Residential school for tribals at Gopalapuram

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 27. The Society of Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel, the missionary order with headquarters in Rome, which runs 92 educational and other institutions in the country, including 17 in the State, is shortly setting up two residential schools exclusively for tribal children -- one at Gopalapuram in Srikalulam district and the other at Garatola in Madhya Pradesh.

A school and one technical education institution which were opened recently by the Society at Kusumkot in Maharashtra and Repalle in Guntur district have started functioning. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, himself has cleared the proposal for the school at Gopalapuram but he has not been able to provide Government land as promised by him due to restrictions on transfer of land in the agency area under Regulation 1 of 1970. In view of this, the Society itself acquired the land. The one planned in Madhya Pradesh will be in Hindi medium and that at Gopalapuram in Telugu.

Rev. Br. T.K. Jose, Bursar of the Society, told The Hindu the other day that the Society was also opening another school at Kuppam, the headquarters town of Mr. Naidu's Assembly constituency. He said the Society had been working among the tribals in Gopalapuram for the past 10 years.

The schools run by the Society have become prestigious institutes for the high academic standards and discipline they maintain and the cent per cent results secured by them in public examinations apart from state ranks. A few among them are All Saints, Little Flower and St. Paul's -- all in Hyderabad -- St. Mathew's at Patamata near Vijayawada, and V.S. St. John's at Gannavaram.

The Society is also running a number of institutions, including orphanages, for the poor. Allaying apprehensions in certain quarters, Br. Jose said that none of their institutions is collecting donations in any form.

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Section  : Southern States
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