Kashmir.

 

Needless to say that St. Joseph’s school has played a pivotal part in deciding Kashmir’s kismet after having countered the blizzard of violence that haunted it in late 40s, 60s and 80s. In spite of this, the temple of learning assumes a distinctive niche for rendering substantial services by acting as a vehicle for the transmission of cultural resplendence and a source for unravelling the shrouded pearls to bejewel the entire land. Set up in an educational atmosphere where the aspirants of knowledge and wisdom owing to the socio-political clashes and controversies, St. Joseph’s still dreams to be at par with the best at the national platform and in this respect, the on-line education initiative will undoubtedly play a yeoman’s role in resurrecting the masses from the hibernation of ignorance and tunnel-vision inflicted upon them by the turbulent times.  

 

“On-line education in St. Joseph’s is yet another endeavour to boost the children to unfold their latent talents which, in most cases lie untapped. The virtual text, appropriate teacher guided animations, virtual labs, activities, get-set-go & question paper generator with the help of VSAT would enable the students to comprehend the concepts very well”, said Fr. Sebastian Kalappurayil, the Principal. The veteran professors and teachers residing in different corners of the country teaching Multimedia, Mathematics, computer applications, Physical Science, Commerce, Journalism and Mass Communication with animations to the children provides the learners a great hope to live their dreams set for future in this world of cut-throat completion.

 

“I desire to be an engineer. I want to crack IIT Exams and my school does give me the launching pad to reach my cherished goal”, said a Higher Secondary Student. The sedulous and self-effacing work of the missionaries has helped a long way in dispelling the torpor and inertia, a disease which had permeated in the recesses of the educational establishment in Kashmir and made it possible for the alma- mater to get over the hump.

 

The fact remains, though, that the School has ceased to be at the crossroads of uncertainly and is registering phenomenal progress on the academic and extra-curricular planes. “Children are becoming more competitive and they are fast moving out of the confined cocoons to visit the world outside”, said Fr. Shaiju Chacko, the vice principal.

 

The day does not seem far when St. Joseph’s School will be acclaimed as a top brass institute on the international plane, besides a potent force towards Educational Revolution.

 

 

The class rooms are equipped with computer, roof mounted (LCD’s) Liquid Crystal Digital Projector and an interactive white board cum stylus with digitalized content. Digitalized content will be replete with animations, virtual labs and activities and questions with answers. The teachers can conduct the classes using the interactive white board to navigate the content while explaining the topics to the students.

 

Everonn Systems India Limited, pioneers in computer education and one of the lead players in setting up Virtual and Interactive Learning classroom networks across India to deliver quality and affordable education and also develop and integrate content for Indian and global audience at schools, colleges, l corporate and retail segments, has engineered the project in the school.

 

The VSAT installed at St. Joseph’s school would connect to all the classes to access Satellite enabled virtual classroom. Everonn will conduct classes from their studios across the country with expert faculty on topics of importance to all the classes. Examination preparatory classes like IIT JEE, concept appreciation classes in Mathematics and Science besides classes on English enhancement programme would be made available to the Josephites through this project.